This study is conducted with the aims to develop a new ranking method for multi-criteria decision making problem with conflicting criteria. Such a problem has a set of Pareto solutions, where the act of improving a value of one solution will result in depreciating some of the others. Thus, in this type of problem, there is no unique solution. However, out of many available options, the Decision Maker eventually has to choose only one solution. With this problem as the motivation, the current study develops a compromise ranking algorithm, namely a trade-off ranking method. The trade-off ranking method able to give a trade-off solution with the least compromise compared to other choices as the best solution. The properties of the algorithm are studied in the thesis on several test cases. The proposed method is compared against several multi-criteria decision making methods with ranking based on the distance measure, which are the TOPSIS, relative distance and VIKOR. The sensitivity analysis and uncertainty test are carried out to examine the methods robustness. A critical criteria analysis is also done to test for the most critical criterion in a multi-criteria problem. The decision making method is considered further in a fuzzy environment problem where the fuzzy trade-off ranking is developed and compared against existing fuzzy decision making methods.

Este trabalho trata da logística envolvida em operações de resposta a desastres, com foco na entrega final de suprimentos destinados a ajudar vítimas. Seu propósito é investigar os objetivos pertinentes ao planejamento do transporte da carga e encontrar uma metodologia para definir estratégia que sirva à tomada de decisão em campo. Para tanto, primeiramente identifica-se os objetivos adotados em modelos de Pesquisa Operacional para a tarefa em questão, através da análise de conteúdo das publicações pertinentes. Então, a abordagem do Pensamento Focado em Valores é utilizada para estruturar o problema. Finalmente, o método Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique Exploiting Ranks (SMARTER) é empregado na construção de um modelo de Análise da Decisão Multicritério (ADM), com consulta a um profissional experiente da área humanitária e aproveitando a análise da literatura previamente realizada. Neste processo, são elaboradas e avaliadas seis alternativas para a tomada de decisão condizentes com os valores da comunidade humanitária. Os resultados obtidos mostram que existe incompatibilidade entre os critérios de desempenho identificados nas publicações existentes e os objetivos perseguidos pelo Tomador da Decisão (TD) real. De acordo com o modelo construído, o atendimento de prioridades e a manutenção da sustentabilidade da operação são os objetivos que devem ser levados em conta para planejar a entrega de carga em pós-desastre, sendo que o custo e a equidade da distribuição não devem ser considerados. Conclui-se que o método adotado é útil à definição destes critérios e também ao desenvolvimento de estratégias que resultem em distribuições de ajuda melhores, aos olhos do próprio TD. Desta forma, ressalta-se que este trabalho contribui à área da Logística Humanitária com a investigação dos objetivos, assim como ao campo da ADM pela formalização dos processos de elaboração de alternativas, além da adição de mais uma aplicação possível ao repertório do método SMARTER. / This study concerns the logistics of disaster response operations, with a focus on final delivery of supplies to victims. The objectives here are to investigate what objectives are pertinent to the transportation-planning task and to find a methodology for choosing a strategy that aids decision-making on the field. For achieving these, a content analysis of Operations Research models is done, allowing the identification of such objectives, from which the problem is structured using a Value-Focused Thinking approach. Subsequently, the Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Exploiting Ranks (SMARTER) is employed to build a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) model, consulting an experienced humanitarian professional and taking into account the results from the previous analysis. Throughout this process, six alternatives for making decisions are designed and evaluated based on the objectives defined. Findings are that there is incompatibility between performance criteria identified in the literature and objectives pursued by a real Decision Maker (DM). From the model presented by this thesis, one concludes that satisfying priorities and sustaining the response operation are the objectives to be taken into account when drawing an aid distribution plan. It also follows that the methodology adopted here is useful to defining such performance criteria and to develop strategies that result in better outcomes, as judged by the DM. Therefore, this study contributes to Humanitarian Logistics research area by casting a light on the objectives of a post-disaster task, and to the MCDA field by formalizing the process of designing alternatives for complex problems, besides adding a new application of SMARTER to its repertory.

