A Spatial Multicriteria Decision Analysis to Manage Sewage Sludge Application on Agricultural Soils

In this chapter, the spatial problem of disposing sewage sludge on agricultural soils is addressed. Sewage sludge application on agricultural soils is recommended by governments in order to recycle nutrients and organic matter. Moreover, a new utility is given to a by-product of wastewater treatment. However, this managing practice may lead to environmental and human health risks. Soil amendment has also several related economic costs. In order to solve this decision problem, a spatial multicriteria decision analysis is presented. This method allows solving the decision problem taking into account the geographical peculiarities of each agricultural site. The purpose of this chapter is to present a methodology to solve the decision problem of managing sewage sludge on agricultural soils. For that, the most used multicriteria decision analysis procedures reported in the literature are reviewed and other novel methods are suggested. By the end of the chapter, a brief example of the method application is presented.