Agricultural Water Management 243 (2021) 106490

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Agricultural Water Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat

A model for the use of urban treated wastewater in agriculture using

multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) and geographic information
system (GIS)
Parvin Zolfaghary a, Mahdi Zakerinia a, *, Hossein Kazemi b
a
Department of Soil and Water, Faculty of Water Engineering, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (GUASNR), PO Box 49189-43464,
Gorgan, Iran
b
Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Plant Production, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (GUASNR), PO Box 49189-43464, Gorgan,
Iran

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The limited water resources have forced the use of unconventional water such as urban wastewater in agricul­
AHP ture. However, using these water resources requires the consideration of their impact on water, soil, human and
GIS environment. Inthis study,the suitability of using urban treated wastewater as irrigation water has been inves­
Multi-criteria decision making
tigated using geographic information system (GIS) and multi criteria decision making (MCDM).To do this, the
Waste water reuse
decision-making criteria were extracted after a literature review. Irrigation water availability, techno-economic
distance from the wastewater treatment plant, and suitability of farmlands for crop cultivation were considered
as techno-economic sub-criteria while the quality of irrigation water, soil, and crop as well as aquifer vulnera­
bility were considered as environmental sub-criteria in the decision structure. The data of two wastewater
treatment plants, i.e., Bandar Gaz and Kordkoy located in west of Golestan province(Iran) were used to imple­
ment the model for 10 common crops. Topography, land use, soil depth, and technical allowable distance were
considered as limiting factors in urban wastewater use in the area. After the preparation of the base maps,
appropriate areas were determined for model implementation. The maps associated with the criteria were
prepared in the GIS software environment and then classified according to the available standards. Analytic
hierarchy process (AHP) was used to calculate the weight of the criteria. The results of the sensitivity analysis
showed the high sensitivity of aquifer vulnerability and microbial contamination. The comparison of the suit­
ability of cultivation using the treated wastewater revealed the better performance of Bandar Gaz plant in some
effective criteria such as aquifer vulnerability, nitrate contamination burden, and suitability for crop cultivation.

1. Introduction wastewater irrigation on soil physicochemical properties, plant pro­

Concern about future water use sustainability is a strong motivation
for understanding the importance of using unconventional water re­
sources in agriculture. Given that these water resources are rich in nu­
trients, they have a special place in food supply and production (Mojiri,
2011).Urban treated wastewater, one of the unconventional water re­
sources that have been introduced as an alternative for irrigation in arid
regions with high competition among water users, has been applied
because of its acceptable quality (Zhang and Shen, 2019; Khalid et al.,
2018).
The effects of using urban treated wastewater have always been of
interest to researchers focusing on the effects of short- and long-term
duction, pollution levels, and surface and groundwater resources.
Currently, the use of treated wastewater in agriculture is not only
considered as a solution for the disposal of wastewater but is also a so­
lution for sustainable agriculture, especially in regions facing freshwater
scarcity (Duan et al., 2010).The results of using treated wastewater on
plant production have shown the importance of this water resource in
arid and semi-arid regions since its nutrients can increase crop pro­
duction and prevent unnecessary chemical fertilization (Zhang and
Shen, 2019). Wastewater contains three essential macronutrients, i.e.,
nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and several micronutrients
required for plant growth. This can remarkably reduce the use of
chemical fertilization in farmlands (Jiménez et al., 2011; Murtaza et al.,

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: parniyan.zolfaghary@gmail.com (P. Zolfaghary), mzakerinia@gau.ac.ir (M. Zakerinia), hkazemi@gau.ac.ir (H. Kazemi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106490
Received 22 June 2020; Received in revised form 25 August 2020; Accepted 26 August 2020
Available online 10 September 2020
0378-3774/© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
P. Zolfaghary et al. Agricultural Water Management 243 (2021) 106490

