Site selection for the installation of autonomous desalination systems (ADS) Original Research Article

The geographic location of a final site where an ADS unit can be installed has a strong influence on the success of that project. If the desalination unit is not located in the most favorable position, the competitive advantages of the process can be wiped out. Considerable care must be exercised in selecting the unit site, and many different factors must be considered. The aim of this work is to present amethodology to identify and select themost favorable sites to install ADS units. Collection of the basic data and evaluation are the essential steps for the identification of sites. The favorable sites can be screened based on the criteria developed in this work for the purpose of selecting the best apparent site. Scoring of the various criteria, when combined with the weighting system, establishes an overall ranked score for each site. A detailed description of the selection methodology will be presented.