Prioritizing major factors affecting groundwater stress using multi-criteria decision methods

Groundwater stress is a major global issue; multiple factors affecting groundwater stress can cause confusion among policymakers to choose the most significant factor in coping with this issue. Thus, this study aimed to prioritize the factors affecting groundwater stress by using five different Multiple-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods and seven scales. It was found that the uncertainty due to the MCDM method and scale se-lection was minimum when using Weighted Sum Method (WSM) and Saaty scale for prioritization as compared to the other four MCDM methods and six scales respectively. Based on WSM and Saaty scale it was noticed that groundwater withdrawal and groundwater availability are the two topmost factors affecting groundwater stress. The policymakers of water management could be recommended to target the reduction in groundwater with-drawal on a priority basis to cope with the groundwater stress issue, better management of groundwater re-sources, and achieve sustainable development goal 6.4. It is also recommended that researchers could use the WSM method and Saaty scale to minimize the uncertainty due to the MCDM method and scale selection.