AU - Hasani, Nemat AU - Mosalman Yazdi, Hasanali TI - Determining effective criteria in locating emergency water tanks and calculating their weighted importance factors by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE TA - dpmk JN - dpmk VO - 6 VI - 3 IP - 3 4099 - http://dpmk.ir/article-1-87-en.html 4100 - http://dpmk.ir/article-1-87-en.pdf SO - dpmk 3 ABĀ  - Background and objective: Human beings have been always facing natural disasters such as floods, storms, earthquakes, etc. from the beginning and have tried to manage and control these disasters. Problems caused by earthquake and other natural disasters for lifeline structures may result to the lack of potable water. Therefore, use of emergency water supplies is inevitable and vital after these disasters and water is the most basic needs for people in such a critical situation. Maintaining safe water after damages to lifeline structures is a top priority of water and wastewater companies. Regarding the recent researches, one of the methods for water supply in emergency situation is the use of fixed tanks in volumes from 20 to 100 cubic meters that have been installed in suitable points of the city. Choosing the most suitable layout for the location of the tanks is very important because of their cost and required time for construction and installation. Method: In this study, the library method is applied to collect information about the research topic. Then, by conducting interviews, a questionnaire is designed to get the experts’ idea about the location of the emergency tanks. Consequently, the most important criteria and factor regarding each criterion are determined. Finally, the weight of importance factor of each criterion is calculated by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is a multi-criteria decision-making method. Findings: Five main criteria are chosen for locating the emergency tanks, which are as follows (according to their weights): Closeness to centers with higher degree of importance, Closeness to more crowded centers, Preservation of hydraulic conditions of water distribution networks, reachability, and acquisition cost of location. Conclusion: In order to find a proper location for tank installation, various locations such as parks, mosques, and schools, can be compared with considering the obtained criteria and their weights, to prioritize the locations and find the best option by using the AHP method. Closeness to centers with high degrees of importance is most prior criterion while the acquisition cost is the least priority. CP - IRAN IN - LG - eng PB - dpmk PG - 264 PT - Research YR - 2016