In the era of "big data revolution," marked by an exponential growth of information, extracting value from data enables analysts and businesses to address challenging problems such as drug discovery, fraud detection, and earthquake predictions. Multi-Criteria Decision Support (MCDS) queries are at the core of big-data analytics resulting in several classes of MCDS queries such as OLAP, Top-K, Pareto-optimal, and nearest neighbor queries. The intuitive nature of specifying multi-dimensional preferences has made Pareto-optimal queries, also known as skyline queries, popular. Existing skyline algorithms however do not address several crucial issues such as performing skyline evaluation over disparate sources, progressively generating skyline results, or robustly handling workload with multiple skyline over join queries. In this dissertation we thoroughly investigate topics in the area of skyline-aware query evaluation. In this dissertation, we first propose a novel execution framework called SKIN that treats skyline over joins as first class citizens during query processing. This is in contrast to existing techniques that treat skylines as an "add-on," loosely integrated with query processing by being placed on top of the query plan. SKIN is effective in exploiting the skyline characteristics of the tuples within individual data sources as well as across disparate sources. This enables SKIN to significantly reduce two primary costs, namely the cost of generating the join results and the cost of skyline comparisons to compute the final results. Second, we address the crucial business need to report results early; as soon as they are being generated so that users can formulate competitive decisions in near real-time. On top of SKIN, we built a progressive query evaluation framework ProgXe to transform the execution of queries involving skyline over joins to become non-blocking, i.e., to be progressively generating results early and often. By exploiting SKIN's principle of processing query at multiple levels of abstraction, ProgXe is able to: (1) extract the output dependencies in the output spaces by analyzing both the input and output space, and (2) exploit this knowledge of abstract-level relationships to guarantee correctness of early output. Third, real-world applications handle query workloads with diverse Quality of Service (QoS) requirements also referred to as contracts. Time sensitive queries, such as fraud detection, require results to progressively output with minimal delay, while ad-hoc and reporting queries can tolerate delay. In this dissertation, by building on the principles of ProgXe we propose the Contract-Aware Query Execution (CAQE) framework to support the open problem of contract driven multi-query processing. CAQE employs an adaptive execution strategy to continuously monitor the run-time satisfaction of queries and aggressively take corrective steps whenever the contracts are not being met. Lastly, to elucidate the portability of the core principle of this dissertation, the reasoning and query processing at different levels of data abstraction, we apply them to solve an orthogonal research question to auto-generate recommendation queries that facilitate users in exploring a complex database system. User queries are often too strict or too broad requiring a frustrating trial-and-error refinement process to meet the desired result cardinality while preserving original query semantics. Based on the principles of SKIN, we propose CAPRI to automatically generate refined queries that: (1) attain the desired cardinality and (2) minimize changes to the original query intentions. In our comprehensive experimental study of each part of this dissertation, we demonstrate the superiority of the proposed strategies over state-of-the-art techniques in both efficiency, as well as resource consumption.

Les performances des filtres interférentiels répondent aujourd'hui à des spécifications de plus en plus exigeantes et permettent de repousser les limites physiques des instruments optiques dans lesquels ils sont intégrés. Au cours du processus de fabrication d'un filtre, il est évidemment primordial de maîtriser avec une très grande précision (typiquement sub-nanométrique) l'épaisseur optique des couches déposées. Ceci nécessite le recours à une mesure in situ des caractéristiques optiques de l’empilement tout au long de son dépôt.Dans le cadre de ce travail de thèse, nous avons développé un nouveau système de contrôle optique qui rend possible la mesure simultanée de la transmission d’un empilement, d’une part à une seule longueur d’onde, définie par l’utilisateur dans le domaine spectral compris entre 350 et 1000 nm (contrôle monochromatique présentant une résolution de 0,35 nm), et d’autre part sur l’ensemble de ce domaine spectral (contrôle large bande présentant une résolution de 3 nm). Ces deux mesures sont réalisées en 6 millisecondes à une cadence de 2 Hz (fréquence de rotation du porte-substrat), et ce, de manière parfaitement synchrone. En outre, grâce à la mise en place, dans le plateau porte-substrat, d’une voie de référence correspondant à une absence d’échantillon, ce dispositif de contrôle présente une très grande stabilité et une justesse meilleure que le pour mille. Enfin, une méthode numérique a été développée pour rendre possible une comparaison fiable des résultats fournis par les deux voies de mesure malgré la différence de leur résolution spectrale.Ce dispositif ouvre la voie à l’utilisation de plusieurs critères indépendants pour définir en temps réel l’instant précis où le dépôt d’une