Decision Support Systems in Waste Management - A Review of Selected Tools
Decision Support Systems in Waste Management - A Review of Selected Tools
Decision Support Systems in Waste Management - A Review of Selected Tools
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INTRODUCTION
The necessity of decision making in the field of uncertainty forms an integral part of
its traders, managers or analysts. Seemingly, this is an intuitive process that applies to every
human being, however, in a professional resource management it requires appropriate
procedures and preparation. Tracing the definition of W.T. Bielecki [5] decision making is
preceded by the identification of the problem, collection of the relevant information,
compilation of expert knowledge and finally the elaboration of solutions which will allow to
make the best choices as far as evaluation and selection are concerned. Business practice has
caused computerization of these activities, creating foundations of decision support systems
for all sectors of enterprises' activity.
Waste Management due to its multifaceted nature, also went through a number of
support systems which will allow to implement effective decision-making processes of a
varying complexity effectively. A wide range of information and data, including the logistic,
technological, environmental, social and legal issues makes it possible to process using multi-
criteria analysis and specialist support systems.
Communication
User interface
Approaches
Country of to support
Name of the
Lp. origin/ decision- Application Source
system
Authors making
process
1 Municipal Canada, Knowledge Forecasting the quantity and quality of generated municipal waste, [5]
Solid Waste Winnipeg based, technology collection assessment, treatment and disposal of waste,
Management Spreadsheet, estimating the cost of planned solutions, forecasting volumes and
System Optimization time of investment associated with waste management.
Planning and
[DSS] simulation
models
2 Spatial Greece AHP Determining the location of a landfill on the Lesbos island. [5]
Decision GIS
Support
System
[SDSS]
3 Spatial Thailand AHP Determining the initial location of landfills in Thailand. [5]
Decision GIS
Support Fuzzy logic
System
[SDSS]
4 DSS for No data GIS Design, evaluation and monitoring of landfills. [5]
Landfill Expert
Design, system
Evaluation Simulation
and model
Monitoring
LDEM-DSS
5 SIGOP Poland, Knowledge SIGOP's database is used during the development of waste [5]
Katowice base, management programs for planning the industrial and service
waste management, plans for municipalities, counties, provinces
and also in ecological assessments of waste in particular to define
ways of dealing with waste. On the basis of collected information
in the database the standard reports are issued .
6 EcoSolver Switzerland LCA model Separation of plastic waste streams planning with regard to the [14]
IP-SSK Dynamic facilities of recycling, treatment and recovery of mechanical
model energy for selected regions.
Simulation
model
7 W2E No data Mathematical Analysis and evaluation of the possibility of disposing of sewage [15]
Software model sludge in the process of energy recovery - choosing the best
Simulation solution .
model
8 ReFlows Greece Mathematical Simulation of physical and financial flows in various scenarios in [1]
model waste management system based on maximizing the recovery and
Simulation recycling of municipal solid waste.
model
9 Spatial Chang,2008 GIS Landfills location, taking into account factors: transport , [6]
Decision Fuzzy logic, ecological , environmental, economic , social and historical
Support multi-criteria indicators.
System decision-
[SDSS] making
methods
Source: author’s own elaboration
INFORMATION SYSTEMS USED IN THE WASTE MANAGEMENT
Amendments to the Act on maintaining cleanliness and order in municipalities
imposed on local governments a duty of development and implementation of the waste
management system which will effectively realize flows of municipal waste streams from
inhabitants to the places of their processing. The new responsibilities of municipalities and
related cooperation reorganization of entities responsible for waste transport and utilization,
have provoked a range of decision problems that require detailed analysis. Application of
modern software in waste management is aimed at supporting system's processes, starting
with the register of residents and calculating charges and monitoring the waste flows to the
places of their processing.
Table 2 presents an attempt to fit the different levels of decision-making waste
management system to types of information systems executing separate tasks. The essence of
this division focuses on the use of structured data sets (databases), as a part of defined
system's needs.
The lowest level of decision-making related to current operations includes all
applications that use the data for everyday system operation. Their main purpose is to store
data and their basic processing at the operational level of waste management. Selected data
are the basis of support for the analytical and reporting systems in waste management, which
usage allows to execute complex actions. The results (both the and tactical level) are the basis
of decision support system's functions at a strategic level of waste management.
