Efficient Decision Support Systems

This series is directed to diverse managerial professionals who are leading the transformation of individual domains by using expert information and domain knowledge to drive decision support systems (DSSs). The series offers a broad range of subjects addressed in specific areas such as health care, business management, banking, agriculture, environmental improvement, natural resource and spatial management, aviation administration, and hybrid applications of information technology aimed to interdisciplinary issues. This book series is composed of three volumes: Volume 1 consists of general concepts and methodology of DSSs; Volume 2 consists of applications of DSSs in the biomedical domain; Volume 3 consists of hybrid applications of DSSs in multidisciplinary domains. The book is shaped upon decision support strategies in the new infrastructure that assists the readers in full use of the creative technology to manipulate input data and to transform information into useful decisions for decision makers

Decision-support for decommissioning offshore platforms.

An estimated 2,500 offshore decommissioning projects are expected to be completed between 2018 and 2040 with significant accompanying challenges. In this research, a decision model for decommissioning offshore platforms is developed. The decommissioning decision model (DDM) aids logical determination of the optimal option for decommissioning a platform through a multicriteria decision analysis of the considered options with respect to safety, cost, environmental impact, technical feasibility, and public perception. It synthesizes information about a platform's features with expert opinion to identify the best option for decommissioning the platform from a list of available options. It also facilitates the progressive integration of historical data to replace subjective human opinion and improve the quality of decision-making as this becomes available. A case-study approach was used to demonstrate the DDM's applicability with information from an industry survey of decommissioning practitioners. Five decommissioning options were considered for the case study platform, and these were evaluated with a hybrid of Likert scale and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Using this technique, the optimal option for decommissioning the case study was determined with a 60% efficiency savings in time taken to complete the analysis as compared to the traditional AHP process. Results showed that partial removal is the preferred option for the case study, and the platform features with high relevance to options selection are substructure weight, water depth and age. Moreso, respondents from the North Sea were observed to be more averse to leaving platform materials in place as compared to people from Offshore USA, Africa, and Asian Seas. These findings were seen to agree with literature and industry practice through a comprehensive validation process. Thus, evidencing the DDM's flexibility and robustness and making a case for its industry adoption. After its validation, the DDM's capability to support integration of historical data was investigated with the aid of a prediction model for estimating the costs of using different options for decommissioning offshore platforms. This costing model was developed by applying machine learning regression to historical decommissioning cost data. The model predicts decommissioning options costs for five different scenarios with reasonable accuracy as indicated by an r-squared value of 0.935, implying that it is reliable for predicting decommissioning costs. It was used to predict decommissioning options costs for the case study. These costs were then integrated into the DDM to replace the input data for cost criterion as obtained from the survey. The models developed in this research improve upon the existing works in decommissioning optimisation. Industry adoption of the decision model will result to significant reduction of time, resources and efforts spent in decision-making during decommissioning. By acting as an unbiased basis for justifying the choice of a decommissioning option for an offshore asset, the DDM mitigates the traditional conflict between stakeholders of decommissioning projects. The costing model aids early estimation of decommissioning costs for budgeting, asset trading and other preliminary cost evaluation purposes prior to detailed engineering cost estimation. Therefore, both models represent a significant contribution towards the advancement of the current offshore decommissioning practice

Measuring visual attributes for assessing visual conflicts in urban environments

The visual relationships between a proposed development, such as a new high rise building or telecommunication tower, and its existing urban setting have become increasingly controversial for local residents, urban planners and landscape architects. Visual amenity and character are one of the most contentious issues in conflicts that go to court. This research provides a review of Planning and Environment court cases from 2000 to 2012 in Brisbane to identify different types of conflicts within the city. Taking four case studies from this database, visual amenity conflicts are analysed and three quantifiable methods for comparative analysis are proposed to assess conflict cases with greater reliability in the courtroom

Fuzzy expert systems in civil engineering

Imperial Users onl

Evaluating ethics in planning : a heuristic framework for a just city : a thesis presented for partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Resource and Environmental Planning at Massey University, Manawatū

