A Review on the Application of Natural Computing in Environmental Informatics

Natural computing offers new opportunities to understand, model and analyze the complexity of the physical and human-created environment. This paper examines the application of natural computing in environmental informatics, by investigating related work in this research field. Various nature-inspired techniques are presented, which have been employed to solve different relevant problems. Advantages and disadvantages of these techniques are discussed, together with analysis of how natural computing is generally used in environmental research.Comment: Proc. of EnviroInfo 201

Improving the resilience of post-disaster water distribution systems using a dynamic optimization framework

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Improving the resilience of water distribution systems (WDSs) to handle natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes) is a critical step towards sustainable urban water management. This requires the water utility to be able to respond quickly to such disaster events and in an organized manner, to prioritize the use of available resources to restore service rapidly whilst minimizing the negative impacts. Many methods have been developed to evaluate the WDS resilience, but few efforts are made so far to improve resilience of a post-disaster WDS through identifying optimal sequencing of recovery actions. To address this gap, a new dynamic optimization framework is proposed here where the resilience of a post-disaster WDS is evaluated using six different metrics. A tailored Genetic Algorithm is developed to solve the complex optimization problem driven by these metrics. The proposed framework is demonstrated using a real-world WDS with 6,064 pipes. Results obtained show that the proposed framework successfully identifies near-optimal sequencing of recovery actions for this complex WDS. The gained insights, conditional on the specific attributes of the case study, include: (i) the near-optimal sequencing of recovery strategy heavily depends on the damage properties of the WDS, (ii) replacements of damaged elements tend to be scheduled at the intermediate-late stages of the recovery process due to their long operation time, and (iii) interventions to damaged pipe elements near critical facilities (e.g., hospitals) should not be necessarily the first priority to recover due to complex hydraulic interactions within the WDS

On green routing and scheduling problem

The vehicle routing and scheduling problem has been studied with much interest within the last four decades. In this paper, some of the existing literature dealing with routing and scheduling problems with environmental issues is reviewed, and a description is provided of the problems that have been investigated and how they are treated using combinatorial optimization tools

Design of evacuation plans for densely urbanised city centres

The high population density and tightly packed nature of some city centres make emergency planning for these urban spaces especially important, given the potential for human loss in case of disaster. Historic and recent events have made emergency service planners particularly conscious of the need for preparing evacuation plans in advance. This paper discusses a methodological approach for assisting decision-makers in designing urban evacuation plans. The approach aims at quickly and safely moving the population away from the danger zone into shelters. The plans include determining the number and location of rescue facilities, as well as the paths that people should take from their building to their assigned shelter in case of an occurrence requiring evacuation. The approach is thus of the location–allocation–routing type, through the existing streets network, and takes into account the trade-offs among different aspects of evacuation actions that inevitably come up during the planning stage. All the steps of the procedure are discussed and systematised, along with computational and practical implementation issues, in the context of a case study – the design of evacuation plans for the historical centre of an old European city

