<p>The main difficulties involved in monitoring research within aquatic environments are numerous and interconnected. Among the most significant obstacles are the high economic cost, the need for a comprehensive database, the discrepancies between the standards employed in evaluations, and the differences between expert comments. In environmental monitoring studies, this presents a significant difficulty; nevertheless, in other research applications, decision-makers generally use multi-criteria decision-making methods in such scenarios, particularly when faced with difficulties in reaching a conclusive judgment or rationalizing their preferences. In this study, we propose a modified VIKOR method, representing a novel station selection approach. To achieve this objective, physicochemical variables collected from three distinct stations along Boğacık Creek in Giresun and monitored over a 12-month period were used as time series. In the VIKOR method, expert opinion is used to assign the weights in the literature. However, the proposed modified VIKOR method uses principal component analysis to determine the weights for the first time. The findings are compatible with conventional evaluations to determine the best station, specifically the station presenting the highest water quality, as determined by the physicochemical variables collected from Boğacık Creek. In conclusion, the modified VIKOR technique showed effective performance in station selection, an important problem in aquatic ecosystems.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>