Sustainability assessment of desalination plants for water production

The paper presents an attempt to assess sustainability of desalination plan ts for water production based on resource, environmental and economic indic ators. Four types of desalination plants are taken into a consideration: si ngle MSF, dual purpose MSF, RO with local energy consumption and RO with PV electric energy production. The analysis is based on data from desalinatio n plants in Gulf countries. In particular, it reflects water production dem and and energy sources used for the individual plants. The decision-making procedure in the sustainability assessment of desalination plants is based on the multi-criteria evaluation under uncertainty of complex systems expre ssed by the General Sustainability Index. Evaluation of different cases ref lecting priority of the criteria for evaluation has led to the selection of options, which are in compliance with respective criteria.