Investment prioritizing in high tech industries based on SWARA-COPRAS approach

One of the symbols of developed countries is high tech industries. High tech industries have a large margin. One of the priorities of developing countries is the progress in this type of industries. The decisions about priority of developing an industry are so hard that seems it should be seen from different perspectives. This research is focused on decision and policy making in priority of high tech industries in Iran. Two MCDM methods are applied in this research for decision making in this area. SWARA for evaluating and weighting criteria and COPRAS for evaluating and ranking alternatives are applied. Eleven experts from different fields participated in this research to make decision with SWARA and COPRAS. Four high tech industries including Biomedical Micro Electromechanical Systems (BioMEMS), Nano Technology, Biotechnology, and Biomedical Engineering were selected for this research. These industries were selected based on the potential of Iran. Final result shows that Nanotechnology is at the top of priorities in Iran. Authors believe that this methodology can be useful in other issues in this and other areas of research

Improved AHP-group decision making for investment strategy selection

Investment strategy selection relies heavily on personal experience and behavior. This paper proposes an improved Analytical Hierarchy Process-group decision making (IAHP-GDM) model to reduce investment risk. This model applies the method of least squares to adjust group decision matrix in order to satisfy the property of positive reciprocal matrix in AHP. In addition, five experts from related fields are invited to evaluate investment risk that takes group wisdom to eliminate personal bias. An empirical study is conducted to compare the proposed model to AHP for group decision making model. The results show that the IAHP-GDM model is not only accurate and effective, but also consistent with realistic investment environment

Composite indicators in energy and environmental modeling

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Large scale stochastic inventory routing problems with split delivery and service level constraints

A stochastic inventory routing problem (SIRP) is typically the combination of stochastic inventory control problems and NP-hard vehicle routing problems, which determines delivery volumes to the customers that the depot serves in each period, and vehicle routes to deliver the volumes. This paper aims to solve a large scale multi-period SIRP with split delivery (SIRPSD) where a customer’s delivery in each period can be split and satisfied by multiple vehicle routes if necessary. This paper considers SIRPSD under the multi-criteria of the total inventory and transportation costs, and the service levels of customers. The total inventory and transportation cost is considered as the objective of the problem to minimize, while the service levels of the warehouses and the customers are satisfied by some imposed constraints and can be adjusted according to practical requests. In order to tackle the SIRPSD with notorious computational complexity, we first propose an approximate model, which significantly reduces the number of decision variables compared to its corresponding exact model. We then develop a hybrid approach that combines the linearization of nonlinear constraints, the decomposition of the model into sub-models with Lagrangian relaxation, and a partial linearization approach for a sub model. A near optimal solution of the model found by the approach is used to construct a near optimal solution of the SIRPSD. Randomly generated instances of the problem with up to 200 customers and 5 periods and about 400 thousands decision variables where half of them are integer are examined by numerical experiments. Our approach can obtain high quality near optimal solutions within a reasonable amount of computation time on an ordinary PC

A decision-making framework for assessing the safety culture of maritime organizations with commercial cargo-carrying vessels

