Prioritization of the economic activities in Yazd Province with an emphasis on the importance of water resources: Integration of the Input-Output and TOPSIS models

The purpose of this study is to prioritize the economic activities in Yazd Province, Iran, with a sustainable development approach and an emphasis on the importance of water intensity in economic activities. Therefore, multiple criteria were used to prioritize the activities that cover the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. In the first stage, the SFLQ method was used to prepare an input-output table for Yazd Province. Then, the economic activities in the province were prioritized in terms of six criteria including the intensity of interdepartmental communication and value-added (economic dimension), job creation (social dimension) as well as energy intensity, water intensity and pollution (environmental dimension). Moreover, a combination of an input-output model and the TOPSIS method was applied. According to the results of this study, among the activities in the province, "transportation" proved to have the highest priority. It was also found that the ignorance of water use as an important criterion can lead to significantly different prioritization results.