Selection of a model to evaluate hydroelectric sustainability through the AHP method

Sustainable development is the theme that has remained in the interest for more than three decades, as the result of which various solutions have been developed that seek to implement and control sustainability development in companies. The hydropower sector seeks to address its environmental and social problems through various models. The objective of this work is to select a sustainable development model to evaluate hydroelectric sustainability through a method of multicriteria decision making. Through the method of Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP), and a focus group it is possible to determine the weightings of the criteria, sub-criteria and alternatives of sustainable development models. Once the AHP method was applied, the sustainable development models were hierarchized, it was found that the hydropower sustainability assessment protocol obtained the highest priority among the models, followed by the BS 8900 standard and the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI). In the sensitivity analysis, the selection of the hydropower sustainability assessment protocol model was validated, as it remained in the first place in three of the four proposed scenarios. The results showed that the hydropower sustainability assessment protocol is the most appropriate sustainable development model to evaluate hydroelectric sustainability. This provides support to those who seek to justify their decision to select a sustainable development model, using multicriteria methods.