Comparative assessment of joint water development initiatives in the Jordan River Basin

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a comparative assessment of developmental initiatives to increase regional water supply in the Jordan River Basin using a Multi Criteria Decision Analysis technique with sensitivity analysis on criteria weights. The results indicate that the Red Sea–Dead Sea Conveyance (RSDSC) constitutes an optimal option within the context of alleviating water shortage and promoting regional cooperation. While a surface water pipeline from Turkey emerges as an attractive option when the quantity of delivered water is emphasized, the potential for out of basin water transfers are becoming increasingly less desirable with population growth, political turmoil in the region, development, and climate change challenges.

KEYWORDS:

• Jordan River Basin
• Red Sea–Dead Sea Conveyance
• Seawater Desalination
• Transboundary water
• Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis
• Simple Additive Weighting

Acknowledgement

Special thanks are extended to Dar Al-Handasah (Shair & Partners) for its support to the graduate programmes in Engineering at the American University of Beirut.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, PA and Syria.