where Vi is the suitability index for each point i, Wj is the relative
importance weight of criterion j, Vij is the grading value of each
point i under criterion j and n is the total number of criteria.
The most important part in the siting with AHP is the importance
weights for the criteria and the preferred weights for the
alternatives. Table 2 shows relative importance (weight) of the
criteria used to evaluate suitability of each site. The results
revealed that among the criteria studied, sensitive ecosystems
and surface waters were the most important ones because there
are some protected areas, such as Shadeghan wetland, estuaries
and the Persian Gulf coast. Slope was found to be the least important
criterion because the study area was flat.