Improved TOPSIS Method and Its Application on Initial Water Rights Allocation in the Watershed

Initial water rights allocation is a complex decision problem, and it is difficult for traditional methods to determine weights and solve the decision problem. In this study, an improved TOPSIS (Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) method is proposed using vertical distance instead of Euclidean distance to calculate the closeness degree of schemes to the ideal solution, which overcomes the shortage of traditional TOPSIS method. In order to determine the weights of evaluation indexes reasonably, the improved method adopts game theory to harmonize and conjugate the subjective weight and the objective weight. On this basis, a comprehensive weight which eliminates the unilateral result can be obtained, and a model of initial water rights allocation in the watershed is established by the improved TOPSIS method. Finally, the proposed model is applied in the study of initial water rights allocation in Fuhuan River in Hubei Province, which shows rationality and validity when comparing with other models like traditional TOPSIS method, analytic hierarchy process and projection pursuit model.