2010).
However, wastewater irrigation, depending on its quality, can have
negative effects on human health, crop production, and soil physico­
chemical characteristics. These include diseases because of the exposure
to microbial contamination, increased soil salinity and the ratio of so­
dium absorption, changes in soil hydraulic conductivity, nutrient
accumulation, and plant toxicity (Shoushtarian and Negahban Azar,
2020; Muyen et al., 2011; Andrews et al., 2016).For example, Levy et al.
(2011) reported that salinity, sodium absorption, and organic matter
available in treated wastewater had complex effect on the hydraulic
conductivity of the soil and these effects were depended on the treated
wastewater quality and soil characteristics. In general, the use of
wastewater increases soil organic matter and improves soil structure,
which leads to an increase in the soil hydraulic conductivity. Eight-year
irrigation of olive trees with urban treated wastewater in arid areas
showed an increase in soil nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and salinity
(Erel et al., 2019). However, the annual increase in soil salinity did not
affect the sodium concentration in plant leaves, toxicity, and yield. They
reported that the main reason for preventing the excessive salinity
increment was the tolerance of the olive tree, seasonal rainfall, and
adequate soil drainage. Nevertheless, their results showed a steady rise
in the ratio of sodium absorption and subsequently, an increase in the
soil’s exchangeable sodium content. Other studies have reported that
increasing the amount of sodium exchangeable content in soil due to the
high absorption ratio of sodium in urban treated wastewater leads to the
degradation of soil structure, soil permeability, and hydraulic conduc­
tivity reduction, and finally, undesirable effects on the root development
et al., 2020, 2019).The use of this method for wastewater recycling for
agriculture has also been considered in some studies. Summary of
literature, is shown in Table 1.
Reviewed literature, generally used methods to locate or rank or
identify suitable areas for the use of waste water as irrigation, but the
considered criteria have not been comprehensive to consider the effects
and interactions of wastewater quality, environmental conditions (as
soil, water table depth, land suitability), human health and crop type.
Parameters related to tolerance and sensitivities due to plant type and
economic income as one of the important and main factors of farmers’
reluctance to cultivate were also parameters that were not given enough
attention.
In this study, AHP was implemented in a GIS environment to assess
the feasibility of using urban treated wastewater in agriculture,
considering the least damage to all environments that accept the effects
of using wastewater in agriculture. Since the proposed model depends
on environmental conditions, the data of Kordkoy and BandarGaz
wastewater treatment plants, located in the north of Iran (Golestan
province), were used and the effects of criteria were studied on the data
of these treatment plants.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Study area
Golestan province is located in the northern part of Iran (36◦ 44′ - 38◦
5 N, 53◦ 51′ - 56◦ 14′ E).The study area covered the regions including
′

