Editorial for the special issue: “Novel Solutions and Novel Approaches in Operational Research”

This special issue of Business Systems Research (SI of the BSR) is co-published by the Slovenian Society INFORMATIKA – Section for Operational Research (SSI -SOR) and highlights recent advances in Operations Research and Management Science (OR /MS), with a focus on linking OR /MS with other areas of quantitative and qualitative methods in a multidisciplinary framework. Eleven papers selected for this SI of the BSR present improvements and new techniques (methodology) in Operations Research (OR) and their application in various fields of economics, business, spatial science, smart mobility, higher education, human resources, environment, agriculture and social networks

Editorial for the special issue: “Novel Solutions or Novel Approaches in Operational Research”

This special issue of Business Systems Research (SI of BSR) is co-published by the Slovenian Society INFORMATIKA – Section for Operational Research (SSI – SOR) and highlights recent advances in operations research and management science (OR/MS), with a focus on linking OR/MS with other areas of quantitative and qualitative methods in a multidisciplinary framework. Nine papers that have been selected for this SI of BSR present improvements and new techniques (methodology) in operations research (OR) and their use in various fields of business, economics, spatial science and location

Editorial for the Special Issue: "Novel Solutions and Novel Approaches in Operational Research"

This special issue of Business Systems Research (SI of the BSR) is being co-published by the Slovenian Society INFORMATIKA – Section for Operational Research (SSI -SOR). It focuses on recent advances in Operations Research and Management Science (OR / MS), with a particular emphasis on linking OR / MS with other areas of quantitative and qualitative methods in the context of a multidisciplinary framework. The ten papers that were chosen for this Special Issue of the BSR present advancements and new techniques (methodology) in the field of Operations Research (OR), as well as their application in a variety of fields, including risk management, mathematical programming, game theory, gravity, spatial analysis, logistics, circular economy, continuous improvement, sustainability, e-commerce, forecasting, Gaussian processes, linear regression, multi-layer perceptron, and machine learning

Current Issues of Water Management

There is an estimated 1.4 billion km3 of water in the world but only approximately three percent (39 million km3) of it is available as fresh water. Moreover, most of this fresh water is found as ice in the arctic regions, deep groundwater or atmospheric water. Since water is the source of life and essential for all life on the planet, the use of this resource is a highly important issue. "Water management" is the general term used to describe all the activities that manage the optimum use of the world's water resources. However, only a few percent of the fresh water available can be subjected to water management. It is still an enormous amount, but what's unique about water is that unlike other resources, it is irreplaceable. This book provides a general overview of various topics within water management from all over the world. The topics range from politics, current models for water resource management of rivers and reservoirs to issues related to agriculture. Water quality problems, the development of water demand and water pricing are also addressed. The collection of contributions from outstanding scientists and experts provides detailed information about different topics and gives a general overview of the current issues in water management. The book covers a wide range of current issues, reflecting on current problems and demonstrating the complexity of water management

A New Method for Analysis of Complex Decision Making Problems Based on the Analytic Network Process and the Social Network Analysis

Prilikom odlučivanja potrebno je modelirati utjecaje (zavisnosti) medu elementima strukture problema odlučivanja kako bismo obuhvatili što više informacija o problemu odlučivanja i donijeli ispravnu odluku. Medu metodama za všekriterijsko odlučivanje tek pokoja prilikom izračuna težina kriterija u obzir uzima utjecaje. Te metode su vrlo kompleksne pa se u praksi rijetko koriste, a najpoznatija medu njima jest ANP. U istraživanju ovog doktorskog rada razvijena je nova metoda za višekriterijsko odlučivanje i analizu složenih problema odlučivanja koja je temeljena na analitičkom mrežnom procesu (ANP) i analizi društvenih mreža (PageRank centralitetu). Metoda se zove SNAP (engl. social network analytic process). Prilikom izrade nove metode korišten je pristup znanosti o dizajniranju. Osim na teorijskoj razini i na studijama slučajeva, nova metoda je provjerena softverskom simulacijom, usporedujući rezultate primjene metode s rezultatima primjene referentne metode, metoda ANP. Nova metoda ima nižu korisničku složenost od metode ANP što je čini jednostavnijom za primjenu. Prilikom izračuna težina kriterija, nova metoda u obzir uzima važnost kriterija za cilj odlučivanja kao i utjecaje medu kriterijima. Nova metoda ne relativizira problem odlučivanja po elementima (stupcima matrice utjecaja) kao metoda ANP. Može se primijeniti i u situacijama kada alternative nisu poznate (što je bila poteškoća u metodi ANP). Sukladno zadnjoj fazi korištenog istraživačkog pristupa, nova metoda je diseminirana kroz znanstvene radove u časopisima i na konferencijama.When making decisions, it is necessary to model influences (dependencies) between decision-making elements to cover as much information about the decision-making problem as possible and make the right decision. Among multi-criteria decision-making methods, only a few of them take into account the influences between the elements when determining the criteria weights. Those methods are very complex and are rarely used in practice. Among them, the most well-known method is the Analytic Network Process (ANP). A new method for multi-criteria decision-making and analysis of complex decision-making has been developed in the research of this PhD thesis. It is based on the ANP and the Social Network Analysis (SNA) (PageRank centrality). The method is called SNAP (Social Network Analytic Process). When designing a new method, the design science research process was used. In addition to theoretical analysis and case studies, the new method was evaluated by software simulation, comparing the results of the method with the results of the reference method, ANP. The new method has a lower user complexity than the ANP which makes it simpler to apply. When calculating the weights of the criteria, the new method takes into account the importance of criteria for decision-making goal as well as the influences between the criteria. The new method does not relativise the decision-making problem by elements (columns of impact matrix) as an ANP. It can also be applied in situations where alternatives are not known (which was a problem in the ANP). According to the last phase of the research approach, the new method was disseminated through scientific papers in journals and conferences