Dam water conservation equation index using AHP and cluster analysis methods: a study on selected dams in Java

This research, which was conducted on 12 selected existing dams, focuses on the application of the Analytical Hierarchy Process method for determining the “Dam Conservation Equation Index” based on three main issues for water conservation: namely, dam contribution to reservoir water quality (DO, pH, TDS), groundwater (DO, TDS, pH) and local climate (min temperature, max temperature, precipitation). It is a new approach to indexing existing dams’ effect on water conservation. The result from the AHP method shows correlations between dams and water condition, with groundwater being affected, shown by a 70% effect on the priority scale, followed by local climate and reservoir water quality with approximately 20% and 10%, respectively. There is also the effect of ‘unknown parameters’ affected by dams, albeit not significantly. Meanwhile, the results from cluster analysis are: there are three clusters of dams in the research areas: cluster 1 (Cipancuh and Delingan dam), cluster 2 (Cacaban, Wadas Lintang, Sermo, Pondok, Lahor, Sampean Baru and Wonorejo dam) and cluster 3 (Darma, Malahayu). Cluster 1 and 3 are dams with the lowest water quality in the research area.