environment (SouDakouré et al., 2013; Paudel et al., 2016; Yalin et al., Kordkoy and Bandar Gaz treatment plants located in the west of the
2017). province. The area of feasibility for these treatment plants was consid­
Similar studies on humid region soils showed that both the ratio of ered according to the limiting factors in a distance with a radius of 10 km
sodium absorption and soil salinity increased by long-term wastewater from the treatment plants (Fig. 1).The data of wastewater quality of the
irrigation while no significant effect was observed on soil saturated treatment plants were provided by the Golestan Province Regional
hydraulic conductivity (Andrews et al., 2016). However, continuous Water Organization which are brought in Table 2.
monitoring of the soil physicochemical characteristics and wastewater
parameters is required for long-term sustainable agriculture. 2.2. Methodology overview
In a comprehensive view, the environmental and social effects of the
use of treated wastewater are complex multi-dimensional processes The use of AHP in GIS software environment for a feasibility study of
(Gomez, 2009) that include several criteria and sub-criteria about its treated wastewater use includes the following five steps where were
impact on water resources, soil, human health, the environment and performed separately for each treatment plant (Anan et al., 2012): (1)
many technical limitations and spatial requirements (Paul et al., 2020; selecting criteria, sub-criteria and limiting factors; (2) constructing a
Elsheikh et al., 2013; Al-Dabbash et al., 2018; Hadipour et al., 2016). hierarchical decision-making structure and determining the weight of
This complexity necessitates the use of appropriate decision support each criterion; (3) extracting geographical layers related to each
tools such as multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) (Chen and Khan,
2010; Al-Dabbash et al., 2018). MCDA provides a rich collection of Table 1
techniques and procedures for structuring decision problems by Summarized literature.
designing, evaluating and prioritizing the alternatives (Malczewski, Authors Year Method Description
2010). The MCDM techniques have been applied for agriculture and
Anane et al 2012 fuzzy- Rank the suitable areas for treated wastewater
water resources management systems in (Orojloo et al., 2018; Srinivasa
AHP irrigation
Rao et al., 2019; Sulewski et al., 2018) and environment (Peng et al., criteria:
2020; TIAN et al., 2020) in many study cases. The combination of • Land Suitability
MCDM in the GIS framework provides a particular capacity to manage • Resource Interactions
and analyze spatial data resulting in various spatial decisions (Alizade • Cost-Effectiveness
• Social Acceptance
et al., 2018). AHP is a popular, flexible, and structured approach by • Environmental Impacts
using qualitative data based on pairwise data comparison (Saaty, 1980; Neji and 2015 CP Rank GIS-based locations as the desirable areas
Deng, 1999; Boroushaki and Malczewski, 2008). Also, application of the Turki for using wastewater irrigation
AHP method as a powerful decision support tool to handle the com­ Bozdağ 2014 AHP-GIS Evaluated the quality of irrigation water
criteria:
plexities of extensive systems assessment leads to a systematic and step
• Water Salinity
by step framework to decision making (Orojloo et al., 2018; Srdjevic and • Soil Permeability
Medeiros, 2008; Wang et al., 2007; Norouzi et al., 2015; Maleki et al., • Toxicity
2017). • Crops
The MCDM-GIS, specially (AHP-GIS)integrated approach has been Paul et al. 2020 FAHP- Evaluation of wastewater irrigation
GIS criteria:
increasingly used in recent years as a powerful spatial decision support • Agricultural Land (crop type)
system in various fields, including suitability assessment of agricultural • Climatic Conditions
lands(Kazemi and Akinci, 2018; Akıncıet al., 2013), irrigation (Feizi­ • Water Policies
zadeh and Blaschke, 2013), aquaculture (Hadipour et al., 2014), and • Irrigation Status
• Distance to wastewater treatment plants
environmental problems(Bunruamkaew and Murayam, 2011; Özkan

2
P. Zolfaghary et al. Agricultural Water Management 243 (2021) 106490

Fig. 1. Location of Bandar Gaz and Kordkoy wastewater treatment plants in Golestan province, Iran.