couche doit être arrêté (annulation de la dérivée de la transmission à une longueur d’onde, comparaison de cette transmission monochromatique à un niveau pré-défini, minimisation d’une fonction de mérite quantifiant l’écart entre le spectre mesuré et un spectre de référence défini par le calcul, respect d’une durée de dépôt utilisant une mesure optique in situ de la vitesse de dépôt). Il s’agit donc bien d’un contrôle multi-critère tout optique.La première application des potentialités de ce nouveau système a concerné la détermination des constantes optiques (indice de réfraction, coefficient d’extinction) d’un matériau diélectrique de haut indice, le pentoxyde de tantale. La méthode utilisée met en œuvre un enregistrement de l’évolution de la transmission spectrale de l’échantillon tout au long de la croissance de la couche (voie large bande) et un traitement, longueur d’onde par longueur d’onde, du profil temporel de cette évolution. Cette nouvelle méthode ne nécessite donc pas le choix a priori d’une loi de dépendance spectrale pour chacune de ces deux constantes optiques. Elle ouvre également la voie à une analyse de l’évolution de l’indice de réfraction d’une couche en fonction de l’épaisseur qui lui est assignée. Enfin, elle est transposable à des matériaux bas indice, comme, par exemple, la silice / The performances of complex interference filters meets today to exigent specifications and permit to enhance the physical limits of optical instruments in which they are integrated. During the manufacturing of a filter, it is obviously important to monitor with very high accuracy (typically sub-nanometric) the thickness of the deposited layers. This requires the use of an in situ measurement of the optical characteristics of the multilayer during the process.In the framework of this thesis, we have developed a new optical monitoring system which makes possible to achieve the simultaneous measurement of the transmittance of a multilayer filter, on one hand at a single wavelength defined by the user in the spectral range between 350 nm and 1000 nm (monochromatic monitoring with a resolution of 0.35 mm), and on the other hand on this whole spectral range at single shot (broadband monitoring with a resolution of 3 nm). These two measurements are made in 6 milliseconds at a rate of 2 Hz (corresponding to the rotation speed of the substrate holder), and are perfectly synchronized. In addition, the substrate holder tray is designed with a reference channel corresponding to a void position (without sample). Thanks to that configuration the monitoring system has a very high stability and accuracy better than 0.001. Finally, a numerical method has been developed to enable the comparison of the results provided by the two acquisition channels (monochromatic and broadband) taking into account the difference of their spectral resolution.This system opens the way for the use of several independent criteria to determine in real time the exact moment when the deposition of a layer must be stopped (turning point monitoring, trigger point monitoring, broadband monitoring, achievement with time monitoring using an optical in situ determination of the deposition rate). So this is indeed an all optical multi-criteria monitoring systems.This first application of this system has involved the determination of the optical constants (refractive index and extinction coefficient) of a high index dielectric material: the tantalum pentoxide. The method used is based on a recording of the evolution of the transmitted spectrum of a witness sample during the growth of the layer (broadband channel) and a processing, wavelength by wavelength, of the timing data profile of that evolution. This new method does not require any descriptive spectral dependence law for each of the two optical constants. It also paves the way for an analysis of the behavior of the refractive index of a layer in function of the thickness. Finally, it is applicable to low index materials, such as, for example, silica.

<p>U ovom radu predložen je model za vrednovanje i izbor dobavljača koji je razmatran u vi&scaron;e od deset različitih proizvodnih oblasti. Model se sastoji od dvadeset kvantitavnih i kvalitativnih kriterijuma koji su primenom fuzzy AHP (Analitičko Hijerarhijski Proces) metode, a na osnovu ocenjivanja menadžera proizvodnih kompanija smanjeni na ukupno devet. Verifikacija datog modela predstavljena je kroz vrednovanje i izbor dobavljača u tri kompanije koje se bave različitom delatno&scaron;ću. Pored doprinosa koji se ogleda u primenjivosti razvijenog modela u različitim lancima snabdevanja, veliki doprinos ovog rada je razvoj novih pristupa u oblasti vi&scaron;ekriterijumskog odlučivanja koji može biti primenjen u svim lancima snabdevanja, naročito u procesima u kojima vladaju neizvesnosti i nejasnoće &scaron;to je detaljno obja&scaron;njeno kroz rad.</p> / <p>In this paper, a model for evaluation and supplier selection has been<br />proposed, which has been considered in more than ten different production<br />areas. The model consists of twenty quantitative and qualitative criteria which<br />are reduced to a total of nine by the application of the fuzzy AHP (Analytic<br />Hierarchy Process) method and the assessment of managers in production<br />companies. The verification of the given model is presented through the<br />evaluation and supplier selection in three companies that deal with different<br />activities. In addition to the contribution reflected in the applicability of the<br />developed model in various supply chains, the great contribution of this<br />paper is the development of new approaches in the field of multi-criteria<br />decision making that can be applied in all supply chains, especially in<br />processes that are subject to uncertainty and vagueness, which is explained<br />in detail through the work.</p>