유전 알고리즘을 이용한 다중스케일/다목적 공간계획 최적화모델 구축

학위논문 (박사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 환경대학원 협동과정 조경학전공, 2019. 2. 이동근.공간계획 과정에서 다양한 이해관계자와 결부된 목표와 제약 요건을 만족시키는 것은 복잡한 비선형적 문제로서 해결하기 어려운 것으로 알려져 왔다. 그러나 최근 이러한 문제에 유전 알고리즘 (genetic algorithms), 담금질 기법 (simulated annealing), 개미 군집 최적화 (ant colony optimization) 등의 다목적 최적화 알고리즘이 응용되고 있으며, 관련 연구 역시 급증하고 있다. 이 중 유전 알고리즘은 공간 최적화 부문에 가장 빈도 높게 적용된 최적화 알고리즘으로 exploration과 exploitation의 균형으로 합리적인 시간 내에 충분히 좋은 계획안을 제시할 수 있다. 그러나 공간 최적화 연구가 보여준 좋은 성과에도 불구하고 대부분의 연구가 특정 용도 혹은 시설의 배치에 집중되어 있으며, 기후변화 적응, 재해 관리, 그린인프라 계획과 같은 최근의 환경 이슈를 다룬 사례는 매우 미흡하다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 유전 알고리즘과 비지배 정렬 유전 알고리즘 (non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II)에 기초하여 기후변화 적응, 재해 관리, 도시의 녹지 계획 등과 같은 환경 이슈를 공간계획에 반영할 수 있는 일련의 공간 최적화 모델을 제시하였다. 개별 환경 이슈에 따라 공간 해상도, 목적, 제약요건이 다르게 구성하였으며, 공간적 범위가 좁아지고 공간해상도는 높아지는 순서대로 나열하였다. 논문의 첫번째 장에서는 행정구역 도 규모 (province scale, 해상도 1㎢)에서 미래의 기후변화에 적응하기 위한 토지이용 시나리오를 모의할 수 있는 공간 최적화 모델을 제안하였다. 기후변화가 먼 미래가 아닌, 현재 이미 진행되고 있으며 관련한 다수의 피해가 관찰되고 있기 때문에 공간적 관점에서 기후변화에 대한 적응의 필요성이 지적되어 왔다. 그러나 구체적으로 기후에 대한 회복 탄력성을 향상시키기 위하여 토지이용의 공간적 구성을 어떻게 변화시켜야 할지에 대한 방법론 제시는 미흡하다. 지역계획에서 기후변화 영향을 고려한 토지이용 배분은 매우 유용한, 기본적인 중장기 적응 전략에 해당한다. 본 연구에서는 다목적 유전 알고리즘 (MOGA, multi-objective genetic algorithm)에 기초하여 9,982㎢에 350만의 인구가 거주하는 한국의 충청남도 및 대전광역시 일대를 대상으로 기후변화 적응을 위한 토지이용 시나리오를 제시하였다. 지역적인 기후변화 영향과 경제적 여건을 고려하여 재해 피해 및 전환량의 최소화, 벼 생산량, 종 풍부도 보전, 경제적 가치의 최대화 등 다섯 가지의 목적을 선택하였다. 각 목적 별 가중치를 변화시키며 여섯 가지 가중치 조합에 대한 17개의 파레토 최적 토지이용 시나리오를 생성하였다. 대부분의 시나리오는 정도의 차이는 있으나 현재의 토지이용에 비해 기후변화 적응 부분에서 더 좋은 퍼포먼스를 보였으므로, 기후변화에 대한 회복탄력성이 개선할 수 있을 것으로 판단하였다. 또한 공간 최적화 모델의 유연한 구조를 고려하였을 때, 지역의 실무자 역시 가중치와 같은 모델의 파라미터, 기후변화 영향 평가와 같은 입력자료를 변경함으로써 효율적으로 새로운 시나리오를 생성 및 선택하는 것이 가능할 것으로 예상하였다. 논문의 두 번째 장에서는 행정구역 군 규모 (local scale, 해상도 100m)에서 기후변화에 따른 재해 피해를 관리하기 위한 토지이용 시나리오를 모의할 수 있는 공간 최적화 모델을 제안하였다. 산악지형에서 폭우로 인한 산사태는 인명과 재산에 심각한 피해를 초래할 수 있는 것으로 알려져 있다. 더욱이 기후변화에 따른 강우의 변동성 증가로 이러한 산사태 빈도 및 강도 역시 증대될 것으로 예상된다. 일반적으로 산사태 리스크가 높은 지역을 피해 개발지역을 배치하는 것이 피해를 저감 혹은 회피할 수 있는 가장 효과적인 전략으로 알려져 있으나, 실제공간에서의 계획은 매우 복잡한 비선형의 문제로서 이것을 실현하는 데 어려움이 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 비지배 정렬 유전 알고리즘 II에 기초하여 산사태 리스크 및 전환량, 파편화의 최소화 등의 다양한 목적을 만족시키는 종합적인 토지이용 배분 계획을 제안하였다. 대상지는 2018년 동계올림픽 개최지인 한국의 평창군으로서 2006년에 산사태로 인한 대규모의 피해를 경험하였으나, 올림픽 특수 등의 개발압력으로 인한 난개발이 우려되는 지역이다. 최종적으로 한번의 모의를 통해 현재의 토지이용 보다 적어도 한가지 이상의 목적에서 좋은 퍼포먼스를 보이는 100개의 파레토 최적 계획안을 생성하였다. 또한 5개의 대표적인 계획안을 선정하여 산사태리스크 최소화와 전환량 최소화 간에 발생하는 상쇄 효과를 설명하였다. 본 연구결과는 기후변화와 관련된 공간 적응 전략의 수립, 보다 향상된 개발계획을 위한 의사결정을 효과적으로 지원할 수 있을 것으로 예상하였다. 논문의 세 번째 장에서는 블록 규모(neighborhood scale, 2m)에서 도시 내 녹지계획안을 모의할 수 있는 공간 최적화 모델을 제안하였다. 녹지 공간은 도시민의 삶의 질에 결정적인 영향을 미치기 때문에 다양한 도시 재생 및 개발계획에는 녹지와 직 간접적으로 관련된 전략이 포함된다. 녹지 공간은 도시지역 내에서 열섬 현상 완화, 유출량 저감, 생태 네트워크 증진 등 다양한 긍정적 효과가 있음이 알려져 있으나, 공간 계획의 관점에서 이러한 다양한 효과를 종합적, 정량적으로 고려된 사례는 매우 미흡하다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 비지배 정렬 유전 알고리즘 II에 기초하여 녹지의 생태적 연결성 증진, 열섬 효과 완화와 같은 다양한 효과와 설치에 따르는 비용을 종합적으로 고려하여 적절한 녹지의 유형과 위치를 결정한 녹지계획안을 제시하였다. 블록 규모의 가상의 대상지에 본 최적화 모델을 적용함으로써 30개의 파레토 최적 녹지계획안을 생성하였으며, 각 목적 간 퍼포먼스를 비교하여 녹지의 열섬 완화 효과와 생태적 연결성 증진 효과 간의 상승 관계 (synergistic relationship), 이러한 긍정적 효과와 비용 절감 간의 상쇄 효과 (trade-off relationship)를 분석하였다. 또한 다양한 계획안 중 대표적인 특성을 지니는 계획안, 다수의 계획안에서 공통적으로 녹지 설치를 위해 선택된 주요 후보지역 역시 규명하였다. 본 연구에서 제시된 모델은 계획안의 수정에서부터 정량적 평가, 계획안 선택에 이르는 일련의 긍정적인 피드백 과정을 수없이 반복함으로써 기존의 녹지계획 과정을 개선하는 데 기여할 수 있을 뿐만 아니라 모델의 결과 역시 다자간 협력적 디자인 (co-design)을 위한 초안으로서 활용될 수 있을 것으로 예상하였다.The meeting of heterogeneous goals while staying within the constraints of spatial planning is a nonlinear problem that cannot be solved by linear methodologies. Instead, this problem can be solved using multi-objective optimization algorithms such as genetic algorithms (GA), simulated annealing (SA), ant colony optimization (ACO), etc., and research related to this field has been increasing rapidly. GA, in particular, are the most frequently applied spatial optimization algorithms and are known to search for a good solution within a reasonable time period by maintaining a balance between exploration and exploitation. However, despite its good performance and applicability, it has not adequately addressed recent urgent issues such as climate change adaptation, disaster management, and green infrastructure planning. It is criticized for concentrating on only the allocation of specific land use such as urban and protected areas, or on the site selection of a specific facility. Therefore, in this study, a series of spatial optimizations are proposed to address recent urgent issues such as climate change, disaster management, and urban greening by supplementing quantitative assessment methodologies to the spatial planning process based on GA and Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA II). This optimization model needs to be understood as a tool for providing a draft plan that quantitatively meets the essential requirements so that the stakeholders can collaborate smoothly in the planning process. Three types of spatial planning optimization models are classified according to urgent issues. Spatial resolution, planning objectives, and constraints were also configured differently according to relevant issues. Each spatial planning optimization model was arranged in the order of increasing spatial resolution. In the first chapter, the optimization model was proposed to simulate land use scenarios to adapt to climate change on