distance, and land use were considered as limiting criteria. The infor­
Table 2
mation on topography and land slope was provided by the digital
The quality of treated wastewater of the studied treatment plants.
elevation model (DEM: 30 m) of Golestan province while the informa­
Kordkoy plant Bandar Gaz plant tion on land use and soil depth was provided by the Jihad Agriculture
Parameter Unit
November May November May Organization of Golestan. The allowed technical distance was consid­
pH – 7.8 8.1 7.8 8.4 ered after consulting with experts in the field.
EC ds/m 1.8 2.1 1.4 1.9 Previous studies have shown that the environment, i.e., soil, plant,
SAR – 1.4 1.6 1.2 5.9 surface, and groundwater resources on one hand, and techno-economic
Class – C3-S1 C3-S1 C3-S1 C3-S1 issues related to the necessary mechanism for water consumption, on the
NO3 ppm 64.5 74.0 2.4 6.0
Br ppm 1.1 0.3 1.1 0.5
other hand, are two important factors in the use of unconventional
PO4 ppm 3.1 2.8 8.4 4.6 waters. In this study, the criteria for using urban treated wastewater as
Hg ppb 1.0 1.0 <1 <1 an unconventional water source in agriculture were selected based on
Zn ppb 26.4 1.9 25.8 <1 previous studies (Abedi-Koupai, 2006; Bozdağ, 2015; Anane et al., 2012;
Pb ppb 9.2 1.0 8.9 <1
Neji and Turki, 2015) as well as the comments from the experts and
Cu ppb 19.5 1.0 15.1 <1
Cr6 ppb 0.2 150.0 <1 150.0 water management specialists as follows: (a) techno-economic criteria
Cr3 ppb – 75.0 0.0 <1 including the availability of irrigation water, economic distance and the
Ni ppb 5.3 1.2 5.3 93.8 land suitability for each crop, and (b)environmental criteria including
Fe ppb 61.8 1.0 58.9 296.0 wastewater quality, soil characteristics, aquifer vulnerability, and crop
Na ppm 141.0 182.1 186.3 57.0
Ca ppm 74.1 124.2 58.1 225.5
sensitivity. Table 3 shows the selected criteria and the method of pre­
Mg ppm 82.7 90.0 51.1 70.5 paring the required information layer for the AHP. Since some of the
E. coly MNP/100 mL 1100.0 1100.0 1100.0 1100.0 criteria were related to the crops, 10 commonly cultivated crops in
Golestan province including canola, cotton, barley, wheat, soybean,
maize, alfalfa, berseem clover, rice, and common bean were selected and
sub-criterion and limiting factor using GIS; (4) standardizing each
all the model steps were performed for each crop.
sub-criterion for their combination and calculating the composite deci­
sion value (CDV); and finally, (5) extracting the most suitable areas
based on the CDVs and the required area. 2.4. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDM)
In this study as shown in Fig. 2, a model based on AHP was prepared
to use urban treated wastewater. Then, considering the common crops of AHP involves three main steps:
the province, the areas suitable for the cultivation of each crop were
determined using the GIS software environment. Afterward, their 1 Coinciding with the main objective of the decision-making problem
effectiveness was examined by comparing the effects of studied criteria as a hierarchical decomposition. Several criteria including techno-
on obtained results. economic requirements and environmental hazard were considered
to establish the hierarchical structure of the main goals of the
2.3. Selection of criteria, limiting factors, data collection, and processing feasibility of treated wastewater irrigation. Then, the criteria were
divided into several sub-criteria (Saaty and Vargas, 2012; Bozdag,
To determine the limiting factors for the feasibility analysis of using 2015).
urban treated wastewater of each treatment plant, after a literature re­ 2 Level by level creation of the decision table. In every hierarchical
view, elevation from sea level, land slope, soil depth, allowable technical level, all the elements are compared with the corresponding

3
P. Zolfaghary et al.
Fig. 2. flow diagram of the problem solving.
elements in the next higher level for pairwise comparison(Rezaei-­
Moghaddam and Karami, 2008).In this study, pairwise comparisons
for each criteria were carried out based on the comments from 20
experts using a questionnaire according to the Saaty’s nine-point
scale. The Expert Choice software v.11 was used to determine the
overall ranking of the alternatives by solving a comparison matrix.
Consistency ratio (CR) which measures low allowable changes
(Saaty, 1980; Duc, 2006) was calculated in this study where CR
values lower than 0.1 ensure the consistency of the comparison
matrix.
3 Multiplying the value of each creation and its weight to obtain a
weighted summation.
2.5. Model description
To study the feasibility of using urban treated wastewater in agri­
culture, modeling was performed to meet the environmental and techno-
economic requirements for sustainable agriculture. To determine the
criteria and sub-criteria of the model and create a hierarchical structure,
environmental, technical, and economic requirements for the sustain­
able use of wastewater in agriculture were developed through a
comprehensive review of previous studies and the comments from the
experts.
The data required for each criterion was collected and processed in
the ArcGIS software environment and the layers were prepared as 90 m
raster layers according to the UTMWGS-84 coordinate system. Table 4
shows the classification of the layers.
The selected expert was included from the agricultural research
centers, the Golestan regional water organization and university pro­
fessors in the fields of irrigation, water and sewage, water resources
management and Agronomy. These opinions were collected by AHP-
4
Agricultural Water Management 243 (2021) 106490
questionnaire that based on pairwise comparison of criteria. The
weight of the criteria and sub-criteria was combined and determined
using the Expert Choice software (var 11) and its overall inconsistency
was investigated and Sensivity analysis was performed to measure the
effect of each criterion.
Then, the weight obtained for each criterion was assigned to the
corresponding raster layer in the ArcGIS environment, followed by
performing the overlapping operation of the layers using weight analysis
with the help of a raster calculator tool. In this stage, feasibility maps
were produced and classified into five categories, namely, "completely
suitable”, “suitable”, “moderately suitable”, “unsuitable” and
“completely unsuitable”. The results of the process for the two treatment
plants were compared to each other to investigate the effects of the
criteria on feasibility maps and to determine the suitable crops for
cultivation with wastewater of each treatment plant.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. AHP results
The results of AHP shows that wastewater quality plays an important
role in its application in agriculture. According to the comments from
the experts, microbial contamination, salinity, aquifer vulnerability, and
nitrate concentration gained more weight compared to other criteria.
microbial contamination and Br toxicity received the highest and lowest
weights, respectively (Fig. 3). Furthermore, among the economic
criteria, irrigation water availability was of higher importance.
The results of the sensitivity analysis showed that the aquifer
vulnerability and Br toxicity had the highest and lowest sensitivity,
respectively. Similarly, the results of Anane et al., 2012 on using
AHP-GIS to rank suitable areas for treated wastewater irrigation showed
P. Zolfaghary et al. Agricultural Water Management 243 (2021) 106490

