The choice of sewage treatment plants may, among others, involve a conflict between efficiency and cost, because for the lowest possible cost, this choice should meet some environmental requirements. To assist in the choice of a treatment system for municipal sanitary sewer, a model based on techniques of decision making was developed by Oliveira (2004). However, if the other criteria involved are not considered, the interaction between decision makers and their strategies can turn the choice of the treatment system into an inadequate one. For these cases, the Nash equilibrium may offer a solution based on the interaction between players, which could reasonably satisfy the conflicting interests. Thus, the main objective of this research was, based on the data output of Oliveira's model, to find the Nash equilibrium to propose a solution to the conflict between efficiency and cost in the choice of a system for the sewage treatment. The different results found, when taken into account only the criterion of lower cost and the criteria of lowest cost and efficiency, demonstrated that the Nash equilibrium adoption can be a viable alternative to solve the conflict between efficiency and cost in the choice of treatment plants for sewage.
Nash equilibrium; decision making; sewage treatment