Maritime safety culture is currently one of the most important aspects of shipping. It enables maritime administrators to assess and manage safety-related issues proactively. However, most maritime organisations have not been able to effectively assess and manage safety-related issues proactively because of the challenges associated with the availability of safety performance data and the suitability of correlational statistical techniques used in safety culture assessments. Hence, researchers and professionals constantly debate which correlational statistical technique would be most suitable for assessing safety culture. This thesis aims to contribute to safety culture assessment from a methodological perspective of developing a decision-making framework for assessing maritime safety culture. Therefore, this PhD study offers an original contribution to knowledge regarding the application of decision-making techniques in a way that researchers have not previously done in assessing the safety culture of maritime organisations with commercial cargo-carrying vessels. Consequently, the integrated decision-making methodology adopted for this study entailed: the application of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in establishing weightage and priority setting of safety factors used in further assessments; the application of Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) in establishing the weighted safety climate performance of both shoreside staff and shipboard staff; the application of Pareto analysis in justifying the findings of the weighted safety climate and gaining insights into issues concerning occupational health and safety, ship safety, and shore-to-ship safety; and the application of Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) in scheduling vessels for safety culture improvement programs. The established weightage and priority setting of safety factors are: COMMUNICATION (COM) 0.15, EMPOWERMENT (EMP) 0.13, FEEDBACK (FDB) 0.11, MUTUAL TRUST (MTR) 0.11, PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION (PID) 0.13, PROMOTION OF SAFETY (POS) 0.12, RESPONSIVENESS (RSP) 0.11, and SAFETY AWARENESS (SAW) 0.14. Subsequently, the weighted safety climate performance of shoreside staff were: (COM) 0.651, EMPOWERMENT (EMP) 0.528, FEEDBACK (FDB) 0.418, MUTUAL TRUST (MTR) 0.365, PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION (PID) 0.543, PROMOTION OF SAFETY (POS) 0.451, RESPONSIVENESS (RSP) 0.448, and SAFETY AWARENESS (SAW) 0.515; while those of shipboard staff were: COMMUNICATION (COM) 0.570, EMPOWERMENT (EMP) 0.523, FEEDBACK (FDB) 0.432, MUTUAL TRUST (MTR) 0.419, PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION (PID) 0.517, PROMOTION OF SAFETY (POS) 0.458, RESPONSIVENESS (RSP) 0.441, and SAFETY AWARENESS (SAW) 0.601. Furthermore, Pareto analysis revealed that amongst all the feedback statements reviewed, MUTUAL TRUST (MTR) represents 30% of the safety factors attributed to feedback statements that are responsible for 70% of the least performing safety factors found in the weighted safety climate of shipboard staff, while PROMOTION OF SAFETY (POS) and PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION (PID) represent 30% of the safety factors attributed to feedback statements that are responsible for 70% of the least performing safety factors found in the weighted safety climate of shipboard staff. Finally, the TOPSIS methodology was applied to provide maritime administrators with a vessel's ranking, from the least performing to the most performing, for safety culture improvement programs as follows: MT DIDI (0.0908), MT SEA ADVENTURER (0.1124), MT SEAS GRACE (0.1726), MT UMBALWA (0.1815), MT SEA PROGRESS (0.2307), MT SEA VOYAGER (0.3816), MT ASHABI (0.4693), MT MOSUNMOLA (0.5365), MT AMIF (0.9243), and MT KINGIS (1.0000). Conclusively, this thesis adequately demonstrates how decision-making techniques can be simply and successfully applied in assessing the safety culture of maritime organisations without encountering the challenges associated with the availability of safety performance data and the suitability of correlational statistical techniques. It also demonstrated how safety culture could be assessed and managed like other areas of the organisation and business: thereby making safety culture more assessable to continuous improvement programs of maritime organisations with commercial cargo-carrying vessels.Maritime safety culture is currently one of the most important aspects of shipping. It enables maritime administrators to assess and manage safety-related issues proactively. However, most maritime organisations have not been able to effectively assess and manage safety-related issues proactively because of the challenges associated with the availability of safety performance data and the suitability of correlational statistical techniques used in safety culture assessments. Hence, researchers and professionals constantly debate which correlational statistical technique would be most suitable for assessing safety culture. This thesis aims to contribute to safety culture assessment from a methodological perspective of developing a decision-making framework for assessing maritime safety culture. Therefore, this PhD study offers an original contribution to knowledge regarding the application of decision-making techniques in a way that researchers have not previously done in assessing the safety culture of maritime organisations with commercial cargo-carrying vessels. Consequently, the integrated decision-making methodology adopted for this study entailed: the application of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in establishing weightage and priority setting of safety factors used in further assessments; the application of Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) in establishing the weighted safety climate performance of both shoreside staff and shipboard staff; the application of Pareto analysis in justifying the findings of the weighted safety climate and gaining insights into issues concerning occupational health and safety, ship safety, and shore-to-ship safety; and the application of Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) in scheduling vessels for safety culture improvement programs. The established weightage and priority setting of safety factors are: COMMUNICATION (COM) 0.15, EMPOWERMENT (EMP) 0.13, FEEDBACK (FDB) 0.11, MUTUAL TRUST (MTR) 0.11, PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION (PID) 0.13, PROMOTION OF SAFETY (POS) 0.12, RESPONSIVENESS (RSP) 0.11, and SAFETY AWARENESS (SAW) 0.14. Subsequently, the weighted safety climate performance of shoreside staff were: (COM) 0.651, EMPOWERMENT (EMP) 0.528, FEEDBACK (FDB) 0.418, MUTUAL TRUST (MTR) 0.365, PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION (PID) 0.543, PROMOTION OF SAFETY (POS) 0.451, RESPONSIVENESS (RSP) 0.448, and SAFETY AWARENESS (SAW) 0.515; while those of shipboard staff were: COMMUNICATION (COM) 0.570, EMPOWERMENT (EMP) 0.523, FEEDBACK (FDB) 0.432, MUTUAL TRUST (MTR) 0.419, PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION (PID) 0.517, PROMOTION OF SAFETY (POS) 0.458, RESPONSIVENESS (RSP) 0.441, and SAFETY AWARENESS (SAW) 0.601. Furthermore, Pareto analysis revealed that amongst all the feedback statements reviewed, MUTUAL TRUST (MTR) represents 30% of the safety factors attributed to feedback statements that are responsible for 70% of the least performing safety factors found in the weighted safety climate of shipboard staff, while PROMOTION OF SAFETY (POS) and PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION (PID) represent 30% of the safety factors attributed to feedback statements that are responsible for 70% of the least performing safety factors found in the weighted safety climate of shipboard staff. Finally, the TOPSIS methodology was applied to provide maritime administrators with a vessel's ranking, from the least performing to the most performing, for safety culture improvement programs as follows: MT DIDI (0.0908), MT SEA ADVENTURER (0.1124), MT SEAS GRACE (0.1726), MT UMBALWA (0.1815), MT SEA PROGRESS (0.2307), MT SEA VOYAGER (0.3816), MT ASHABI (0.4693), MT MOSUNMOLA (0.5365), MT AMIF (0.9243), and MT KINGIS (1.0000). Conclusively, this thesis adequately demonstrates how decision-making techniques can be simply and successfully applied in assessing the safety culture of maritime organisations without encountering the challenges associated with the availability of safety performance data and the suitability of correlational statistical techniques. It also demonstrated how safety culture could be assessed and managed like other areas of the organisation and business: thereby making safety culture more assessable to continuous improvement programs of maritime organisations with commercial cargo-carrying vessels

