A multicriteria facility location model for municipal solid waste management in North Greece

Up to 2002, Hellenic Solid Waste Management (SWM) policy specified that each of the country's 54 prefectural governments plan its own SWM system. After 2002, this authority was shifted to the country's 13 regions entirely. In this paper, we compare and contrast regional and prefectural SWM planning in Central Macedonia. To design the prefectural plan, we assume that each prefecture must be self-sufficient, and we locate waste facilities in each prefecture. In contrast, in the regional plan, we assume cooperation between prefectures and locate waste facilities to serve the entire region. We present a new multicriteria mixed-integer linear programming model to solve the location-allocation problem for municipal SWM at the regional level. We apply the lexicographic minimax approach to obtain a "fair" nondominated solution, a solution with all normalized objectives as equal to one another as possible. A solution to the model consists of locations and technologies for transfer stations, material recovery facilities, incinerators and sanitary landfills, as well as the waste flow between these locations. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Municipal solid waste management system: decision support through systems analysis

Thesis submitted to the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental EngineeringThe present study intends to show the development of systems analysis model applied to solid waste management system, applied into AMARSUL, a solid waste management system responsible for the management of municipal solid waste produced in Setúbal peninsula, Portugal. The model developed intended to promote sustainable decision making, covering the four columns: technical, environmental, economic and social aspects. To develop the model an intensive literature review have been conducted. To simplify the discussion, the spectrum of these systems engineering models and system assessment tools was divided into two broadly-based domains associated with fourteen categories although some of them may be intertwined with each other. The first domain comprises systems engineering models including cost-benefit analysis, forecasting analysis, simulation analysis, optimization analysis, and integrated modeling system whereas the second domain introduces system assessment tools including management information systems, scenario development, material flow analysis, life cycle assessment (LCA), risk assessment, environmental impact assessment, strategic environmental assessment, socio-economic assessment, and sustainable assessment. The literature performed have indicated that sustainable assessment models have been one of the most applied into solid waste management, being methods like LCA and optimization modeling (including multicriteria decision making(MCDM)) also important systems analysis methods. These were the methods (LCA and MCDM) applied to compose the system analysis model for solid waste. The life cycle assessment have been conducted based on ISO 14040 family of norms; for multicriteria decision making there is no procedure neither guidelines, being applied analytic hierarchy process (AHP) based Fuzzy Interval technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Multicriteria decision making have included several data from life cycle assessment to construct environmental, social and technical attributes, plus economic criteria obtained from collected data from stakeholders involved in the study. The results have shown that solutions including anaerobic digestion in mechanical biological treatment plant plus anaerobic digestion of biodegradable municipal waste from source separation, with energetic recovery of refuse derived fuel (RDF) and promoting pays-as-you-throw instrument to promote recycling targets compliance would be the best solutions to implement in AMARSUL system. The direct burning of high calorific fraction instead of RDF has not been advantageous considering all criteria, however, during LCA, the results were the reversal. Also it refers that aerobic mechanical biological treatment should be closed.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - SFRH/BD/27402/200

Geological Approach for Landfill Site Selection: A Case Study of Vršac Municipality, Serbia

One of the biggest problems of environmental protection in Serbia is landfills. It is often a case that the economic interests are predominant in the landfill sitting; thus, most landfills are not located according to standards. This study shows that detailed geological data assets combined with geographical modeling represents a reliable way to define and locate the landfill site. Geological evaluation is discussed in detail with regard to bedrock lithology, quaternary geology, geological structure, hydrogeology, surface runoff patterns, and topography. An approach combining geographical modeling and geology is presented for determining the sites suitable for landfill selection with respect to their geologic favorability. As opposed to numerous research papers on this topic, in the methodological procedure, special importance is devoted to the analysis of the geological criteria. In this way, it is significantly easier to determine the landfill area with the best characteristics due to geological structure and lithology which unequivocally and precisely indicates inadequate territories for candidate sites. The multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) is based on geological criteria upgraded with road (primary, residential, secondary, and tertiary), settlements network, railway, airport, infrastructure, land use, hypsometry aquifer, wetland, and surface water. The score values are divided into four classes, i.e., restricted areas, suitable but avoid, suitable, and most suitable. Combining geographical modeling with geology led to the recognition of two locations to be most favorable for landfill site located in the most suitable area, which represents 25.3% of the study area

