Can We Rely On Renewable Energy Sources To Overcome Global Warming?

Greenhouse gas emissions, resulting from burning non-renewable energy sources, are recognized as the major cause of global warming. Hence, reducing carbon footprint of energy uses through replacing non-renewable energy sources with renewable ones is believed to be an efficient method for combating climate warming. However, not all renewable energy sources may be appropriate as while they can reduce carbon emissions efficiently, they may be inefficient when it comes to other criteria such as water footprint. For instance, some bio-fuels may consume up to 400 times more water than conventional non-renewable energy sources, which in turn can increase the energy uses of the water sector, resulting in an increased indirect greenhouse gas emissions in long run. This paper discusses that carbon footprint should not be considered as the sole criterion for selecting energy sources. By simultaneous consideration of three different criteria (1- carbon footprint, 2- water footprint, and 3- economic cost), this paper determines the overall efficiency of different non-renewable and renewable energy sources to show how the ranking of energy sources changes when carbon footprint is not considered as the sole criterion for determining efficiency of energy sources for climate change mitigation. © 2011 ASCE

Application of multi attribute decision making methods to resources allocation problems

Operation of over shared resources (water, gas, oil, and mineral reserves) has been one the most significant challenges of states. “Fair” and “efficient” national resources reallocation among stakeholders and states is a complex conflict problem that faces this fundamental question: which criteria and mechanisms should be taken into account for this reallocation? In this paper, we propose a risk-based Multi Attribute Decision Making (MADM) methodology to select the most appropriate mechanism for reallocation of the reserves of the Caspian Sea with respect to several quantitative and qualitative criteria. Caspian Sea is a sea with five claimants that border it, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. The ordered weighted averaging (OWA) method is used to evaluate the effects of risk attitude of the decision makers on the final outcome in resources reallocation. Results indicate that risk-based MADM methods are well suited tools to resolve conflicts in natural resources reallocation problemsWater ManagementCivil Engineering and Geoscience