An integrated decision support framework for the adoption of lean, agile and green practices in product life cycle stages.

In order to stay competitive in today’s overly competitive market place, businesses must be engineered to match product characteristics and customer requirements. This increased emphasis on achieving highly adaptive manufacturing with reduction in manufacturing costs, better utilization of manufacturing resources and sound environmental management practices force organisations to adopt efficient management practices in their manufacturing operations. Some of the established practices in this context belong to the Lean, Agility and Green (LAG) paradigms. Adopting these practices in order to address customer requirements may require some level of expertise and understanding of the contribution (or lack of it) of the practices in meeting those requirements. Primarily, the wide choice of LAG practices available to address customer requirements can be confusing and/or challenging for those with limited knowledge of LAG practices and their efficacy. There is currently no systematic methodology available for selecting appropriate LAG practices considering of the product life cycle (PLC). Therefore, this research provides a novel framework for selecting appropriate LAG practices based on PLC stages for reducing costs, lead time and generated waste. The methodology describes the application of analytic hierarchy process (AHP), statistical inference and regression analysis as decision support tools, ensuring a systematic approach to the analysis with appropriate performance measures. The data collected were analysed with the aid of SPSS and Excel using a variety of statistical methods. The framework was verified through a Delphi study and validated using a case study. The key findings of the research include the various contributions of lean, agile and green practices towards improving performance measures, the importance of green in improving performance measures and the importance of selecting appropriate practices based on product life cycle stages. This research makes a clear contribution to existing body of knowledge by providing a methodological framework which could serve as a guide for companies in the FMCG industry to systematically integrate and adopt lean, agile and green to better manage their processes and meet customer requirements in their organisations. However, the framework developed in this research has not been tested in other areas.N/

