New tool for wastewater treatment units location Original Research Article

In this article, a decision-making process for the potential location of new wastewater treatment units with wide community participation and acceptance is suggested. The main scientific contribution of this work is the elaboration of an independent decision-making tool, which can be used in site selection of wastewater treatment units. Specifically, at a first level, it acts as an intermediary between experts (i.e. engineers, technical advisors) and decision-makers (i.e. electives, appointive advisors), helping decision-makers to use expertsʹ knowledge. At a higher level, it acts as an independent processor of decision-makers’ judgments thereby giving a result that is in accordance with pre-chosen criteria. In this way, the local authorities can effectively participate in the decision-making process and avert the violation of possible agreements. Furthermore, the evaluation criteria and the methodology of multi-criteria analysis for new wastewater treatment unit location are presented.