Strategic decision framework and human resource implications for sustainable stormwater management: an AHP–TOPSIS approach

Abstract

Sustainable stormwater management requires strategic decision-making that balances environmental, technical, economic, and social considerations while strengthening organizational capacity and human resource readiness. This study aimed to develop a strategic decision-making framework for selecting sustainable stormwater management strategies using a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approach. The study employed the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to evaluate five alternative stormwater management strategies: conventional drainage, green infrastructure (GI), low-impact development (LID), nature-based solutions (NbS), and integrated stormwater management systems. Data were collected from 15 experts through structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Four decision criteria—environmental, technical, economic, and social—were incorporated into the evaluation framework. The AHP analysis showed that environmental criteria received the highest priority weight (38.2%), followed by economic (27.9%), technical (21.4%), and social (12.5%) criteria. TOPSIS results identified green infrastructure as the preferred strategy with the highest preference score (0.918), demonstrating superior overall performance across the evaluated criteria. Low-impact development and nature-based solutions also performed well, whereas conventional drainage ranked lowest due to its limited long-term sustainability. Sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of the ranking results. The findings demonstrate that green infrastructure represents the most suitable strategy for sustainable stormwater management because it simultaneously improves environmental performance, enhances urban resilience, and provides broader social and economic benefits. Successful implementation, however, depends not only on technical feasibility but also on organizational readiness and the development of Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) competencies to support long-term sustainability.