Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis
Author: Igor Linkov
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 421
Release: 2020-09-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000177785

Decision analysis has become widely recognized as an important process for translating science into management actions. With climate change and other systemic threats as driving forces in creating environmental and engineering problems, there is a great need for understanding decision making frameworks through a case-study based approach. Management of environmental and engineering projects is often complicated and multidisciplinary in scope and nature, thus issues that arise can be difficult to solve analytically. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis: Case Studies in Engineering and the Environment provides detailed description of MCDA methods and tools and illustrates their applications through case studies focused on sustainability and system engineering applications. New in the Second Edition: Addresses current and emerging environmental and engineering problems Includes seven new case studies to illustrate different management situations applicable at the international level Builds on real case studies from recent and relevant environmental and engineering management experience Describes advanced MCDA techniques and extensions used by practitioners Provides corresponding decision models implemented using the DECERNS software package Gives a more holistic approach to teaching MCDA methodology with a focus on sustainable solutions and adoption of new technologies, including nanotechnology and synthetic biology Given the novelty and inherent applicability of this decision-making framework to the environmental and engineering fields, a greater number of teaching tools for this topic need to be made available. This book provides those teaching tools, covering the breadth of the applications of MCDA methodologies with clear explanations of the MCDA process. The case studies are implemented in the DECERNS software package, allowing readers to experiment and explore and to understand the full process by which environmental managers assess these problems. This book is a great resource for professionals and students seeking to learn decision analysis techniques and apply similar frameworks to environmental and engineering projects

Treatise on Estuarine and Coastal Science

Treatise on Estuarine and Coastal Science
Author:
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 4604
Release: 2012-03-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0080878857

The study of estuaries and coasts has seen enormous growth in recent years, since changes in these areas have a large effect on the food chain, as well as on the physics and chemistry of the ocean. As the coasts and river banks around the world become more densely populated, the pressure on these ecosystems intensifies, putting a new focus on environmental, socio-economic and policy issues. Written by a team of international expert scientists, under the guidance of Chief Editors Eric Wolanski and Donald McClusky, the Treatise on Estuarine and Coastal Science, Ten Volume Set examines topics in depth, and aims to provide a comprehensive scientific resource for all professionals and students in the area of estuarine and coastal science Most up-to-date reference for system-based coastal and estuarine science and management, from the inland watershed to the ocean shelf Chief editors have assembled a world-class team of volume editors and contributing authors Approach focuses on the physical, biological, chemistry, ecosystem, human, ecological and economics processes, to show how to best use multidisciplinary science to ensure earth's sustainability Provides a comprehensive scientific resource for all professionals and students in the area of estuarine and coastal science Features up-to-date chapters covering a full range of topics

Climate Change Adaptation in Practice

Climate Change Adaptation in Practice
Author: Philipp Schmidt-Thome
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2013-04-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1118474678

Climate change adaptation is increasingly recognized as complementary part to climate change mitigation. Climate change affects sea level, the extent of flood prone areas and precipitation patterns among many others. To adapt to these changes, the tasks of municipalities and cities are to implement policies and strategies for changes in land use and coastal management as part of their future development. It is of vital importance to address the uncertainties of climate change scenarios when proposing adaptation measures that are socially viable and economically reasonable. The decision making process, promoted here, is based on scientific excellence as well on an integrated communication process. This book provides a comprehensive overview of key elements required for effective analysis and assessment of climate change impacts, economic cost-benefit analysis, communication processes and creation and transfer of knowledge, governance issues and implementation of related policies. It describes the results achieved by the BaltCICA (www.baltcica.org) project whose contributors come from the scientific and public administration communities. The regional cooperation has led to the implementation of climate change adaptation in several case studies. The BaltCICA project developed concepts, methodologies and tools for climate change adaptation that can be translated across other global regions. Scientists and students working on the development of climate change and adaptation strategies; public administrators in the related fields on local, regional and state level including environment, water management, civil defense; as well as professionals working with adaptation technologies, including engineering, technological solutions, urban planning agencies and construction, will value this innovative book.