Table 3
Method of data collection.
Criteria Sub-criteria Required information Methods Source Descriptions

If the treated wastewater does not

Surface and ground water
Water
quality and water consumption
availability
data in the study area
Techno-
Calculating the net benefit and
Economic Economic
costs of crop cultivation with
distance
wastewater irrigation
Land
Land suitability maps
suitability
Tolerable towards salinity,
sodium absorption ratio,
Wastewater nitrate, phosphate and
quality microbial content including
fecal coliform and intestinal
nematode
Soil texture and sodium
Soil
Environmental salinity, Soil class
Aquifer
Zoning of aquifer vulnerability
vulnerability
Sodium and Borontoxicity,
Crop
sensitivity of cultivation to
sensitivity
wastewater irrigation
Combining two layers of
surface andground
waterconsumption based on
the consumption ratio
The ratio of benefit to cost of
each product (B/C)
AHP & GIS
According to the standards
Interpolation and zoning in
GIS
DRASTIC
According to standards
Golestan Regional Water
Organization
Instructions for planting,
maintenance and harvesting from
Jihad Agriculture Organization, the
rate approved by the Ministry of
Interior for agricultural products,
inputs and outputs, and a price list
related to water transfer costs.
Kazemi et al. (2015)
Golestan Regional Water
Organization(Iran Ministry of
Power, 2016)
Golestan Regional Water
Organization
Nick Qojjaq and Kaboli (2010)
Golestan Regional Water
organization (Iran Ministry of
Power, 2016)
have a salinity problem, it can be an
appropriate source of irrigation
water in areas with water scarcity.
So, for this criterion, lands with
limited access to water resources and
high competition of water other
uses, wastewater irrigation is
completely suitable.
This criterion is obtained based on
B/C ratio of wastewater use in areas
for each plant using the ratio of
cultivation benefit to annual costs (e.
g., cultivation cost, pumping station,
low pressure transmission line, etc.)
at different distances from the
station. A distance in which B/C
value reaches zero is considered
unsuitable.
Agricultural lands were classified
into “completely suitable”,
“suitable”, “moderately suitable”,
“unsuitable”, and “completely
unsuitable” based on ecological and
climatic potential for crop
cultivation.
The salinity tolerance of crops was
considered based on Allen et al.
(1998) and the sodium adsorption
ratio was based on Wilcox
classification (1948).
The classification for phosphorus
was based on the standard provided
by Bramley and Muller (1999) and
for nitrate based on the FAO39 (
Ayers and Westcatt, 1989).
The allowed limits of the bacterial
quality of water for agricultural use
were according to the standard of
the Iran Environmental Protection
Organization (2016) and Iran
Management and Planning
Organization (2016).
Soil salinity and sodic data zoning
was carried out by the best
interpolation methods for each
parameter in GIS environment,
followed by using overlay functions
and classifying based on Abrol et al.
(1988).
Soil texture map was reclassified
based on the standard of the USDA
(1986) in relation to the rate of soil
drainage.
Based on the concepts of
hydrological environments and
DRASTIC methods, the vulnerability
of Gorgan aquifer was divided into
“high”, “moderate”, and “low”.
Sodium and borontoxicity limits
were based on the standards
presented in literature (Ayers and
Westcat, 1989; Arora, 2007; Öztürk
et al., 2015; Ochiai et al., 20088;
Lombin and Bates, 1982).
The allowed limits of the bacterial
quality of water for agricultural use
were according to the standard of
the Iran Environmental Protection
Organization (2016) and Iran
Management and Planning
Organization (2017).