a provincial scale. As climate change is an ongoing phenomenon, many recent studies have focused on adaptation to climate change from a spatial perspective. However, little is known about how changing the spatial composition of land use could improve resilience to climate change. Consideration of climate change impacts when spatially allocating land use could be a useful and fundamental long-term adaptation strategy, particularly for regional planning. Here climate adaptation scenarios were identified on the basis of existing extents of three land use classes using Multi-objective Genetic Algorithms (MOGA) for a 9,982 km2 region with 3.5 million inhabitants in South Korea. Five objectives were selected for adaptation based on predicted climate change impacts and regional economic conditions: minimization of disaster damageand existing land use conversionmaximization of rice yieldprotection of high-species-richness areasand economic value. The 17 Pareto land use scenarios were generated by six weighted combinations of the adaptation objectives. Most scenarios, although varying in magnitude, showed better performance than the current spatial land use composition for all adaptation objectives, suggesting that some alteration of current land use patterns could increase overall climate resilience. Given the flexible structure of the optimization model, it is expected that regional stakeholders would efficiently generate other scenarios by adjusting the model parameters (weighting combinations) or replacing the input data (impact maps) and selecting a scenario depending on their preference or a number of problem-related factors. In the second chapter, the optimization model was proposed to simulate land use scenarios for managing disaster damage due to climate change on local scale. Extreme landslides triggered by rainfall in hilly regions frequently lead to serious damage, including casualties and property loss. The frequency of landslides may increase under climate change, because of the increased variability of precipitation. Developing urban areas outside landslide risk zones is the most effective method of reducing or preventing damageplanning in real life is, however, a complex and nonlinear problem. For such multi-objective problems, GA may be the most appropriate optimization tool. Therefore, comprehensive land use allocation plans were suggested using the NSGA II to overcome multi-objective problems, including the minimization of landslide risk, minimization of change, and maximization of compactness. The study area is Pyeongchang-gun, the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Korea, where high development pressure has resulted in an urban sprawl into the hazard zone that experienced a large-scale landslide in 2006. We obtained 100 Pareto plans that are better than the actual land use data for at least one objective, with five plans that explain the trade-offs between meeting the first and the second objectives mentioned above. The results can be used by decision makers for better urban planning and for climate change-related spatial adaptation. In the third chapter, the optimization model was proposed to simulate urban greening plans on a neighborhood scale. Green space is fundamental to the good quality of life of residents, and therefore urban planning or improvement projects often include strategies directly or indirectly related to greening. Although green spaces generate positive effects such as cooling and reduction of rainwater runoff, and are an ecological corridor, few studies have examined the comprehensive multiple effects of greening in the urban planning context. To fill this gap in this fields literature, this study seeks to identify a planning model that determines the location and type of green cover based on its multiple effects (e.g., cooling and enhancement of ecological connectivity) and the implementation cost using NSGA II. The 30 Pareto-optimal plans were obtained by applying our model to a hypothetical landscape on a neighborhood scale. The results showed a synergistic relationship between cooling and enhancement of connectivity, as well as a trade-off relationship between greenery effects and implementation cost. It also defined critical lots for urban greening that are commonly selected in various plans. This model is expected to contribute to the improvement of existing planning processes by repeating the positive feedback loop: from plan modification to quantitative evaluation and selection of better plans. These optimal plans can also be considered as options for co-design by related stakeholders.1. INTRODUCTION 2. CHAPTER 1: Modelling Spatial Climate Change Land use Adaptation with Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithms to Improve Resilience for Rice Yield and Species Richness and to Mitigate Disaster Risk 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Study area 2.3. Methods 2.4. Results 2.5. Discussion 2.6. References 2.7. Supplemental material 3. CHAPTER 2: Multi-Objective Land-Use Allocation Considering Landslide Risk under Climate Change: Case Study in Pyeongchang-gun, Korea 3.1. Introduction 3.2. Material and Methods 3.3. Results 3.4. Discussion 3.5. Conclusion 3.6. References 4. CHAPTER 3: Multi-Objective Planning Model for Urban Greening based on Optimization Algorithms 3.1. Introduction 3.2. Methods 3.3. Results 3.4. Discussion 3.5. Conclusion 3.6. References 3.7. Appendix 5. CONCLUSION REFERENCESDocto