Analytical Quality Control in Shipping Operation Using Six Sigma Principles

A large number of benefits achieved through the successful implementation of Six Sigma programmes in different industries have been documented. However, very little research has been conducted on their applications in the shipping sector, especially in the Onshore Service Functions (OSFs) of shipping companies. Literature shows that heavy human involvement in the service industries such as shipping leads to a high volume of uncertainties which are difficult to be correctly and effectively measured or managed by simply using the traditional data analysis and statistical methods in Six Sigma. The aim of this study is to develop new quantitative analytical methodologies to enable the application and implementation of Six Sigma to improve the service quality of OSFs in shipping companies. Intensive investigations on the feasibility and effectiveness of the developed new methods and models through case studies in world leading container ship lines and shipping management companies have been carried out to ensure the achievement of the aim.This study firstly reviews the evolvement of quality control and some typical methods in the area, the development of Six Sigma, its tools and current applications, especially in the service industries. It is followed by a new framework of the Six Sigma implementation in the OSFs of shipping companies which is supported by a few real process excellence projects carried out in a world-leading ship line. In the process of the framework development, various issues and challenges appear largely due to the existence of uncertainties in data such as ambiguity and incompleteness caused by extensive subjective judgements. Advanced methods and models are developed to tackle the above challenges as well as complement the traditional Six Sigma tools so that the new Six Sigma methodologies can be confidently applied in situations where uncertainties in data exist at different levels.A new fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution ii(TOPSIS) method is developed by combining the traditional TOPSIS, fuzzy numbers and interval approximation sets to facilitate the effective selection of Six Sigma projects and achieve the optimal use of resources towards the company objectives. A revised Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) model is proposed in the “Analyse” step in Six Sigma to improve the capability of classical FMEA in failure identification in service industries. The new FMEA model uses the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Bayesian Reasoning (FBR) approaches to increase the accuracy of failure identification while not compromising the easiness and visibility of the Risk Priority Number (RPN) method. Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Analytical Network Process (ANP) methods are incorporated with Fuzzy logic and Evidential Reasoning (ER), for the very first time to generate a Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) management method where the weights of indicators are rationally assigned by considering the interdependency among the indicators. Incomplete and fuzzy evaluations of the KPIs are synthesised in a rational way to achieve a compatible and comparable result.It is concluded that the newly developed Six Sigma framework together with its supporting quantitative analytical models has made significant contribution to facilitate the quality control and process improvement in shipping companies. It has been strongly evidenced by the success of the applications of the new models in real cases. The financial gains and continuous benefits produced in the investigated shipping companies have attracted a wider range of interests from different service industries. It is therefore believed that this work will have a high potential to be tailored for a wide range of applications across sectors and industries when the uncertainties in data exceed the ability that the classical Six Sigma tools and methods possess

Caractérisation multidimensionnelle des alternatives énergétiques dans le pompage des eaux souterraines pour l'agriculture irrigué