It should be noted that only an integrated system that already has registration-
transaction and analytical data in its structure, might include the waste management system
functioning at the regional level. Current solutions realize tasks associated with selected
elements of the systems, avoiding the complex connections and correlations.
Table 2 Position of different types of information systems at waste management decision-making levels
monitoring module
declarations and
The module of
The module of
The module of
No. Software name Authors Recipient Modeling / Forecasting
Source
reporting
logistic
YES
- Creation of a "knowledge
base" of waste management
- Simulation model of the
Management system Profeko costs and logistics of waste
1 Municipalities YES YES YES YES [11]
„odpadywgminie.com” Sp. z o.o. management in the
municipality
- Creation of budgetary
forecasts for the entire waste
management system
Logic
2 ecoSANIT Municipalities YES NO YES YES NO [10]
Synergy
YES
- forecasting local
3 Ulisses ODPADY ULISSES Municipalities YES YES YES YES [13]
government incomings from
waste management
Industrial
4 Waste records 2015 darsoft.pl YES YES YES YES NO [9]
companies
Companies
Solvena
Waste Management engaging in
Management
5 Informatic Sytem complex municipal YES YES YES YES NO [12]
Systems Sp.
(SIGO) and industrial
z o.o.
waste management.
Solvena
Municipal waste Management
6 Municipalities YES YES YES YES NO [12]
monitoring system Systems Sp.
z o.o.
Source: Author’s own elaboration
The ones proposed as the market tools, in particular are based on the database processing
operation level, and above all, on waste quantity and morphology recording, and number of
entities of their processing. The generated reports and reports for basic operation of the system,
rarely planning and modeling new solutions. The exception is the management system called
"odpadywgminie.com " , which supports waste management and prognostic simulation models of
logistics processes and economic analyzes. The results of these additional features undoubtedly
constitute a value-added analysis and make it possible to try to improve the system and achieve
better results with the waste recovery and recycling.
CONCLUSION
The review of literature and applications to support waste management system available
on the market, strengthen the conviction about the benefits of the decision support systems used
in practice. Unquestionable advantages associated with the implementation of the systems that
are reflected into efficiency of implemented actions include e.g. .:
Multi-criterial - decisions can be examined from the point of view of any number of
criteria;
flexibility - the ability to input any number of decision variables, parameters, constraints,
goals. DDS flexible structure makes it be prepared to changing user needs;
the possibility of a hybrid approach - combining the use of several methods to solve the
decision-making problem (np. SDSS);
interdisciplinary approach - decision-making problems can be solved from the point of
view of a variety of criteria such as technological, logistic, economic, social;
low cost of ownership - the ability to acquire knowledge and to identify the best solution
at the lowest cost;
integration - the ability to quickly analyze and processing different (distributed) databases.
The presented examples of information systems included in this article enable to support
processes in various areas of waste management and realize its targets. The weakness of the
designed and implemented software solutions is the lack of a comprehensive approach. Each
additional module to support separate areas could improve the efficiency of the decision-making
processes at every level of waste management. Their extended properties can significantly
contribute to a comprehensive approach within the different groups of waste flows, identifying
the most ecologically and economically beneficial possibilities of their development. In addition,
the compatibility of information systems at the local and regional level lacks errors at the
registration stage. Therefore, a thorough analysis taking into account the needs of DDS
application is recommended, for example :
analysis of the current state of waste management problems and modeling purposes;
choice of methods and tools for solving defined decision-making problems;
determination of evaluation criteria, variables and parameters along with their preferred
values;
verification of the ability to integrate existing resources of data and knowledge base with
the designed system.
Despite the widespread use of DSS there are still many areas of waste management to
implement such solutions. Unlimited possibilities that provide information technology enable the
development of models using multi-criteria decision-making methods of analysis and evaluation.
Waste management is one of those areas that the management and planning need to take into
account the many complex aspects of both quantitative and qualitative, that is why all the
applications are enabled to faster and more efficient work.
To conclude, designing the support systems for waste management requires a flexible
approach that takes into account the problems of generation, transportation and various kinds of
waste processing technology. As it is used for the structure of DDS models and databases, it
should form an integrated waste management system, taking into account the legal, social,
environmental and economic aspects.
REFERENCES
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