Analytic Network Process for Developing Relative Weight of Wastewater Treatment Technology Selection

Abstract

Selecting the best wastewater treatment (WWT) technology requires a thorough qualitative and quantitative evaluation of multi-dependence criteria. A network based method is one of the many possible techniques that able to handle multi-dependence criteria in the selection. This paper proposes relative importance weights of alternatives in selecting the WWT technology using the analytic network process (ANP) in Terengganu Malaysia. The ANP is applied to establish the relative weights of alternatives based on criteria and sub-criteria that available in the WWT technology selection. Two faculty members attached to a public university and an engineer in Malaysian government agency were interviewed to provide evaluation within the framework of ANP. Inner dependence and outer dependence analysis of ANP are fully utilised to establish relative importance weights of alternatives. The experiment result reveals that the relative importance weights of the three alternatives are 0.3074, 0.2795 and 0.2447. The alternative ‘Composting’ has decided as the most suitable technology in WWT which provides the highest relative importance weight among all the three alternatives. The results would be a great significance for the practical implementation of the WWT technology selection.