Abstract
Each power plant (PP) is solo entity whose construction site is determined by different criteria in accordance with some physical rules. Latterly, great importance is provided to siting PP in inexact surroundings. Multiple-criteria decision-making for the proper location of the PP construction is relevant. The objective of this research is to create a model for decision-makers to rank available sites for installing hydropower plant (HPP) in accordance with multiple-criteria attributes e.g. accessibility to electrical grid, power potential, economical respects, environmental influence, topography, and natural hazards. In this research, a novel application of a hybrid approach that employs rough set theory (RST) and combinative distance-based assessment (CODAS) method is proposed to prioritize available locations for installing HPP. Firstly, the strength of RST is adopted to get minimal attributes reduction set. Secondly, the relative weights of minimal attributes are determined using RST. Finally, CODAS technique is utilized to calculate the rank of alternatives. The comparison between the proposed method-based results and the results without attributes reduct, proves that the proposed method saves the time and energy.