Many urban planners are engaged with the idea that cities should be ‘Just’: that is, planning should facilitate good outcomes for the people who choose to live and work in cities, particularly the least advantaged. The concept of a just city is an evolving planning paradigm which focuses on the needs of the least advantaged. This thesis revisits existing ideas of what constitutes a just city and explores why planners should care about the effects of ethics on its realisation. It extends conceptual understandings of what constitutes a ‘just city’, through a focus on care ethics and kindness. Then, by developing and applying the Just City Plan Evaluation Approach (JCPEA), it presents a heuristic framework to surface embedded ethics invoked in planning policy. Ethics in urban planning have not been systematically considered in practice for decades. This inattention can be partially attributed to the distancing of planners from their role as public interest advocates, the multiplicity of competing views about what ethics should or could inform planning policy, and the lack of a systematic, formal approach to evaluate them. Yet normative views of what constitutes right and wrong are central to theoretical debates about planning and are used to inform arguments for or against policy. For decades, ethics of justice have dominated these debates. However, increasing calls for virtue ethics to complement justice ethics present an opportunity for the planning profession to reimagine its role as advocates for the public interest. The JCPEA is based on a theoretical understanding of: (a) theories of justice (b) care ethics, and (c) Fainstein’s concept of the just city and her three just city principles (equity, diversity, and democracy). It enables ethical arguments in planning discourse to be evaluated against four criteria – extent, focus, merit, and power, using both political discourse analysis and a Foucauldian-type discourse analysis. The application of this dual-method approach, to a suite of planning documents from Auckland, New Zealand, proved useful in identifying and evaluating ethics and power in planning. The current intention to replace the Resource Management Act 1991, provides an opportune time to begin a conversation about ethics in plans, to focus on particular ethics, to address the silences, ruptures, and subsequent power imbalances in planning discourse, and to take steps not just towards the realisation of just city ethics and principles in practice, but also to reflect on planning more broadly. Drawing on and extending existing just city narratives, this thesis posits kindness, a practical response to the needs of others, as a principle to invoke in planning policy. This principle of kindness is grounded in an ethic of care, but also sits within an emerging post-secular and intersectional approach to address injustice. It is an ethic that was first signaled by New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern in a speech to the UN General Assembly in 2018, when she called for ‘kindness’ as a means of pursuing peace, prosperity, and fairness, and which subsequently became part of the New Zealand response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Invoking kindness represents a step-change in ethics informing government policy and was a signal to the world that there is another way of governing. It is also an ethic that lends itself to planning practice. This thesis argues that exposing and discussing the ethical basis of planning discourse using this heuristic framework provides the means to give agency to planners to act as non-neutral arbiters of the public interest, and as parrhesiastes focussing on the needs of the least advantaged

Terrorism affected regions : the impact of different supply chain risk management strategies on financial performance

Purpose: Current geo-political events, such as terrorism and climatologic adversities, have highlighted the potential risks to supply chains (SCs), and their disastrous financial impacts on supply chains. Within supply chains, risk management plays a major role in successfully managing business processes in a proactive manner and ensuring the business continuity and financial performance (FP). The purpose of this study is to explore the supply chain risks and strategies in a terrorism-affected region (TAR), and to examine supply chain risk management (SCRM) strategies and their impacts on FP, including the war on terror (WoT) and its impacts on the local logistics industry. In addition, this study investigates the knowledge gaps in the published research on terrorism-related risk in supply chains, and develops a framework of strategies and effective decision-making to enable practitioners to address terrorism-related risks for SCRM.Methodology: The study initially adopts a novel combination of triangulated methods comprising a systematic literature review, text mining, and network analysis. Additionally, risk identification, risk analysis and strategies scrutiny are conducted by using semi-structured interviews and Qualitative Content Analysis in a TAR. A model of strategies was developed from a review of existing studies and interviews. The model is empirically tested with survey data of 80 firms using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA).Findings: This study reveals a number of key themes in the field of SCRM linked with terrorism. It identifies relevant mitigation strategies and practices for effective strategic decision-making. This subsequently leads to development of a strategic framework, consisting of strategies and effective-decision making practices to address terrorism-related risks that affect SCRM. It also identifies key the knowledge gaps in the literature and explores the main contributions by disciplines (e.g., business schools, engineering, and maritime institutions) and countries.Further, it identifies the SC risks in a TAR, which consist of value streams: disruption risks, operational risks and financial risks. Among these, the emerging risks emcompass terrorist groups’ demand for protection money, smog, paedophilia and the use of containers to block protesters. To mitigate these risks, firms frequently implemented the following strategies: information sharing, SC coordination, risk sharing, SC finance, SC security and facilitation payment. Five strategies out of the six (except facilitation payment) are able to lead to FP, confirmed quantitatively as well. There are various equifinal configurations of SCRM strategies leading to FP. In addition, information sharing acts as a moderator in the relationship between SC security and FP. SC coordination has a mediating role in the relationship between information sharing and SC security capabilities and FP.Research limitations/Contribution: The sample size a limitation of the study, meaning that the findings should be generalized with caution. The most valuable implications is the identification of configurations of strategies that can help managers and policymakers in implementing those findings.Originality/value: No empirical study was found in the SCRM literature that specifically investigates the relationships between the identified strategies and FP with fsQCA, in particular in a TAR context; this study thus fills an important gap in the SCRM literature and contributes empirically