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P. Zolfaghary et al. Agricultural Water Management 243 (2021) 106490

Table 4
Classification of criteria and sub-criteria.
Criteria Sub-Criteria CompletelySuitable Suitable ModeratelySuitable Unsuitable CompletelyUnsuitable

Unusable water Relatively

Without freshwater Low quality water Sufficient water resources
Water availability resources in appropriate water
resources resources for agriculture of good quality
Techno- agriculture resources
Economic Economic distance
0.33 D 0.66 D D(B/C = 1) 1.33 D 1.66 D
(D)
Land suitability CompletelySuitable Suitable ModeratelySuitable Unsuitable Completely Unsuitable
Wastewater quality
EC 0.5 EC100 % EC100 % EC90 % EC75 %
(EC)
Wastewater quality C2S1-C1S2- C3S1- C4S1-C4S2-C4S3-
C1-S1 C3S2 C1S4-C2S4-C3S4-C4S4
(SAR) C2S2 C2S3-C3S3
Wastewater quality
10 20 30 40 50
(NO3 mg/l)
Wastewater quality
5 10 15 20 25
(PO4 mg/l)
Wastewater quality E
(E. coly and Intestinal 0.33 E 0.66 E (E. coly = 1000 and 1.33 E 1.66 E
nematodes) Nematode = 1)
Environmental
Medium texture with
Soil (Chemical Very small or very large
medium water – Fine-grained texture –
quality) texture
permeability
ECe< 3 ECe< 4 ECe> 4 ECe< 4 ECe> 4
Soil (Texture)
SAR < 7 SAR < 13 SAR < 13 SAR > 13 SAR > 13
Aquifer vulnerability Low Moderate Moderate Moderate High
Fodder and cereals Fodder and cereals
Plant type (Sanitation Non-edible or industrial Vegetables and products
with minimal access Cereals under workers’
and Health) plants - trees that are eaten raw
to workers access (rice)
Plant type (Na) 0.33 L 0.66 L 0.33 *L 0.66 L 0.33 L
Plant type (Br) 0.33 L 0.66 L 0.33 *L 0.66 L 0.33 L
*
L: The standard provided for each plant.

