A reusable iterative optimization software library to solve combinatorial problems with approximate reasoning

Real world combinatorial optimization problems such as scheduling are typically too complex to solve with exact methods. Additionally, the problems often have to observe vaguely specified constraints of different importance, the available data may be uncertain, and compromises between antagonistic criteria may be necessary. We present a combination of approximate reasoning based constraints and iterative optimization based heuristics that help to model and solve such problems in a framework of C++ software libraries called StarFLIP++. While initially developed to schedule continuous caster units in steel plants, we present in this paper results from reusing the library components in a shift scheduling system for the workforce of an industrial production plant.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures; for a project overview see http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/proj/StarFLIP

The Discharge Permit Program Under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 - Improvement of Water Quality Through the Regulation of Discharges from Industrial Facilities

There has been a significant growth of legislation designed to improve the quality of life in American by regulating the way industrial facilities interact with their environments. The new laws created by this legislation has given the federal government significant responsibilities in many areas formerly regulated by the individual states. This change in regulation is apt to impose stress on the modern industrialized society of America as a result of the impossibility to predict the overall effects of particular actions on the total system. Examining the nature of the actions and the probable direct interactions with the system, one may be able to gain insights into its effects. The Discharge Permit Program of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act is examined closer to determine its impact on components of the industrial ecosystem. The means adopted to restore the integrity of the Nation\u27s waters have changed the regulatory climate and the article considers the prospects for a workable and effective permit program under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System

Measuring the Public Realm: A Case Study

Urban planners are vitally interested in the role, meaning, and use of public space. The recent trend toward building neighborhoods and towns according to the doctrine of new urbanism - a movement which seeks to promote sense of community by adhering to certain principles about the physical arrangement of space - brings the debate about the use of public space and its effect on social life to the forefront. New urbanism stresses the need to resurrect a more civic focus in town planning principles via the provision of public space ( Kunstler, 1996 ; Hochstein, 1994), a view based on the premise that the value of public gathering places in generating a sense of community is paramount (Boyer, 1994 ; Hayden

Pedestrian routes and accessibility to urban services: an urban rhythmic analysis on people's behaviour before and during the COVID-19.

The emergency of COVID-19 changed the face of our cities, preventing most of the urban activities, limiting travels on large, medium and short distances and drastically reducing the number and the intensity of social relationships. The restrictive measures, imposed to the entire population, sensibly affected the experience of our built environment as well as the assets of pedestrian and cycling network that lead to the achievement of essential urban services. On one hand these limitations drastically imposed a change in the people's habits who spend now more time walking and cycling in absence of any other entertainments; on the other, they have revealed the need of a reorganisation of pedestrians and cycling paths as well as of open spaces. The morphology of these urban spaces are unable to cope with the current social-distancing situation and to adapt to a “new different routine”. Local decision makers face with a new demand of urban space for pedestrian and cycling accessibility which have been so far unexplored. In order to contribute to future planning decisions, the document proposes a comparison between pedestrian flows and accessibility to urban services during the blockade, taking two districts in the city of Aberdeen as a case study. By adopting an urban rhythmic analysis, the selected areas were monitored on a weekly basis during different periods during the days in order to quantify the intensity of the user, the available services and their opening and closing times also change the date obtained from rhythmic analysis they are associated in a GIS environment in order to classify urban areas. Drawn on the concepts of new social distancing and switch of life/working habits as main factors for redesigning the pedestrian and cycling urban spaces, the paper proposes, as a conclusion, specific urban design recommendations in order to deal with emergency situations, such as an outbreak movement limitation

A conceptual procedural framework for effective scheduling to enhance efficient use of construction resources on the jobsite

