Decision Support Concept to Selection of Wastewater Treatment Plant Location—the Case Study of Town of Kutina, Croatia

Abstract

In environmental projects, decision-making can be a complex and challenging task due to the in-built existence of compromises between environmental, socio-political, and economic factors. This paper explores a systematic approach to developing a decision support concept that includes the analysis of wastewater treatment problems, knowledge acquisition, and the identification and evaluation of criteria that bring forth an optimal solution to the location selection of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The objective of this research is to develop a decision support concept (DSC) to aid in the planning phases of complex engineering projects, such as the construction of WWTP. The development of the concept starts with an assessment of the issue and an identification of relevant stakeholders accepting their different views and attitudes in an attempt to resolve this issue. The DSC was tested on a real case project—WWTP location selection within the town of Kutina, Croatia. Results indicate that it is possible to develop such a concept based on multicriteria methods on which decision-makers can rely.