that aquifer vulnerability received the second place in importance, after
the social criterion which shows the high importance of aquifer
vulnerability. Furthermore, CR was obtained equal to 0.02 which in­
dicates the optimal consistency among the criteria.
3.2. Modeling results
The results showed low suitability for using the treated wastewater
of Kordkoy plant as agricultural irrigation water inlands near the
treatment plant.Canola and cotton were obtained to have the highest
and common beans to have the lowest suitable cultivation area in these
lands. However, the results of using the treated wastewater of Bandar
Gaz treatment plant showed a high level of suitability in agricultural
lands near the treatment plant, where 90 % of the evaluated crops had
cultivation suitability of over 70 % of the area. Barley, corn, wheat,
canola, and soybean had the highest, and alfalfa had the lowest suitable
area for cultivation in this region. Fig. 4 shows the result of imple­
menting the model in agricultural lands allowed for cultivation with
treated wastewater of both treatment plants.
The results of implementing the model for the treatment plants and
the study of the effects of decision criteria on feasibility maps show a
remarkable difference between the percentage of the suitable area for
cultivation of each crop (Fig. 5).The reason for this difference is the
impact of the criteria used in the decision model. In general, the effective
criteria in the analysis can be classified into three categories, the
description and the effectiveness of each have been discussed separately.
3.2.1. Independent qualitative criteria
These criteria included nitrate, phosphate, and microbial contami­
nation of applied wastewater. Their effects are on the health of human
and water resources and therefore, they did not affect the location and
type of cultivated crops. According to international statistics, up to 80 %
of the diseases reported in less developed countries are related to their
poor water quality because of entering wastewater to drinking water
resources (Wyatt, 1987). Obeidat et al. (2007) collected 248 ground­
water samples from 16 wells in Al-Hashemiyah, Jordan, and concluded
that there is a strong relationship between water nitrate concentration
and treated wastewater. According to the undesirable effects of nitrate
and microbial contamination on groundwater resources as well as
considering the high concentration of nitrate in the wastewater of
Kordkoy treatment plant and the high microbial contamination in both
treatment plants, using the treated wastewater of Bandar-Gaz plant is
less environmentally hazardous compared to that of the Kordkoy plant’s
wastewater.Performing various methods of nitrate removal and disin­
fection is necessary to reduce the microbial effects of wastewater.
3.2.2. Environment-related criteria
These criteria which include soil class and texture, aquifer vulnera­
bility, and irrigation water availability, affect the feasibility maps and
are independent of the crop type. Fig. 6 shows the geospatial results of
these criteria for each treatment plant. An investigation on environment-
based criteria shows that although the suitability of availability of irri­
gation water was preferred to Bandar-Gaz treatment plant’s area due to
the relatively low quality of groundwater aquifer in parts of the study
area for Kordkoy treatment plant, ca. 80 % of the study area of Kordkoy
treatment plant was completely unsuitable in terms of aquifer vulnera­
bility criteria, which this criterion was ca. 65 % in Bandar-Gaz treatment
plant area. The studies of Tomer et al. (2019) on the vulnerability of the
Delhi aquifer revealed the important role of the groundwater level in
aquifer vulnerability. Therefore, the high groundwater level in Kordkoy
and Bandar Gaz areas is an effective factor in reducing the suitability of
land for using treated wastewater due to the considerable weight of the
aquifer vulnerability criterion.
Although studies by Wang et al. (2007) have shown that many
wastewater contaminants are significantly reduced after passing
through the soil profile, the high level of the water table in the area
increases the risk of nitrate and/or microbial contamination of
groundwater resources. This is more critical for the areas of the Kordkoy
treatment plant than that of Bandar Gaz plant. On the other hand, the
texture and the chemical class of the soil have improved the suitability of
using treated wastewater irrigation within the areas of BandarGaz plant.
Therefore, in terms of environmental criteria, the lands within the