[SPA] Esta tesis doctoral se presenta bajo la modalidad de compendio de publicaciones. En la última década se han alcanzado numerosos acuerdos internacionales en materia ambiental con el objetivo principal de paliar los efectos del cambio climático promoviendo acciones que se dirijan hacia la reducción de emisiones de CO2 a la atmósfera, y la integración de soluciones energéticas renovables en todos los sectores de la sociedad. Entre estos sectores destaca la agricultura como uno de los más susceptible cambiar su modelo energético. En el panorama internacional, el desarrollo del sector agrario, y concretamente la agricultura que se provee de aguas subterráneas para el riego, debe afrontar de manera añadida una serie de retos de cara al futuro. Entre ellos destaca el problema energético, principalmente debido a su fuerte dependencia de los combustibles fósiles afectando finalmente al coste de producción. Sin embargo, no hay que olvidar la dependencia con los recursos hídricos, muy escasos en la franja mediterráneas, y los problemas de emisiones a los que contribuye la agricultura. En la actualidad, algunos organismos y administraciones, como la Unión Europea (UE), están propiciando ese cambio de modelo energético a través de mejoras en los procesos e instalaciones agrícolas, integrando sistemas de energía de carácter renovable por sus beneficios hacia la independencia energética del sector y por su positivo impacto ambiental en cuanto a las emisiones de CO2. De manera más concreta, en el sector de la agricultura por bombeo de aguas subterráneas los sistemas PVWP (Photovoltaic Water Pumping) ya han sido propuestos como alternativa directa como protagonistas de la sustitución de los equipos diésel. Sin embargo, aunque muchos estudios anteriores versan sobre estos sistemas, la mayoría de ellos solamente analizan su integración en zonas rurales remotas de África o Asia, o se centran en aplicaciones agrícolas de pequeño tamaño. Por lo tanto, se observa que, a tenor de los pocos estudios existentes en profundidad (como el de Kelley en al., en 2010), esta transición se está realizando sin el rigor de un análisis académico en profundidad que indague de las configuraciones óptimas o más idóneas para su aplicación en el sector. Este escenario genera algunas cuestiones sobre la eficacia en su aplicación, dimensionamiento o nivel de aprovechamiento de la energía capaz de generar el sistema respecto de la requerida para el bombeo. Por tanto, se destaca la necesidad de un examen exhaustivo de las soluciones energéticas para la agricultura abastecida por el bombeo de aguas subterráneas y la forma óptima de aplicarlas desde un enfoque multidimensional: económico, energético, hídrico, ambiental y social. Este enfoque supone el punto de partida de la presente tesis doctoral y la base de las aportaciones realizadas. Así, la metodología general de la investigación llevada a cabo partió de la recopilación de datos solares e hídricos de dos zonas agrícolas con un evidente problema de sobreexplotación de los recursos hídricos del acuífero: el área de La Mancha (Acuífero 23) en España y la zona de la llanura de Fès-Meknès (Acuífero Saïss) en Marruecos. Posteriormente, se realizó un estudio estadístico de los recursos y se integró un Sistema de Información Geográfica (SIG) con el que analizar geográficamente la distribución de los recursos y su aplicabilidad. Con el fin de considerar otras alternativas y configuraciones en los sistemas de bombeo, más allá de los que el mercado ofrece para los agricultores, se diseñó una red de alternativas a partir de varias opciones, entre ellas: los equipos diésel, los sistemas PVWP aislados y conectados a la red eléctrica, y los sistemas abastecidos solamente por la red eléctrica. A continuación, y con el objetivo de poder evaluar cada alternativa, se caracterizaron desde un punto de vista multidimensional, atendiendo a diferentes criterios dentro de los ámbitos económicos, energéticos, ambientales, hídricos y sociales. Para visualizar los resultados de este proceso de caracterización, se utilizaron gráficas 4D con las que ofrecer una información lo más completa y visual posible. Tras ello, se hizo uso de técnicas de toma de decisiones multicriterio (MCDM), a través de una metodología conjunta AHP-TOPSIS, con la que, a partir de los criterios con los que se evaluaron las alternativas, clasificar en orden de idoneidad la solución que mejor se adaptase a las condiciones del caso de estudio. Este proceso conllevó también una encuesta previa a expertos. Atendiendo a los resultados, esta tesis doctoral ha supuesto una serie de contribuciones relevantes en la integración de soluciones de carácter renovable en el sector de la agricultura de bombeo de aguas subterráneas. Entre ellas destacan: (i) la determinación y el análisis de los principales impactos que afectan al sector desde diferentes puntos de vista; (ii) la caracterización multidimensional de las alternativas energéticas dirigidas al bombeo de aguas subterráneas; (iii) el análisis geográfico con el apoyo de una metodología de información geográfica (GIS) exportable y escalable de los recursos hídricos y solar para la implantación de PVWP; (iv) y finalmente la utilización de un proceso AHP-TOPSIS de toma de decisiones multicriterio (MCDM) para evaluar la idoneidad de las configuraciones y alternativas con el fin de suministrar y cubrir las necesidades energéticas los sistemas de bombeo. Finalmente, una de las contribuciones destaca sobremanera, y es la puesta en relevancia de los sistemas de bombeo cooperativo abastecidos por instalaciones fotovoltaicas