The requirements for public utility systems in the United States of America have grown enormously over the years triggering a tremendous shortage for space available to public utilities on and within transportation right-of-ways (ROW). Overcrowding and improper location of utilities has resulted in problems such as, damage to infrastructure, traffic accidents and, interruption of service to customers. The project titled, "Optimal Placement of Utilities within FDOT Right-of-Way", sponsored by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), and currently being investigated at the University of South Florida, presents a decision-making heuristic aimed at developing a better utility placement allocation system (Kranc et. al) [6]. Working in accordance with the guidelines of safety, relocation, and clearance for utility placement set by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials organization (AASHTO), the heuristic finds suitable locations for the utilities in ROW corridors. However, a model being used to advocate a practice having large social and economical impacts is more likely to play the role of generic evidence in a trial, whose weight must ultimately be established by a 'jury'. The question being addressed to the system must be scrutinized carefully, and the formal structure updated iteratively until it proves capable of providing an answer to the given question. A good sensitivity analysis can provide this generic quality assurance to the model and help demonstrate the worthiness of the model itself. This thesis is a quantitative and qualitative sensitivity analysis of the abovementioned heuristic. The analysis is conducted in two parts, 1. The 'Model Factor Sensitivity Analysis', with the objective of assessing the uncertainties associated with the modeling of the heuristic. This analysis focuses primarily on providing an evaluation of the confidence in the heuristic and its predictions by analyzing the influences that variations in the input factors have on the outputs of the utility cost assessment models and the final output of the heuristic itself. Variance based sensitivity indices derived from Sobol' sensitivity indices [42] are used here for this purpose. 2. The 'Model Output Evaluation and Enhancement' study, which initially focuses on understanding / evaluating the complexities of the discrete step, cost optimization procedure used in the heuristic and later, based on certain observed shortcomings and problems develops an enhancement, the Ideal Configuration Selector (ICS) to be implemented with the heuristic. The ICS addresses all the problems of the heuristic with the help of experimental speedup, positional sensitivity and refinement tools and employs a multi criterion evaluation technique for utility configuration assessment to provide substantiation to the outputs determined by the heuristic.

Biocultural approaches to Environmental Management (EM) and monitoring are an emerging strategy in sustainability planning. Unlike functional ecological approaches to EM, which exclude humans from ecological systems, biocultural EM approaches incorporate humans, communities and their values as integral part of ecological systems, and are grounded in collaborative processes that develop locally relevant management objectives and monitoring practices. Biocultural indicators are a key aspect of biocultural EM, providing links between worldviews, knowledge systems, agencies and institutions at various scales to guide and streamline implementation of management objectives. Although many Indigenous Peoples have been continually practicing biocultural approaches to EM for thousands of years, challenges exist in contemporary EM scenarios where multiple worldviews, political boundaries and knowledge systems collide. Some of the challenges or gaps in contemporary biocultural approaches are based in theory, and others are in practice. In Chapter One I highlight one of these gaps – the lack of guiding criteria to develop biocultural indicators in contemporary biocultural EM and monitoring. To address this gap, I propose a novel suite of six criteria (culturally salient, supportive of place-based relationships, inclusive, sensitive to impacts, perceptible, linked to human well-being) drawn from a case study in Kitasoo/Xai’xais Territory in the area now referred to as the North and Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada. In Chapter Two, I highlight a challenge in practice—the development of spatial models that incorporate a community-led approach. I show how this community-engaged approach benefitted the development and application of a landscape scale suitability model for culturally modified trees, a priority biocultural indicator. In conclusion, this theoretical and practical work identifies opportunities to amend existing Provincial and Federal legislation in order to support biocultural approaches to EM in Canada and shows how biocultural approaches may be applied in other social-ecological systems near and abroad. / Graduate