Real-Time and Deliberative Decision Making

Real-Time and Deliberative Decision Making
Author: Igor Linkov
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2008-10-24
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1402090269

Decision-making tools are needed to support environmental management in an increasingly global economy. Addressing threats and identifying actions to mitigate those threats necessitates an understanding of the basic risk assessment paradigm and the tools of risk analysis to assess, interpret, and communicate risks. It also requires modification of the risk paradigm itself to incorporate a complex array of quantitative and qualitative information that shapes the unique political and ecological challenges of different countries and regions around the world. This book builds a foundation to characterize and assess a broad range of human and ecological stressors, and risk management approaches to address those stressors, using chemical risk assessment methods and multi-criteria decision analysis tools. Chapters discuss the current state-of-knowledge with regard to emerging stressors and risk management, focusing on the adequacy of available systematic, quantitative tools to guide vulnerability and threat assessments, evaluate the consequences of different events and responses, and support decision-making. This book opens a dialogue on aspects of risk assessment and decision analysis that apply to real-time (immediate) and deliberative (long-term) risk management processes.

Waste Biorefineries: Future Energy, Green Products and Waste Treatment

Waste Biorefineries: Future Energy, Green Products and Waste Treatment
Author: Mohammad Rehan
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2019-09-24
Genre:
ISBN: 2889459934

Energy recovery from waste resources holds a significant role in the sustainable waste management hierarchy to support the concept of circular economies and to mitigate the challenges of waste originated problems of sanitation, environment, and public health. Today, waste disposal to landfills is the most widely used methodology, particularly in developing countries, because of limited budgets and lack of efficient infrastructure and facilities to maintain efficient and practical global standards. As a consequence, the dump-sites or non-sanitary landfills have become the significant sources of greenhouse gases emissions, soil and water contamination, unpleasant odors, leachate, and disease spreading vectors, flies, and rodents. However, waste can be utilized to produce a range of potential products such as energy, fuels and value-added products under waste biorefineries. A holistic and quantitative view, such as waste biorefinery, on waste management must be linked to the actual country, taking into account its socio-economic situation, local waste sources, and composition, as well as the available markets for the recovered energy and products. Therefore, it is critical to understand that solutions cannot be just copied from one region to the others. In fact, all waste handling, transportation, and treatment can represent a burden to the cities’ environment and macro and micro economics, except for the benefits obtained from recovered materials and energy. Equally significant is a clear and quantitative understanding of the industrial, and public potential of utilizing recovered materials and energy in the markets as these can be reached without exacerbating the environmental issues using excessive transport. The book explores new advancements and discoveries on the development of emerging waste-to-energy technologies, practical implementation, and lessons learned from sustainable wastemanagement practices under waste biorefinery concept, which will accelerate the growth of circular economies in the world. The articles presented in this book have been written by expert researchers and academics working in institutions at different countries across the world including Germany, Greece, Japan, South Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran, and India. The research articles have been arranged into three main subject categories; 1) Resource recovery from waste, 2) Waste to energy technologies and 3) Waste biorefineries. This book will serve as an important resource for research students, academics, industry, policy makers, and government agencies working in the field of integrated waste management, energy and resource recovery, waste to energy technologies, waste biorefineries etc. The editorial team of this book is very grateful to all the authors for their excellent contributions and making the book successful.

Environmental Security in Harbors and Coastal Areas

Environmental Security in Harbors and Coastal Areas
Author: Igor Linkov
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 483
Release: 2007-03-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1402058004

History has shown how powerful societies decline when natural resources are unable to be replenished. This book explores the challenges facing coastal areas during in the near future. It emphasizes beliefs that the convergence of seemingly disparate viewpoints and uncertain and limited information is possible only by using available risk assessment methodologies and decision-making tools such as multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA).