Reducing the Vulnerability of Electric Power Infrastructure Against Natural Disasters by Promoting Distributed Generation

Natural disasters cause significant damage to the electrical power infrastructure every year. Therefore, there is a crucial need to reduce the vulnerability of the electric power grid against natural disasters. Distributed generation (DG) represents small-scale decentralized power generation that can help reduce the vulnerability of the grid, among many other benefits. Examples of DG include small-scale photo-voltaic (PV) systems. Accordingly, the goal of this paper is to investigate the benefits of DG in reducing the vulnerability of the electric power infrastructure by mitigating against the impact of natural disasters on transmission lines. This was achieved by developing a complex system-of-systems (SoS) framework using agent-based modeling (ABM) and optimal power flow (OPF). N-1 contingency analysis and optimization were performed under two approaches: The first approach determined the minimum DG needed at any single location on the electric grid to avoid blackouts. The second approach used a genetic algorithm (GA) to identify the minimum total allocation of DG distributed over the electric grid to mitigate against the failure of any transmission line. Accordingly, the model integrates ABM, OPF, and GA to optimize the allocation of DG and reduce the vulnerability of electric networks. The model was tested on a modified IEEE 6-bus system as a proof of concept. The outcomes of this research are intended to support the understanding of the benefits of DG in reducing the vulnerability of the electric power grid. The presented framework can guide future research concerning policies and incentives that can strategically influence consumer decision to install DG and reduce the vulnerability of the electric power infrastructure