Selection of construction methods, scheduling, site layout and component procurement arrangement affect efficiency of operations on the jobsite. Efficiency has been previously measured by such parameters as; budget, on time completion and meeting specification standards. Little attention has been given to the interim processes which create these. Efficiency in man- and machine-hour management may translate to cost and time gains and enhanced quality. The study reported recognises that there are numerous aspects to the question of efficiency of operations. To focus the study and narrow the scope to a manageable size, the issues of efficiency that can be addressed in the scheduling process are those considered. Extensive and thorough literature search identified guidelines for effective construction scheduling. Empirical data were collected following these guidelines to develop a scheduling procedure aimed at making the process more effective and which may enhance efficient use of construction resources on the jobsite. The developed framework show that activity criticality based on time analysis alone is a necessary condition but not usually sufficient to declare an activity critical. Other tasks not on the critical path which have very high delay potential should be considered. Therefore though the study does not out rightly refute the idea of criticality based on time analysis alone, it adds to it that if criticality means those things that should be done so as to progress the works to a scheduled finish, criticality should be re-assessed to include several other tasks not hitherto identified on the critical path

A design navigator to guide the transition towards environmentally benign product/service systems based on LCA results

With rising societal demands for a transition towards a circular economy and intensifying market competition, manufacturing companies are increasingly seeking alternative ways to design and develop their industrial offerings with reduced environmental impacts and increased value. A possible solution lies in designing environmentally benign product/service systems (PSSs), which often requires the redesign of existing offerings in industrial practice. This article presents a design navigator named lifecycle-oriented function deployment (LFD), which builds on the widely utilized life cycle assessment (LCA) and quality function deployment (QFD) to support the redesign of existing industrial offerings towards PSSs with reduced environmental impacts. LFD includes a novel procedure to derive environmental requirements using LCA and to prioritize them along with customer requirements. It introduces a list of generic service design characteristics to support service design. It also contains a QFD-based procedure to identify design parameters (characteristics and components for both products and services) that have a relatively strong influence on the prioritized requirements. Further, a novel way is proposed to capture specific product and service design characteristics that are feasible to integrate and potentially have a rather strong influence on the requirements when combined. LFD is subsequently applied in a case study to conceptually redesign an existing offering in a manufacturing company. The application is then assessed using an LCA and a semi-structured interview with the users of LFD. The LCA results indicate significant reductions in environmental impacts of the redesigned concepts, and the interview revealed benefits for the practitioners who used LFD

Designing the venue logistics management operations for a World Exposition

World Expositions, due to their size and peculiar features, pose a number of logistics challenges. This paper aims at developing a design framework for the venue logistics management (VLM) operations to replenish food products to the event site, through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. First, an in-depth interview methodology, combined with the outcomes of a literature review, is adopted for defining the key variables for the tactical and operational set-up of the VLM system. Second, a quantitative approach is developed to define the necessary logistics resources. The framework is then applied to the case of Milan 2015 World Exposition. It is the first time that such a design framework for a World Exposition is presented: the originality of this research lies in the proposal of a systematic approach that adds to the experiential practices constituting the current body of knowledge on event logistics

A new flood risk assessment framework for evaluating the effectiveness of policies to improve urban flood resilience

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record.To better understand the impacts of flooding such that authorities can plan for adapting measures to cope with future scenarios, we have developed a modified Drivers-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework to allow policy makers to evaluate strategies for improving flood resilience in cities. We showed that this framework proved an effective approach to assessing and improving urban flood resilience, albeit with some limitations. This framework has difficulties in capturing all the important relationships in cities, especially with regards to feedbacks. There is therefore a need to develop improved techniques for understanding components and their relationships. While this research showed that risk assessment is possible even at the mega-city scale, new techniques will support advances in this field. Finally, a chain of models engenders uncertainties. However, the resilience approach promoted in this research, is an effective manner to work with uncertainty by providing the capacity to cope and respond to multiple scenariosResearch on the CORFU (Collaborative research on flood resilience in urban areas) project was funded by the European Commission through Framework Programme 7, Grant Number 244047. The work in this paper was partially funded by the PEARL (Preparing for Extreme And Rare events in coastaL regions) project, supported by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme under Grant Agreement No 603663