<p>The pearl oyster <em>Pinctada martensii </em>or <em>Pinctada fucata </em>is the oyster for produce the South China Sea Pearl, and the production of pearl oyster <em>Pinctada martensii</em> plays a key role for the economic and social welfare of the coastal areas. To guarantee both rich and sustainability of providing pearl oyster productions, addressing the suitable areas for aquaculture is a very important consideration in any aquaculture activities. Relatively rarely, in the case of site selection research, the researchers use GIS analysis to identify suitable sites in fishery industry in China. Therefore, I decided to help the local government to search suitable sites form the view of GIS context. This study was conducted to find the optimal sites for suspended culture of pearl oyster <em>Pinctada martensii </em>using GIS-based multi-criteria analysis. The original idea came from the research of Radiarta and his colleagues in 2008 in Japan. Most of the parameters in the GIS model were extracted from remote sensing data (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer and Landsat 7). Eleven thematic layers were arranged into three sub-models, namely: biophysical model, social-economic model and constraint model. The biophysical model includes sea surface temperature, chlorophyll-α concentration, suspended sediment concentration and bathymetry. The criteria in the social-economic model are distance to cities and towns and distance to piers. The constraint model was used to exclude the places from the research area where the natural conditions cannot be fulfilled for the development of pearl oyster aquaculture; it contains river mouth, tourism area, harbor, salt fields / shrimp ponds, and non-related water area. Finally those GIS sub-models were used to address the optimal sites for pearl oyster <em>Pinctada martensii</em> culture by using weighted linear combination evaluation. In the final result, suitability levels were arranged from 1 (least suitable) to 8 (most suitable), and about 2.4% of the total potential area had the higher levels (level 6 and 7). These areas were considered to be the places that have the most suitable conditions for pearl oyster <em>Pinctada martensii </em>for costal water of Yingpan.</p>

<p>Idag fokuseras det politiska intresset på klimatfrågor och det visade sig inte minst när Nobels fredpris tilldelades Panel of Climate Change och Al Gore år 2007. Klimatfrågor med fokusering på bland annat energifrågan, biologisk mångfald och hållbar utveckling kommer att vara nyckelfrågor under andra halvan av 2009 när Sverige är ordförandeland för EU.</p><p>Bidragande orsaker till klimatförändringar är mänskliga utsläpp av växthusgaser. Arbetet med att minska utsläppen sker bland annat genom Kyotoprotokollet, där 160 stater deltar, innehållande bindande åtaganden att minska utsläppen med 5 % fram till 2012. I och med arbetet med att minska växthusgaser är främjandet och utvecklandet av förnyelsebar energi en viktig del, särskilt i form av vindkraft. Kommunernas fysiska planering spelar en viktig roll i detta, t ex i framtagandet av lämpliga områden för etablering av vindkraft.</p><p>Gävle kommun används som fallstudie och detta arbete ska underlätta förfarandet att ta fram bra beslutsunderlag som varje planerare behöver göra. Syftet med denna studie är att underlätta och effektivisera den fysiska planeringens arbete och väcka medvetenhet för nyttan av GIS. Först sker en sammanställning av en del data som finns tillgängliga på Gävle kommun. Huvudsyftet är att sedan utföra en multikriterieanalys för att hitta lämpliga områden för vindkraftsetablering utifrån sammanställt data. Vindkraft valdes för att det är en viktig del i anpassningsarbetet för att motverka klimatförändringar och har en hög prioritet.</p><p>Kriterier och motstående intressen till vindkraftsetablering sattes upp och utifrån det utfördes sedan en multikriterieanalys. En fältstudie utfördes för att bedöma resultatets tillförlitlighet och hur resultatet överensstämmer med verkligheten. Resultatet påvisade att det fanns många lämpliga områden för vindkraftsetablering i Gävle kommun och att god överensstämmelse fanns med tidigare framtagna riksintresseområden för vindkraftverk. Fältstudierna visade även på god överensstämmelse med resultatet och verkligheten.</p><p>Multikriterieanalys är ett kraftfullt verktyg som ger tydliga resultat. Kunskap om metodiken och ämnet, t ex om den ska hitta lämpliga områden för vindkraft krävs god kännedom om vindkraft samt kunskap om data krävs för att metoden ska vara lätt att genomföra. Den ger ett begripligt resultat som har stor genomslagskraft och som det är lätt att ta till sig. Metoden är en väldigt användbar metod för att ta fram bra beslutsunderlag i ett planarbete.</p> / <p>The political focus is today set on questions concerning climate changes and this was proved when Panel of Climate Change and Al Gore were awarded with the Nobel Prize for Peace in the year of 2007. Sweden is the presidency country of the European Union in the second half of 2009 and the main questions are going to be about climate targeted on energy, biodiversity and sustainable development.</p><p>Some of the things that cause the climate changes are the emission of greenhouse gases made by the human being. To reduce the emission the goal with the Kyoto protocol, accepted by 160 countries, is set to reduce the emission by 5% until 2012. To achieve the goal the development and promoting of renewable energy has an important role, especially wind power. With the aid of physical planning, municipalities have an important role e.g. through compiling basic data for decision-making where suitable areas for wind power are pointed out.