Knowledge management through storytelling and narrative – semiotics of strategy

This study reviews knowledge management as a construct for analysing strategy discourse; identifying key strategy artefacts; and how they may be interpreted by key stakeholders engaged in strategy discourse. The context of this study is set initially in three case studies that illuminate the nature of storytelling and narrative as a strategy discourse. In seeking to clarify the nature of storytelling and narrative and the import of social architecture, further enquiry was required. The importance of storytelling and narrative in the development of strategy is recognised. In developing the notion of strategy as a people orientated construct, this study provides a theoretical foundation for the determination of how actors in strategy may take a position on strategy.To understand the nature of strategy discourse, this study reviews the field of semiotics, as a form of social constructivism, and its importance in revealing the way artefacts in strategy discourse may be interpreted as it regulates behaviour towards establishing a position in relation to strategy. Some readers of strategy have flirted with the notion of semiotic theory in the field of strategy discourse, but the flirtation is fleeting and does not attempt to read strategy from a semiotic locus. In this study, the focus is on the way strategy conversation changes as the nature of the story is changed. This locus revealed a knowledge gap in current literature and therefore the relevance of this study. The mixed methodology in this study draws upon existing semiotic theory to explicate strategy as a story of intent; with a focus on the semiotic components; the artefacts; and the vocabulary of strategy discourse that so determine how actors in strategy take a position on strategy. This study uses three case studies as the genesis for this investigation, rooted in the academic fieldof knowledge management to set the context of this study on Semiotics of Strategy. These studies are practice based and define an organisational model of the social interactions affecting knowledge transfer within organisations arising from problems of knowledge location, knowledge retention; and knowledge transfer. The research framework chosen to achieve the research aims of this study, includes using Q Methodology,and the complexity of the Q Sort data demanded a logical and consistent analysis of the data to triangulate a semiotic view of strategy discourse. This ontological approach captures the epistemological characteristics of strategy artefactsinterpreted by the Senior Management Team, as actors, at Solent University. This research project underpins the value of a semiotic view as a diagnostic tool to determine the position that actors take in the context of existing strategy discourse. From an etymological perspective this study posits a typology based upon a semiotic framework to help diagnose how actors take a position based on their interpretation of key strategy artefacts; and to understand the nature of interpretation as a means of intervention by which the strategy narrative may be reshaped.What is of interest is how storytelling and narrative empowers individuals as they seek to disseminate and transfer knowledge from the past in order to shape the future. This study reveals the inflection that individuals may exert on knowledge artefacts; and the motivation of those who trade in knowledge assets, through storytelling and narrative, as players in the game of strategy search for coping strategies in an attempt to adapt to the new reality. Ultimately this study provides new insight into the power of semiotics in the early stage; and constructivism in the later stages of the knowledge management continuum; and describes how participants in strategy adopt a position on strategy