Cross-border renewable energy powered desalination offers a potential response to water scarcity in conflict affected
regions, but its implementation is constrained by interconnected technical, political, institutional,
environmental, financial, and social challenges. This study identifies and prioritizes the critical success factors
affecting such projects using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. A multidimensional framework comprising seven
main dimensions and 58 sub-criteria was evaluated through structured expert judgments. The results show a
balanced distribution among the seven main dimensions, with weights ranging from 0.136 for social and community
aspects to 0.146 for environmental and ecological aspects, indicating that no single dimension independently
determines project success. At the sub-criterion level, the five highest global weights were obtained for
the reliability and efficiency of desalination technology (0.0221), the use of renewable energy to reduce carbon
emissions (0.0210), technical compatibility between participating countries’ infrastructure (0.0207), perceived
fairness in benefit allocation (0.0203), and clarity of legal frameworks (0.0203). Under a +20% perturbation of
each main-criterion weight, 5–7 of the original top ten sub-criteria remained in the top ten, demonstrating
reasonable ranking stability. The findings indicate that successful cross-border desalination requires an integrated
socio-technical approach combining operational reliability, environmental sustainability, compatible
infrastructure, legal clarity, and equitable cooperation.

Title

Sustainable Horizons

Publisher

ElSEVIER

Publisher Country

Netherlands

Indexing

Thomson Reuters

Impact Factor

7.8

Publication Type

Both (Printed and Online)

Volume

20

Year

2026

Pages

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