Framework to prioritize watersheds for diffuse pollution management in the Republic of Korea: application of multi-criteria analysis using the Delphi method

Abstract

Abstract. This study aimed to develop a risk-based approach for determining control areas to manage non-point source pollution, developing a framework to prioritize catchments by considering the characteristics of polluted runoff from non-point sources. The best management, decision-making, and scientific approaches, such as the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and the Delphi technique, are required for the designation of control areas and the application of the best management practices to the control areas. Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods can handle the diversity and complexity of non-point source pollution. The Delphi technique was employed for selecting the assessment criteria/sub-criteria and determining their weights. Sub-criteria for each catchment unit were scored with either a quantitative or qualitative scale. All non-point pollution sources in mainland Republic of Korea were included, with the exception of a few islands, with catchment prioritization and pollution vulnerability evaluations shown as thematic maps. This study contributes to the field by developing a new risk-based approach for ranking and prioritizing catchments; this provides valuable information for the Ministry of Environment to use to identify control areas and manage non-point source pollution.

Development and Deployment of a Framework to Prioritize Environmental Contamination Issues

“…This makes it possible to prioritize all issues for an entire region or even a country within the one framework, revisit any issue or the complete ranking that at any time, and derive individual rankings in a timely manner. In this sense the model should be seen as more of an advanced triaging process, rather than an EIA-based model or Delphi-type assessment (Lee et al, 2019). It allows for differences in our characterization and understanding between issues and does not predetermine which issues will be included based on prior concern or knowledge.…”

“…Pollutants accumulated from diverse diffuse sources is a water quality management issue. As such, there are other methods that have been developed including the Delphi method to forecast viable solutions to problems where data was missing or incomplete by obtaining the most reliable consensus of a group of experts [64]. This risk-based approach for ranking and prioritizing catchments was used to identify and manage non-point source pollution in Korea [64].…”

“…As such, there are other methods that have been developed including the Delphi method to forecast viable solutions to problems where data was missing or incomplete by obtaining the most reliable consensus of a group of experts [64]. This risk-based approach for ranking and prioritizing catchments was used to identify and manage non-point source pollution in Korea [64]. Weaknesses of the Delphi method include reliance on the opinion of the experts and a tendency to eliminate extreme positions and so force a middle-of-the-road consensus.…”

Preface: Remote sensing, modelling-based hazard and risk assessment, and management of agro-forested ecosystems

“…It is important to be able to further improve the estimation of drought, as presented and discussed in the studies of Hien et al (2019) and Jiménez-Donaire et al (2020), as well as other variables, such as potential evapotranspiration (Moratiel et al, 2020) or chilling accumulation (Rodríguez et al, 2019), which play a key role in agricultural studies. Further, risk assessment has been proven to be a valid tool to evaluate different types of risk both in the riverine (Chen et al, 2019;Lee et al, 2019) and in the forest (Blanco-Gutiérrez et al, 2020) environments: although these environments are different, risk assessment methods play an important role in both. All the papers included in the special issue address specific issues and present local specific applications: however, the approaches presented and tested over different case studies can be applied to other cases and regions, directly or with specific adjustments.…”

“…River basins can also be affected by anthropogenic disturbances, and the main example is the pollution coming from human activities. This is a relevant issue in many areas worldwide, and Lee et al (2019) present a framework to prioritize watersheds for diffuse pollution management in the Republic of Korea by applying multicriteria decision analysis using the Delphi method. The proposed risk-based approach uses multicriteria decision analysis methods to integrate complex and heterogenous information related to nonpoint source pollution.…”