Security assessment and diagnosis for industrial water resources using TODIMSort considering Best–Worst Method with double hierarchy hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set

Motivated by the driving force to address global water scarcity, industrial water resources, as the second largest consumption of water resources, its security assessment plays a crucial role in improving the current situation. Hence, this paper proposes a novel methodology to conduct the industrial water resources security (IWRS) assessment. Firstly, a more targeted assessment system based on the framework of the Pressure–State–Response (P–S–R) on IWRS is established. Then, enhanced with a double hierarchy hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (DHHFLTS), the Best–Worst Method (BWM) now determines subjective weights through DHHFLTS-BWM (DF-BWM). By introducing the Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method, which considers the indicator interactions, objective weights are obtained to modify the subjective weights. Furthermore, the global dominance of all alternatives is calculated by a TODIMSort method and grading them. Moreover, 16 cities in Anhui Province are taken as examples to assess IWRS in the decade from 2011 to 2020. Comparative analysis with original BWM, time series analysis, sensitivity analysis on loss attenuation coefficient, coupling and coordination analysis and obstacle analysis on all indicators are conducted to verify the rationality, effectiveness, and stability of the proposed assessment methodology. Simultaneously, explore the existing issues within IWRS. It can be seen from the results that the performance of Lu’an and Huainan cities is relatively better, while Ma’anshan city shows relatively poorer performance. In addition, per capita water resources and wastewater treatment facilities have a significant impact on the IWRS. Finally, some management suggestions are proposed to enhance the scientific and effective management of industrial water resources and ensure their sustainable utilization.