6
P. Zolfaghary et al.
Fig. 3. Results of the AHP and sensitivity analysis.
Bandar Gaz treatment plant had higher suitability for the use of treated
wastewater irrigation.
Since the drainage network has an effective role in improving the soil
physicochemical properties, the use of treated wastewater from the
studied treatment plants, especially in Kordkoy, is not recommended
before drainage operations.
3.2.3. Plant criteria
These criteria, which depend on the crop type, include fertility,
economic distance, EC tolerance, SAR, Na and Br toxicity, and the hy­
gienic limitations of cultivation by wastewater. Table 5 shows the
quality criteria related to crop types based on the degree of desirability
for each crop (from 1 to 5).It can be seen that the cultivation of different
crops is more suitable using the treated wastewater of Bandar Gaz plant
compared to that of the Kordkoy plant. Furthermore, cotton had the
highest suitability for Kordkoy plant wastewater while cotton and corn
had the highest suitability for the wastewater of Bandar- Gaz plant.
The treated wastewater of Bandar Gaz plant contains significant
amounts of potassium (15 g m− 3/ha), phosphorus (7.81 g m− 3/ha), and
nitrate (2.91 g m− 3/ha) which covers40 % of the total macro-nutrient
fertilization costs of farming. Economic analysis showed that the culti­
vation of alfalfa, rice, wheat, corn, soybean, barley, canola, cotton, and
common bean in the study area had economic benefits, respectively.
However, the ecological studies of Kazemi et al. (2015) showed the
cultivation suitability of only rice, corn, and clover in the area of Bandar
Gaz plant.
7
Agricultural Water Management 243 (2021) 106490
The treated wastewater of the Kordkoy plant also contains significant
amounts of potassium (15.9 g m− 3/ha), phosphorus (3 g m− 3/ha), and
nitrate (65.8 g m− 3/ha), covering 57 % of total fertilizer costs. Economic
analysis also showed that the cultivation of alfalfa, clover, rice, soybean,
wheat, canola, corn, cotton, barley, and common bean in the Kordkoy
plant area had economic benefits, respectively. Kazemi et al. (2015)
studied the agricultural-ecological suitability of rice, corn, and berseem
cultivation on 68 % of the southern parts of the area while cultivating
alfalfa, soybean, canola, and cotton on 32 % of the northern parts of the
area. The showed the undesirability of cultivating wheat, barley, and
common bean near the Kordkoy treatment plant. Fig. 7 shows the results
of the economic analysis of the crops investigated in this study.
So far, there have been several studies on the use of wastewater in
agriculture, all of which have emphasized increasing crop yields. The
studies of Saffari and Saffari (2013) on treated wastewater irrigation
showed an improvement in soil properties, and common bean’s yield
and plant growth. Furthermore, although some nutrients such as N, P, K,
Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn, and Ni increased in soil compared to control, no soil
contamination and plant toxicity were observed. El Moussaoui et al.
(2019) reported the significant effects of water quality on soil parame­
ters. They highlighted a significant increase in organic matter (OM) and
the concentration of some soil nutrients such as Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN)
and total phosphorus (TP) when irrigating with urban treated waste­
water, emphasizing the economic savings of fertilizer use in crop culti­
vation. Their study on alfalfa cultivation showed significant effects on
yield and macro and microelements concentrations of a plant. It should
P. Zolfaghary et al. Agricultural Water Management 243 (2021) 106490

Fig. 4. Results of AHP for the use of wastewater in agriculture in the allowed area of studied treatment plants.

Fig. 5. Comparison of AHP results.

be noted that the use of wastewater in sandy and other coarse-textured
soils increases the risk of pollution of shallow groundwater aquifers
(Said Gemail, 2012).
4. Conclusions
This study investigated the feasibility of using urban treated
wastewater by analyzing the effective criteria in decision-making for
two wastewater treatment plants with different qualitative and envi­
ronmental conditions and examining the role of each criterion sepa­
rately on several types of crops. Due to the desirable effects of
wastewater irrigation on crop yield, the improvement of criteria that
had the highest effects on the suitability of using wastewater can play an
effective role in reducing environmental and health hazards. The high

8
P. Zolfaghary et al. Agricultural Water Management 243 (2021) 106490

Fig. 6. Environmental criteria including: salinity and sodium class and soil texture, aquifer vulnerability and irrigation water availability in the studied area.

Table 5
The results of plant criteria for the studied treatment plants.
Bandar Gaz plant Kordkoy plant

Crop %Na EC SAR Plant type %Br %Na EC SAR Plant type %Br

Canola 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 5 4
Catton 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Barely 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 5 4 5
Wheat 5 5 5 4 3 5 5 5 4 4
Soybean 5 5 5 4 4 5 4 5 4 4
Maize 5 5 5 5 5 5 2 5 4 5
Alfalfa 5 3 5 5 3 5 3 5 3 5
Berseem Clover 5 3 5 3 5 5 3 5 3 4
Rice 5 5 5 2 3 5 4 5 2 4
Common Bean 5 1 5 4 3 5 1 5 4 4

9
P. Zolfaghary et al.
Fig. 7. Results of economic analysis of crop cultivation in the study area.
groundwater level and its low quality was a major problem in both study
areas, which results in soil drainage and salinization and limits the
possibility of wastewater irrigation.
In this research, the assumption was not that all criteria were
completely independent. It is clear that there was a possible dependency
influence in the decision-making process, so might be a dependency
between some of the decision criteria. But we to Simplification and
avoidance of complexity hypothesized this related were minimum. It is
suggested that other decision analysis methods such as ANP can be
applied to consider the potential dependency in decision criteria and
sub-criteria.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors report no declarations of interest.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in the
online version, at doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106490.
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