Abstract: A life-cycle-evaluation-based multicriteria planning model was developed for the Marcellus shale gas supply system to examine three of its component factors (economic benefit, water resource allocation, and greenhouse gas emission reduction) in two scenarios (high and low drilling production output). The research results show that gas output in the planned lifecycle for the high and low-production scenarios is 882.31 bcf and 472.40 bcf, respectively; the water to be consumed during the lifecycle is essentially for hydraulic fracturing and terminal electricity generation; wastewater treatment will be essentially realized by the on-site equipment, with the vast majority of the production wastewater to be recycled. The system's average greenhouse gas emission, economic benefit, and water consumption per unit of electric power will be 6.00 kg/MJ, 0.48 MJ^-1, and 0.10 gal/MJ, respectively. As supported by a multicriteria decision analysis using the TOPSIS method, the multicriteria planning avoids the strong bias of traditional single-criterion planning models and provides decision makers with information about the advantages and disadvantages of different planning models.

Key words: shale gas, water resources allocation, greenhouse gas, multicriteria planning, multicriteria decision making