Consensus in prioritizing river rehabilitation projects through the integration of social, economic and landscape indicators

Abstract

Selecting a river rehabilitation project is a complex decision which should address social, economic and landscape indicators. The rehabilitation project becomes even more complicated if the city qualifies for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Tangible and intangible factors must be assessed to take into account cultural and natural heritage, water flow, river naturalization, interaction of water stream, construction costs and operational and maintenance costs. The proposed method is a hybrid model combining Delphi, Analytical Hierarchy Process and VIKOR technique. This hybrid model has been applied to the historic walled town of Cuenca and the Huecar river. The objective of the selected rehabilitation project must be the optimal integration of the river in the townscape. The indicators most valued by the panelists have been cultural heritage and river naturalization with 28% and 25% respectively. As a result, the trapezoidal cross section has achieved an acceptable advantage and stability over the modified triangular cross section, valued as second.