</p><p>Gävle municipality is used as a case study and one of the goals with this thesis is to facilitate the decision that is needed to be made by them who are working with physical planning. Another goal is to awake the awareness of geographical information system potential to be a powerful tool to make physical planning more efficient. As a first part a compilation is made of the data that are accessible in the databases of Gävle municipality. The main issue is to make a multicriteria analysis to find suitable areas for wind power on the compiled data. The theme of wind power was chosen because it is an important part of a sustainable development due to climate changes.</p><p>Criteria and counteractive interests to wind power were identified and used in a multicriteria analysis. A field study was made to control the result from the multicriteria analysis against reality and there were a good agreement. The result of the multicriteria analysis indicated that there are several suitable areas for wind power within the area of Gävle municipality and this was verified with the areas identified by the County Administration of Gävleborg.</p><p>Multicriteria analysis is a powerful tool that gives a result that is easy to understand. Knowledge about the method and subject, e.g. finding areas suitable for wind power good knowledge about wind power and data is demanded to make the method easy to perform.</p><p>The method gives a comprehensible result with a penetrating power and is easy to understand. The method is very useful to compile basic data for decision-making in physical planning.</p>

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and sustainability are inextricably linked. SEA can be used to assess the sustainability impacts of plan, program and policy (PPP) initiatives, inform decision-making with regard to sustainability issues and promote the trickle down of sustainability principles to project level assessment, among others. However, in terms of energy sector practice in particular, SEA application is neither well applied nor understood, there has been insufficient evidence of the operationalization of sustainability in SEA and little research showing how SEA might provide a systematic framework for the integration of sustainability principles. As a result, this thesis examines the relationship between SEA and sustainability, with the goal of understanding how sustainability principles and criteria can be integrated and operationalized in the development of energy futures. The thesis chapters are manuscript based. The first manuscript presents a literature review of ten years of academic research examining how SEA facilitates the integration of sustainability in PPP development decision making, while the second and third manuscripts focus on a ‘state of practice’ examination of SEA application and sustainability integration in international electricity sector case practice. The fourth manuscript applies a structured SEA framework that operationalizes sustainability principles using an expert-based assessment of alternative future scenarios for electricity development in Saskatchewan, along with an examination of implications for both electricity sector practice and SEA methodology. Finally, the conclusion discusses the major findings from the four manuscripts and identifies challenges for the operationalization of sustainability, the adoption of good-practice SEA elements in practice and makes recommendations for future SEA guidance and academic research. Overall, the lack of operationalization of sustainability in energy sector SEA suggests the need for improved SEA methodology and guidance that describes the scope of and approaches to sustainability in SEA and outlines how to effectively incorporate sustainability in SEA practice. In order for SEA to deliver on its sustainability mandate, impact assessment methodologies that allow for clarification of both the concept of sustainability and the uncertainty surrounding higher level policy, plan and program (PPP) decision-making need to be developed and more widely adopted. Lessons learned from practice that describe the appropriate use of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies also need to be better disseminated and shared amongst the SEA research and practitioner community. However, results from this research also illustrate that there is still inconsistent application of SEA processes, which likely stems from uncertainty and confusion on behalf of practitioners and decision-makers as to what the role and purpose of SEA is in PPP development. More case-practice evidence of SEA application is needed that demonstrates the purpose and benefits of SEA for sustainability in a variety of decision-making contexts. Evidence from this research also shows that tiering, both upward to higher PPP levels and downward to the project level, is occurring in some electricity sector SEAs. That SEA outcomes are potentially tiering upward to influence the development of legislation is a finding that counters the often-cited notion that tiering in SEA is idealistic. This research indicates the need for additional focus on institutional arrangements that allow for SEA application to effectively inform and influence PPP decision-making in support of sustainability. The need for SEA as a higher order assessment process to capture regional and strategic impacts is becoming increasingly important in light of current federal legislation that eliminates environmental impact assessment requirements for many small-scale projects. However, although SEA emerged, in part, to inform and direct decisions made at the project level, the link between SEA, sustainability and operational decisions still remains elusive in practice.