conectadas a la red eléctrica, por sus posibles beneficios económicos al sector y el mayor aprovechamiento de la energía y de la instalación de un examen exhaustivo de las soluciones energéticas para la agricultura abastecida por el bombeo de aguas subterráneas y la forma óptima de aplicarlas desde un enfoque multidimensional: económico, energético, hídrico, ambiental y social. Este enfoque supone el punto de partida de la presente tesis doctoral y la base de las aportaciones realizadas. Así, la metodología general de la investigación llevada a cabo partió de la recopilación de datos solares e hídricos de dos zonas agrícolas con un evidente problema de sobreexplotación de los recursos hídricos del acuífero: el área de La Mancha (Acuífero 23) en España y la zona de la llanura de Fès-Meknès (Acuífero Saïss) en Marruecos. Posteriormente, se realizó un estudio estadístico de los recursos y se integró un Sistema de Información Geográfica (SIG) con el que analizar geográficamente la distribución de los recursos y su aplicabilidad. Con el fin de considerar otras alternativas y configuraciones en los sistemas de bombeo, más allá de los que el mercado ofrece para los agricultores, se diseñó una red de alternativas a partir de varias opciones, entre ellas: los equipos diésel, los sistemas PVWP aislados y conectados a la red eléctrica, y los sistemas abastecidos solamente por la red eléctrica. A continuación, y con el objetivo de poder evaluar cada alternativa, se caracterizaron desde un punto de vista multidimensional, atendiendo a diferentes criterios dentro de los ámbitos económicos, energéticos, ambientales, hídricos y sociales. Para visualizar los resultados de este proceso de caracterización, se utilizaron gráficas 4D con las que ofrecer una información lo más completa y visual posible. Tras ello, se hizo uso de técnicas de toma de decisiones multicriterio (MCDM), a través de una metodología conjunta AHP-TOPSIS, con la que, a partir de los criterios con los que se evaluaron las alternativas, clasificar en orden de idoneidad la solución que mejor se adaptase a las condiciones del caso de estudio. Este proceso conllevó también una encuesta previa a expertos. Atendiendo a los resultados, esta tesis doctoral ha supuesto una serie de contribuciones relevantes en la integración de soluciones de carácter renovable en el sector de la agricultura de bombeo de aguas subterráneas. Entre ellas destacan: (i) la determinación y el análisis de los principales impactos que afectan al sector desde diferentes puntos de vista; (ii) la caracterización multidimensional de las alternativas energéticas dirigidas al bombeo de aguas subterráneas; (iii) el análisis geográfico con el apoyo de una metodología de información geográfica (GIS) exportable y escalable de los recursos hídricos y solar para la implantación de PVWP; (iv) y finalmente la utilización de un proceso AHP-TOPSIS de toma de decisiones.[ENG] This doctoral dissertation has been presented in the form of thesis by publication. During the last decade, numerous international environmental agreements have been reached with the main objective of mitigating the climate change effects by promoting actions aimed to reduce CO2 emissions, and integrate renewable energy resource solutions in most sectors of society. Among these sectors, agriculture is susceptible to changing its energy model. From an international point of view, the agricultural sector, and more specifically such agriculture based on groundwater for irrigation, must achieve a set of energy, environmental and economic challenges for the future. Among them, the energy problem emerges as a relevant target, mainly due to the high fossil fuel dependence and its production cost influence. Others aspects, such as the relevant water resource dependence (very scarce in the Mediterranean area), as well as emissions should be also considered and solved. Nowadays, different organizations and administrations, such as the European Union (EU), are promoting a variety of energy model changes through agricultural process and facilities improvements. These solutions are mainly based on the integration of renewable energy systems, due to their potential energy independence benefits their positive environmental impact in terms of emissions. Focused on the groundwater pumping agriculture sector, PVWP (Photovoltaic Water Pumping) systems were proposed in the specific literature as a remarkable alternative to replace current diésel equipment. Nevertheless, most of the reviewed works only analyze their integration in remote rural areas of Africa or Asia, or small agricultural applications. Only a few of papers describe an extensive study (such as Kelley et al., in 2010). Therefore, there is a lack of contributions that address this integration and transition from a multidimensional point of view: economic, energy, environmental, social and hydric management. Moreover, some questions regarding efficiency, sizing or level of use of the energy capable of providing the required pumping power should be analyzed. This scenario thus represents the starting point of this thesis, underlying the developed contributions The proposed methodology of this thesis was based on the solar and water data gathered from two agricultural areas with an over-exploitation problem of the water resources: the aquifer in the region of La Mancha (Aquifer 23) in Spain; and the aquifer in the area of the Fès-Meknès plain (Saïss Aquifer) in Morocco. Subsequently, a statistical study of the resources was carried out and a Geographic Information System (GIS) was integrated