Enhancing Water Resource Management in Mining Sector through Analytical Hierarchy Process and Entropy Method

Abstract

Jharkhand, located in eastern India, is endowed with abundant mineral resources but faces unevenly distribution of water resources availability. With the expansion of mining activities, large volumes of mine water are generated which is often underutilized or regarded as a pollutant. This study investigates the reuse potential of mine water from the Gidi ‘A’ mining region through the application of structured multi-criteria decision-making tools. Two complementary methods were employed: the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to prioritize five decision criteria such as water quality, environmental impact, technical feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability, and the Entropy Method to objectively assess the variability and reliability of stakeholder evaluations across five alternative water management strategies. The AHP results indicated that water quality and environmental impact were the most influential criteria, reflecting strong concern for ecological and health-related outcomes. Among the alternatives, infrastructure investment ranked highest, though it exhibited the greatest divergence in stakeholder opinions. The AHP consistency ratio (CR = 9.24%) confirmed acceptable reliability of expert judgments. The entropy analysis further emphasized that while respondents favoured large-scale infrastructure improvements, long-term sustainability requires balancing these investments with recycling, green technologies, and conservative water-use practices. By integrating AHP and Entropy approaches, this study establishes a comprehensive, transparent, and adaptable decision-support framework for mine water reuse in coal-mining regions. The findings contribute to advancing sustainable water resource management, promoting both environmental protection and efficient resource utilization in Jharkhand and similar mining-intensive settings.