Application of AHP-based water quality index for quality monitoring of peri-urban watershed

Conventional methods of determination of water quality index are main and popular approach to indicate surface water quality status. The present study tried to endeavor a unique index method which will be beneficial for any water quality parameters irrespective of places and water uses making calculation easy and less complex. In the present study, eight sampling stations and seven physiochemical parameters were selected based on citation frequency. Multi-criteria decision-making technique such as analytical hierarchical process was taken into account to determine weights of each selected parameter along with measuring attractiveness by a categorical based evaluation technique to validate the result. National Sanitation Foundation Water Quality Index was also used to compare results from new methodology with the results from existing conventional technique. Analytical hierarchical process showed SP5 is more affected than other stations which are similar to result from conventional method where both outcomes fall in the same range though values are different. It can be concluded that using multi-criteria decision-making techniques in water quality calculation is significant as it gives definite values with more accuracy and less effort making the process simple and less complex where different types of water use can be considered. Development of water quality index will be more accurate with increasing number of sampling stations, monthly variation of data set, continuous monitoring considering other conventional methods and multi-criteria decision-making techniques.