As atividades humanas geram um conjunto de impactos negativos que afetam os ecossistemas aquáticos das bacias hidrográficas em geral. Essa deterioração dos corpos dágua está relacionada também ao crescimento e à diversificação das atividades agrícolas, assim como ao aumento da urbanização. Diante do exposto, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi avaliar a integração das ferramentas de suporte à decisão, predição da cobertura do solo e análise multicritérios, na dinâmica de áreas de conservação ambiental da Bacia Hidrográfica da Represa do Lobo (Itirapina, SP). Para isso, foi realizada a classificação supervisionada de imagens de satélites para a obtenção da cobertura do solo para os anos 2008, 2013 e 2018. Por meio de modelagem obteve-se a cobertura do solo para o ano 2028. Por fim, aplicou-se a avaliação multicritérios (padronização; hierarquização e geração de pesos; e ponderação) para a elaboração de cenários contendo os níveis de conservação para os anos 2008, 2018 e 2028. Os níveis de conservação para a data atual também foram obtidos em campo por meio de aplicação de um protocolo da diversidade de habitats nas estações seca e chuvosa. Os resultados demonstraram que houveram mudanças significativas durante o período analisado, mas principalmente nas classes relacionadas às perturbações antrópicas. O padrão espacial da bacia demonstrou que a área antropizada, a pastagem e o reflorestamento são as classes dominantes. A vegetação natural foi identificada em fragmentos nas áreas de nascentes do rio Itaqueri e ribeirão do Lobo, o que pode afetar de forma drástica esses corpos hídricos. Os maiores valores de conservação ambiental foram obtidos nas áreas de proteção ambiental e proteção permanente. No entanto, as áreas onde estão localizadas as nascentes do rio Itaqueri e ribeirão do Lobo resultaram principalmente em valores baixos e médios de conservação ambiental. Foram obtidos valores baixos em áreas no entorno da represa, devido as atividades de turismo e lazer. Diante do exposto, a integração das metodologias se mostrou satisfatória para a avaliação da dinâmica de áreas de conservação ambiental e os respectivos resultados podem auxiliar em um planejamento estratégico para a gestão adequada voltada à sustentabilidade dos recursos naturais da região. / In addition to the permanent protection areas, it is necessary that the entire watershed ecosystem is balanced, however, human activities generate a set of negative impacts that affect aquatic ecosystems. This deterioration of the water bodies is also related to the growth and diversification of agricultural activities, as well as to the increase of urbanization. In view of the above, the objective of this research was to evaluate the integration of decision support tools, soil cover prediction and multicriteria analysis, in the dynamics of environmental conservation areas in Lobo Reservoir Basin Basin (Itirapina, SP). For this, the supervised classification of satellite images allowed to obtain the soil cover for the years 2008, 2013 and 2018. The soil cover for the year 2028 was obtained by modeling. Finally, the multicriteria evaluation was apllied (standardization, hierarchy and weight generation and weighting) for the elaboration of conservation levels scenarios for the years 2008, 2018 and 2028. Conservation levels for the current date were also obtained in the field by means of application of a habitat diversity protocol in dry and rainy seasons. The results showed that there were significant changes during the analyzed period, but mainly in the classes related to anthropic disturbances. The spatial pattern of the basin has shown that the anthropic area, pasture and reforestation are the dominant classes. The natural vegetation was identified in fragments in the springs of the Itaqueri and Lobo rivers, which can drastically affect these water bodies. The highest environmental conservation values were found where the environmental protection areas and riparian forest are located. However, the areas where the springs of the Itaqueri and Lobo rivers are located have mainly resulted in low and medium values. Low values were obtained in areas around the reservoir, due to tourism and recreation activities. Thus, the integration of the methodologies was satisfactory for the dynamics evaluation of environmental conservation areas and the respective results can help in a strategic planning for the proper management directed to the sustainability of the natural resources of the region.

