11 Ranking of Natural Wastewater Treatment Techniques …
89
0.6 USD however, treating the same amount of wastewater by conventional methods
costs 6.5 USD (Hunter et al. 2018) with acceptable pollutants removal efficiency.
The natural wastewater treatment methods have been used both on developing and
develop ed nations because it is an important option for climate change adaptation in
addition to good performance (Crites et al. 2014a). The ideal WWT strategies ought to
accomplish the objectives of less treatment cost, least release of water pollutants, high
maintenance capability, and providing water for reuse (Ouyang et al. 2015). Natural
WWT technologies, for example, soil filters, constructed treatment wetlands, aquatic
plants, waste SP, and the reuse of wastewater for irrigation engaged in protecting the
nature and environment.
The natural WWT techniques comprehensively manage the sustainability of environmental components and overseeing explicit parts of wastewater while treating
wastewater (Rozkosny et al. 2014). The methods achieved best results in removing
most pollutants especially, organic wastes, heavy metals, total nitrogen, and total
phosphorus, and produces the effluents with less chemical and biochemical oxygen
demand (Qian et al. 2007). The most remarkable benefits of natural WWT methods
are that it can comply with environmental standards and an excellent resilience ability
despite large size land requirements and seasonal viability of performance (Ho et al.
2018). In most natural wastewater treatment methods, soil, vegetation, and microorganisms play a major pollutant cleaning roles. Natural WWT requires the large
size of land for the treatment processes and to be effective, it is recommended
for small villages and cities with the population size of up to 2000 households,
however; it could be used at large metropolitan cities through decentralized operations (Gichamo et al. 2020; Ouyang et al. 2015). The treatment performance of
different natural WWT techniques is not similar and it is not easy to quantify since it
depends on different external and internal factors. In this approach, the best appropriate wastewater treatment selection decisions could be supported by Multi-Criteria
Decision Making (MCDM) methods. Numerous MCDM approaches such as analytical hierarchy processes (AHP), The fuzzy-preference ranking organization method
for enrichment evaluations (Fuzzy PROMOTHEE), the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and analytical network processes (ANP)
has been used for preference and ranking of wastewater treatment methods (Gichamo
et al. 2020; Kim et al. 2013; Ouyang et al. 2015) Therefore, the MCDM approach was
confirmed as an accurate method to identify the best appropriate and effective techniques of natural WWT. VlseKriterijumska Optimizcija I Kaompromisno Resenje
(VIKOR) is among powerful MCDM tools for decision making which focuses on
setting ranks for different alternatives having multiple evaluation criteria. VIKOR
was developed for multiple-criteria optimization of complex systems in meaningful
solutions and sets rank for alternatives based on the principle of ‘closeness to the
ideal solution’. In this assumption, the solution closer to the ideal solution is the
optimum solution or the best solution among the alternatives under comparisons.
To the best of author’s knowledge; this method has not applied to select appropriate
natural wastewater treatment methods. Hence, this study aimed proposing VIKOR
as an approach for ranking natural wastewater treatment methods using the given
selection criteria.
89
0.6 USD however, treating the same amount of wastewater by conventional methods
costs 6.5 USD (Hunter et al. 2018) with acceptable pollutants removal efficiency.
The natural wastewater treatment methods have been used both on developing and
develop ed nations because it is an important option for climate change adaptation in
addition to good performance (Crites et al. 2014a). The ideal WWT strategies ought to
accomplish the objectives of less treatment cost, least release of water pollutants, high
maintenance capability, and providing water for reuse (Ouyang et al. 2015). Natural
WWT technologies, for example, soil filters, constructed treatment wetlands, aquatic
plants, waste SP, and the reuse of wastewater for irrigation engaged in protecting the
nature and environment.
The natural WWT techniques comprehensively manage the sustainability of environmental components and overseeing explicit parts of wastewater while treating
wastewater (Rozkosny et al. 2014). The methods achieved best results in removing
most pollutants especially, organic wastes, heavy metals, total nitrogen, and total
phosphorus, and produces the effluents with less chemical and biochemical oxygen
demand (Qian et al. 2007). The most remarkable benefits of natural WWT methods
are that it can comply with environmental standards and an excellent resilience ability
despite large size land requirements and seasonal viability of performance (Ho et al.
2018). In most natural wastewater treatment methods, soil, vegetation, and microorganisms play a major pollutant cleaning roles. Natural WWT requires the large
size of land for the treatment processes and to be effective, it is recommended
for small villages and cities with the population size of up to 2000 households,
however; it could be used at large metropolitan cities through decentralized operations (Gichamo et al. 2020; Ouyang et al. 2015). The treatment performance of
different natural WWT techniques is not similar and it is not easy to quantify since it
depends on different external and internal factors. In this approach, the best appropriate wastewater treatment selection decisions could be supported by Multi-Criteria
Decision Making (MCDM) methods. Numerous MCDM approaches such as analytical hierarchy processes (AHP), The fuzzy-preference ranking organization method
for enrichment evaluations (Fuzzy PROMOTHEE), the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and analytical network processes (ANP)
has been used for preference and ranking of wastewater treatment methods (Gichamo
et al. 2020; Kim et al. 2013; Ouyang et al. 2015) Therefore, the MCDM approach was
confirmed as an accurate method to identify the best appropriate and effective techniques of natural WWT. VlseKriterijumska Optimizcija I Kaompromisno Resenje
(VIKOR) is among powerful MCDM tools for decision making which focuses on
setting ranks for different alternatives having multiple evaluation criteria. VIKOR
was developed for multiple-criteria optimization of complex systems in meaningful
solutions and sets rank for alternatives based on the principle of ‘closeness to the
ideal solution’. In this assumption, the solution closer to the ideal solution is the
optimum solution or the best solution among the alternatives under comparisons.
To the best of author’s knowledge; this method has not applied to select appropriate
natural wastewater treatment methods. Hence, this study aimed proposing VIKOR
as an approach for ranking natural wastewater treatment methods using the given
selection criteria.