Multicriterial analysis in selecting a waste management system in region

Introduction. The implementation of the European Union regulations into Polish law resulted in the establishment of such methods of dealing with waste in order to comply with the requirements of environmental protection and waste management plans. Each time the construction of another plant is a social and economic problem, therefore, the enhancement of the form and shape of such a system requires justification. The basic task of municipal waste management is to create technical conditions for the collection, transport, recovery, recycling and disposal of waste. The technical correctness of the system and the scope of the adverse impact resulting in lowering ecological, aesthetic and cultural values ​​will decide about its capital expenditure and operating costs. The large number of imposed, overlapping, and often conflicting goals means that finding a favourable solution and decisively accepting it is a very difficult task, often requiring a compromise. The solution will be based on searching for the shape of a waste management system that, under existing restrictions, will ensure the best possible implementation of specific objectives under the specific conditions of the region. Aim and tasks. The aim of the article is to present the multicriteria analysis method as a tool for analysis and selection of the waste management system in the region. In the multicriteria analysis for the selection of the most beneficial solution, it is necessary to find a function integrating individual objectives into one overall assessment. However, it is possible to choose only one solution - a compromise, and then a consistent implementation of the tasks of the chosen scenario. The presented analysis presents an example for a large city in Poland - Krakow. Research results. The result of the presented calculations is the presentation of the assessment method for various waste management scenarios in the technical, socio-political and economic aspects. Such an assessment allows for an objective comparison between the presented waste management scenarios. Conclusions. The result of the presented methodology of multi-criteria evaluation and analysis is the selection of the most advantageous solution of the waste management system. The presented system was assessed in a multi-aspect manner and the result allows to indicate the best solution in the presented assumptions and limitations. The method is universal and can be used for other waste management and environmental management systems

Identifying the optimal strategy for suppliers’ involvement in product design: A case study

In order to increase efficiency and improve competitiveness, manufacturers around the globe are focusing on developing their core businesses. On the other hand, standard activities of engineering are optimally accomplished outside the borders of the firm; thus outsourcing of non-core businesses has become lately a common practice. Product design is considered as one of the most important phases in a product’s life cycle, since the majority of most critical decisions in terms of products’ overall performance are considered during the Research & Development (R&D) phase. Involving suppliers in a firm’s R&D offers significant benefits in various directions, such as feasibility, practicability, sustainability, competitiveness and innovativeness. However, selecting the optimal outsourcing strategy is not an easy decision. On the contrary, it is most challenging since it encompasses a number of different and in many cases mutually conflicting criteria. This paper presents a methodological approach for the selection of the optimal outsourcing strategy for a manufacturer’s R&D. The methodology is based on outranking multicriteria methods and more specifically ELECTRE III. The approach is illustrated and validated through a real world case study of a Greek olive oil producer.   Keywords: product design; suppliers; R&D; outsourcing strategy; multicriteria analysis, ELECTRE II

OPTIMIZATION OF MUNICIPAL WASTE COLLECTION POINTS IN YOGYAKARTA CITY- INDONESIA

Uneven capacity utilization seems to be a constant problem in Yogyakarta waste management system. The problem is worsen by lack of a decision tool to evaluate the system and formulate appropriate strategy.This present study therefore aims atevaluatingthe performance of existing waste management systemandoptimizingmunicipal waste collection points. A mathematical model of MixedIntegerLinearProgramming was developed and implemented inLingo 9. Findings show that the current waste management system is associated to daily total cost of about IDR 10 million and capacity utilization of 88%. Scenarios are developed to examine the optimized system. Findings suggest that current municipal waste can be handled with 35 collection points involving 15 depots and 20 containers. The optimized system is corresponding to IDR 6.3 millionand the capacity utilization of 99%, which makes a reduced cost of 37% and an increasedcapacity utilization of 13% in comparison to the performance of the existing system. Based on sensitivity analysis,volume of municipal waste appears to be influential factor toward the total cost and network structure. Limitation of the model is also discussed.

Assessment of hybrid model for sustainable sanitary landfill siting using geospatial and geotechnical techniques

One of the major challenges in waste management is the issue of selecting an appropriate site for sustainable sanitary landfilling for the disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) due to the complexity of various factors that must be considered such as environmental, economic, and social. Therefore, this research developed an innovative hybrid model based on the integration of geographic information systems (GIS), multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and geotechnical technique following landfill siting guidelines and regulations. Therefore, in order to have a sustainable sanitary landfill site selection model, there is a need to evaluate geospatial and geotechnical properties of the area where the potential landfill is to be constructed. The research included identification criteria of siting sanitary landfill such as water bodies, geology, soils, elevation, slope, residential areas, archeological sites, airports, population, roads, railways, infrastructures, and land use. Due to the large volume of spatial data, GIS was used to manage, evaluate, and process these data. In addition, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was applied to solve decision making problems where multiple alternatives and competing objectives are involved. Criteria maps obtained for this research were prepared in the GIS environment followed by the criteria weights obtained from AHP pairwise comparison matrix and normalization. Next, the weighted criteria were evaluated and overlaid through GIS software ArcGIS 10.3. Then, map production of the most suitable sites for sanitary landfill was carried out using QGIS. Finally, a hybrid model was developed by integrating geospatial and geotechnical techniques. The results from the GIS and AHP revealed the three most suitable sites for sustainable sanitary landfill site selection. This was further examined using geotechnical criteria, namely permeability, volumetric shrinkage and shear strength to obtain the best site. Additionally, computer modeling through digital image technique (using Surfer and Matlab software) was used to validate the model. The model developed from the results of this research can be used as a guide for sustainable sanitary landfilling in developed and developing countries