Multicriteria Decision Analysis in Geographic Information Science

Multicriteria Decision Analysis in Geographic Information Science
Author: Jacek Malczewski
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2015-02-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3540747575

This book is intended for the GIS Science and Decision Science communities. It is primarily targeted at postgraduate students and practitioners in GIS and urban, regional and environmental planning as well as applied decision analysis. It is also suitable for those studying and working with spatial decision support systems. The main objectives of this book are to effectivley integrate Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) into Geographic Information Science (GIScience), to provide a comprehensive account of theories, methods, technologies and tools for tackling spatial decision problems and to demonstrate how the GIS-MCDA approaches can be used in a wide range of planning and management situations.

Reclaiming the Land

Reclaiming the Land
Author: Gregg Macey
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2007-06-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 038748857X

Nearly thirty years after creation of the most advanced and expensive hazardous waste cleanup infrastructure in the world, this book provides a much-needed lens through which the Superfund program should be assessed and reshaped. Focusing on the lessons of adaptive management, it explores new concepts and tools for the cleanup and reuse of contaminated sites, and for dealing with the uncertainty inherent in long-term site stewardship.

Weighting Methods and their Effects on Multi-Criteria Decision Making Model Outcomes in Water Resources Management

Weighting Methods and their Effects on Multi-Criteria Decision Making Model Outcomes in Water Resources Management
Author: Noorul Hassan Zardari
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2014-10-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319125869

This book provides a systematic way of how to make better decisions in water resources management. The applications of three weighting methods namely rating, ranking, and ratio are discussed in this book. Additionally, data mining on keywords is presented using three popular scholarly databases: Science Direct, Scopus, and SciVerse. Four abbreviated keywords (MCDM, MCDA, MCA, MADM) representing multi-criteria decision-making were used and these three databases were searched for different popular weighting methods for a period of 13 years (2000-2012). The book provides also a review of weighting methods applied in various multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods and also presents survey results on priority ranking of watershed management criteria undertaken by 30 undergraduate and postgraduate students from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Engineering Tools for Environmental Risk Management

Engineering Tools for Environmental Risk Management
Author: Katalin Gruiz
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 562
Release: 2019-01-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1317697413

The four volumes of the book series "Engineering Tools for Environmental Risk Management" deal with environmental management, assessment & monitoring tools, environmental toxicology and risk reduction technologies. This last volume focuses on engineering solutions usually needed for industrial contaminated sites, where nature’s self-remediation is inefficient or too slow. The success of remediation depends on the selection of an increasing number of conventional and innovative methods. This volume classifies the remedial technologies and describes the reactor approach to understand and manage in situ technologies similarly to reactor-based technologies. Technology types include physicochemical, biological or ecological solutions, where near-natural, sustainable remediation has priority. A special chapter is devoted to natural attenuation, where natural changes can help achieve clean-up objectives. Natural attenuation and biological and ecological remediation establish a serial range of technologies from monitoring only to fully controlled interventions, using ‘ just’ the natural ecosystem or sophisticated artificial living systems. Passive artificial ecosystems and biodegradation-based remediation – in addition to natural attenuation – demonstrate the use of these ‘green’ technologies and how engineering intervention should be kept at a minimum to limit damage to the environment and create a harmonious ecosystem. Remediation of sites contaminated with organic substances is analyzed in detail including biological and physicochemical methods. Comprehensive management of pollution by inorganic contaminants from the mining industry, leaching and bioleaching and acid mine drainage is studied in general and specifically in the case of an abandoned mine in Hungary where the innovative technology of combined chemical and phytostabilization has been applied. The series of technologies is completed by electrochemical remediation and nanotechnologies. Monitoring, verification and sustainability analysis of remediation provide a comprehensive overview of the management aspect of environmental risk reduction by remediation. This book series focuses on the state of knowledge about the environment and its conscious and structured application in environmental engineering, management and decision making.