Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 9
S
USTAINABLE
U
SE OF
E
NVIRONMENTAL
R
ESOURCES
:
O
PTIMIZATION
OF
L
OGISTICS
O
PERATIONS
Riccardo Minciardi
1,2,3
, Michela Robba
1,2,3
and Roberto Sacile
1,2,3
1
DIST-Department of Communication, Computer and System Sciences
2
CIMA-Interuniversity Center of Research in Environmental Monitoring
3
E.R.-Laboratory for Energy production from Renewable Resources
Abstract
The use of natural resources is necessary for human life and activities. Finding strategies that
can satisfy energy and material demands, be sustainable for the environment, and preserve
natural resources from depletion, seems to be a crucial point for the modern society.
This chapter deals with the role of Decision Support Systems (DSS) for environmental
systems planning and management, with specific attention to the use of forest biomasses for
energy production, and energy and material recovery from urban solid waste. The two
mentioned issues are treated in two different sections to highlight the legislative and
technological differences beyond the “treatment” and the “possibilities of use” of biomasses
and solid wastes. Then, after a general introduction about how to build Environmental DSSs,
decision models (characterized by decision variables, objectives, and constraints), and about
the state of the art, the chapter is divided in two main sections: energy production from
renewable resources, and material and energy recovery from solid urban waste.
The first one is focused on forest biomass exploitation and includes a detailed
mathematical description of the formalized decision model and its solution applied to a real
case study. The DSS described in the present study is organized in three modules (GIS, data
management system, optimization) and is innovative, with respect to the current literature,
because of the design of the whole architecture and of the formalization of the different
decision models. In particular, the optimization module includes three sub-modules: strategic
planning, tactical planning, and operational management. In this chapter, an example related
to strategic and tactical planning is given.
The second one regards a more qualitative discussion about multi-objective decision
problems for solid waste management in urban areas. In this case, the structure of DSSs able
to help decision makers of a municipality in the development of incineration, disposal,
Search WWH ::
Custom Search