into the study, in order to analyze geographically the distribution of resources and their applicability. With the aim of considering other alternatives and pumping system configurations, beyond such solutions commercially offered by the sector, a neural network-based architecture was designed to configure a map of potential alternatives, including: diesel equipment, PVWP isolated and connected to the grid, and systems supplied only by the power systems. These alternatives were then evaluated and characterized from a multidimensional point of view, taking into account different criteria within the economic, energy, environmental, and social fields. A 4D graphical environment was used to make more friendly and easier the characterization and comprehension of the results. Additionally, it was selected a multi-criteria decision-making process (MCDM) based on the classical AHP-TOPSIS methodologies to order the group of identified alternatives. Consequently, these alternatives were classified and prioritize according to their suitability, reliability, benefits and their adaptation to the conditions of each specific case study. This process entailed a preliminary inquiry of experts. From the results, this thesis provides a series of relevant contributions to the integration of renewable energy sources in the groundwater pumping agriculture sector. These contributions include: (i) the determination of the main impacts affecting the sector from a multi-focus analysis; (ii) the multidimensional characterization of energy alternatives aimed at pumping groundwater; (iii) a statistical and geographical analysis with the support of both exportable and scalable GIS methodology for the PVWP implementation and hydric resource management; and (iv) the application of an AHP-TOPSIS decision-making process (MCDM) to evaluate the suitability, reliability and benefits of the different alternatives to supply energy to the pumping systems. Finally, note the relevance of cooperative pumping systems supplied by PV installations connected to grid; mainly due to their potential economic benefits to the sector, their relevant use-of-energy and their high utilization of these renewable installationsEsta tesis doctoral se presenta bajo la modalidad de compendio de publicaciones. Está formada por un total de cuatro artículos: Paper 1 (P01). Rubio-Aliaga, Á., Sánchez-Lozano, J.M., García-Cascales, M. S., Benhamou, M., & Molina-García, A. (2016). GIS based solar resource analysis for irrigation purposes: Rural areas comparison under groundwater scarcity conditions. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 156, 128-139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2016.06.045 International journal indexed in the Journal Citation Report (Q1 with an Impact Factor of 4.10 in 2016). https://repositorio.upct.es/bitstream/handle/10317/9408/gbs.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y . 2. Paper 2 (P02). Rubio-Aliaga, Á., García-Cascales, M. S., Sánchez-Lozano, J. M., & Molina-García, A. (2019). Multidimensional analysis of groundwater pumping for irrigation purposes: Economic, energy and environmental characterization for PV power plant integration. Renewable Energy, 138, 174-186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.01.077 International journal indexed in the Journal Citation Report (Q1 with an Impact Factor of 4.90 in 2019). https://repositorio.upct.es/bitstream/handle/10317/9405/mag.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y .3. Paper 3 (P03). Rubio-Aliaga, A., Molina-Garcia, A., Garcia-Cascales, M. S., & Sanchez-Lozano, J. M. (2019). Net-Metering and Self-Consumption Analysis for Direct PV Groundwater Pumping in Agriculture: A Spanish Case Study. Applied Sciences, 9(8), 1646. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9081646 International peer-reviewed open access journal on all aspects of applied natural sciences, MDPI, with an Impact Factor (Scopus 2019 data): 2.474, which is equivalent to the rank 32/91 in " Engineering Multidisciplinary", which is corresponds to Q2. 4. Paper 4 (P04). Rubio-Aliaga, A., García-Cascales, M. S., Sánchez-Lozano, J. M., & Molina-Garcia, A. (2021). MCDM-based multidimensional approach for selection of optimal groundwater pumping systems: Design and case example. Renewable Energy, 163, 213-224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2020.08.079 International journal indexed in the Journal Citation Report (Q1 with an Impact Factor of 6,274 in 2020). https://repositorio.upct.es/bitstream/handle/10317/9404/mbm.pdf?sequence=1 .Escuela Internacional de Doctorado de la Universidad Politécnica de CartagenaUniversidad Politécnica de CartagenaPrograma de Doctorado en Energías Renovables y Eficiencia Energétic

ASA 2021 Statistics and Information Systems for Policy Evaluation

This book includes 40 peer-reviewed short papers submitted to the Scientific Conference titled Statistics and Information Systems for Policy Evaluation, aimed at promoting new statistical methods and applications for the evaluation of policies and organized by the Association for Applied Statistics (ASA) and the Dept. of Statistics, Computer Science, Applications DiSIA “G. Parenti” of the University of Florence, jointly with the partners AICQ (Italian Association for Quality Culture), AICQ-CN (Italian Association for Quality Culture North and Centre of Italy), AISS (Italian Academy for Six Sigma), ASSIRM (Italian Association for Marketing, Social and Opinion Research), Comune di Firenze, the SIS – Italian Statistical Society, Regione Toscana and Valmon – Evaluation & Monitoring