The sixth goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) announced by the
United Nations addresses water and sanitation; its first target is providing safe and
affordable drinking water. Water desalination is introduced as a viable alternative
considering the present situation of the water resources and their consumption and
pollution. However, desalination processes' high energy intensity conflicts with
energy and climate-related SDGs. Correspondingly, the first target of SGD 6 can be
translated to an affordable, eco-friendly, and reliable water desalination. However,
these objectives are conflicting considering the current status of desalination.
Accordingly, this article proposes a novel multi-objective model by quantifying
the interweaved sustainable development goals for water desalination. To this end,
a tri-objective mixed-integer linear model is developed to compromise the
abovementioned goals, that is, water production cost, supply reliability, and carbon
emission. The proposed water desalination system is fed by a combined wind-photovoltaic-
diesel system, employs power and water storage, and seeks a trade-off solution
based on the planner's preferences. The model is flexible in terms of the degree
of achievement of each goal. A detailed analysis is performed, enabling the decisionmaker
to comprehend the goals interlinkage based on the degree of achievements
and deterioration concerning the other goals.