A MULTICRITERIA ANALYSIS METHOD AS DECISION-MAKING TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE DESALINATION: THE ASINARA ISLAND CASE STUDY

In the perspective of making more sustainable the use of desalination various features have to be taken into account. The use of renewable sources is definitely an important solution to replace or to integrate the energy supply from fossil sources. The selection about the technology to use and the energy source to resort depends at first on a technical analysis (is it possible?) and then on an economical evaluation (is it worthwhile?). In such a kind of analysis it is not easy to assess the weight of all those aspects which are related to the territory as the environmental protection, preservation of the landscape and of the social-historical pattern. As alternative choice to the mere techno-economical comparison among different plant layouts the implementation of a multi criteria analysis is proposed in order to encompass a wide range of aspects of the relevant categories and to develop a more general approach. The main classes to be referred to the analyzed aspects, as the environmental, the economical and the technological ones, as well as those related to the features of the site and to the energy consumption compared to the renewable sources capacity are pinpointed. Each class is formed with homogeneous factors which contribute to the definition of the specific aspect. The method has been applied to the Asinara Island, whose area is subject to peculiar environmentally protective restrictions, due to the presence of the Asinara national park. In such a background is even more conspicuous the need for multi criteria methods to analyze a project in order to take into account aspects that are difficult to quantify otherwise as the environmental protection and the preservation of the historical and cultural heritage of the above small island.