Abstract
The provision of critical services, such as drinking water, is crucial both in ordinary and in emergency conditions due to either natural (e.g. earthquakes, droughts, etc.) or man-made hazards (e.g. contamination). Although several models and tools have been developed to support decision-making in ordinary operations, such as e.g. for scheduling ordinary maintenance and for planning rehabilitation/replacement activities, relatively limited attention has been paid to support decision-making in emergency conditions, which are characterized by high complexity and inherent uncertainty. However, a huge amount of information related to emergency management of drinking water supply systems is typically available in the form of expert knowledge and may represent a precious source to enhance the effectiveness of decision-making processes. The present research aims at building a Decision Support System (DSS) for emergency managers, to identify and rank the most suitable measures to deal with emergency water supply. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been used for integrating both scientific knowledge and expert knowledge in the decision process, and for explicitly including some criteria (e.g. social impacts) which are highly relevant during crises, but often difficult to consider in the most widely used methods and tools. Both the National Department of Civil Protection (DPC) and some water utilities with recent experiences in emergency management have been involved in model conceptualization and building.
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Acknowledgements
The activities described in the present paper have been carried out within a research agreement between DPC and IRSA-CNR (DPC Prot. U. n. 2031 15/01/2019). The authors would like to thank all stakeholders and experts involved. A special thank goes to Andrea Duro (DPC) and Emanuela Campione (DPC) for their support in project activities.
Funding
The present research has been funded by Dipartimento Nazionale della Protezione Civile (‘Accordo di collaborazione tra DPC e IRSA, prot. n. 2031 15 gennaio 2019’).
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All authors contributed to the study conceptualization and methodology development. Data collection and analysis were performed by AP. The first draft of the manuscript was written by AP, while RG and MV commented and reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Pagano, A., Giordano, R. & Vurro, M. A Decision Support System Based on AHP for Ranking Strategies to Manage Emergencies on Drinking Water Supply Systems. Water Resour Manage 35, 613–628 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-020-02741-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-020-02741-y