The work presented in this thesis aims at validating an original multicriteria performances estimation tool, NESSIE, dedicated to the prediction of performances to accelerate the design of electronic embedded systems. This tool has been developed in a previous thesis to cope with the limitations of existing design tools and offers a new solution to face the growing complexity of the current applications and electronic platforms and the multiple constraints they are subjected to. More precisely, the goal of the tool is to propose a flexible framework targeting embedded systems in a generic way and enable a fast exploration of the design space based on the estimation of user-defined criteria and a joint hierarchical representation of the application and the platform. In this context, the purpose of the thesis is to put the original framework NESSIE to the test to analyze if it is indeed useful and able to solve current design problems. Hence, the dissertation presents : - A study of the State-of-the-Art related to the existing design tools. I propose a classification of these tools and compare them based on typical criteria. This substantial survey completes the State-of-the-Art done in the previous work. This study shows that the NESSIE framework offers solutions to the limitations of these tools. - The framework of our original mapping tool and its calculation engine. Through this presentation, I highlight the main ingredients of the tool and explain the implemented methodology. - Two external case studies that have been chosen to validate NESSIE and that are the core of the thesis. These case studies propose two different design problems (a reconfigurable processor, ADRES, applied to a matrix multiplication kernel and a 3D stacking MPSoC problem applied to a video decoder) and show the ability of our tool to target different applications and platforms. The validation is performed based on the comparison of a multi-criteria estimation of the performances for a significant amount of solutions, between NESSIE and the external design flow. In particular, I discuss the prediction capability of NESSIE and the accuracy of the estimation. -The study is completed, for each case study, by a quantification of the modeling time and the design time in both flows, in order to analyze the gain achieved by our tool used upstream from the classical tool chain compared to the existing design flow alone. The results showed that NESSIE is able to predict with a high degree of accuracy the solutions that are the best candidates for the design in the lower design flows. Moreover, in both case studies, modeled respectively at a low and higher abstraction level, I obtained a significant gain in the design time. However, I also identified limitations that impact the modeling time and could prevent an efficient use of the tool for more complex problems. To cope with these issues, I end up by proposing several improvements of the framework and give perspectives to further develop the tool.

The shift in mindset of decision makers, from maintenance being a “necessary evil” and “cost centre” to a “profit contributor” in manufacturing companies has driven outsourced maintenance suppliers to employ value-centric approaches in order to design more effective maintenance programs. A value assessment for maintenance outsourcing must facilitate the trade-off between cost-centric and value-centric approaches to enable the maintenance service providers to design more effective maintenance organizations. This assessment should also help the customers in a well informed decision making in outsourcing their maintenance function in order to add value to their businesses. Therefore the aim of this research is to develop a decision making framework for maintenance outsourcing based on the assessed customer-value of outsourced maintenance services. Cont/d.

The idea of this study is to test if it is possible to use a modified Multi Critera Analysis (MCA) to automatically identify probable sites for roadside bombs in a country like Afghanistan. The intention is to create a sieving method that saves time when evaluating the threat in large areas. As the data available in such a country is sparse the method will be able to run on as little as a topographic map and a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The outline of the method is that features that construct a Vulnerable Point (VP) are identified on the map and then assessed by a developed formula of threat to see if they lie within an area where insurgents are known to operate. The result is then refined to show only the VPs on the road. These VPs are then converted to vector to enhance visibility at all scales. The constructed method does work on the data in this study but needs to be further evaluated on more complex data.

Decisions among alternatives that do not fit rigorous numerical frameworks are common. Such decisions, in which the various aspects of the alternatives are considered simultaneously, are called a tradeoff studies. Tradeoff studies may be more common than optimization problems, but are not generally formalized in written form.Tradeoff studies are broadly recognized and mandated as the method for considering many criteria simultaneously. They are the primary method for making a decision among alternatives listed in the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR) process.The field of Decision Making can explain why the mechanics of tradeoff studies are approached with underconfidence, and can also help eliminate biases from the tradeoff process. Many conclusions obtained from Judgment and Decision Making (JDM), Cognitive Science and Experimental Economics can be used to shed light on various aspects of the tradeoff process. Of course, since many experiments were designed to reveal truths about choice at a basic level, they do not exactly model the processes of tradeoff studies. The technique used to compare the basic experiments and tradeoff studies will be abstraction.Abstraction noun 1. a general concept formed by extracting common features from specific examples, 2. the process of extracting the underlying essence.What follows is a union of the fields of tradeoff studies and cognitive decision making. Because these two areas have never before been explicitly unified, I have produced some unfinished areas in which specific research needs to be done. At this stage, the work of unification must necessarily be conducted at an abstract level.

Proefschrift Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. / Met lit.opg. - Met samenvatting in het Nederlands.

Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse visent à proposer des méthodes pour résoudre les problèmes de la sectorisation multicritère en cartographie. En premier temps, nous avons défini les problèmes différents de la sectorisation et nous avons établi les liens entre ces problèmes avec les problèmes classiques qui sont bien étudiés dans la littérature : le problème de découpage de district politique, les problèmes de localisation et le problème du partitionnement de graphe. Deux types de méthodes ont été abordés pour résoudre les problèmes de sectorisation. Des heuristiques ont été développées et elles consistent à calculer un optimum de Pareto pour les différents problèmes. Et pour le problème de sectorisation à partir de pôles, nous avons aussi utilisé et expérimenté un algorithme de boîte pour trouver une représentation du front de pareto. La méthode exacte branch and bound a été utilisée pour résoudre le problème de sectorisation sans pôle prédéfini optimalement. Avant que nous appliquons cette procédure, nous ajoutons quelques inégalités valides dans la formulation mathématique pour restreindre l'espace des solutions et nous développons une procédure de prétraitement pour réduire la taille du problème. / The work presented in this thesis aims to propose methods to solve the multicriteria map sectorization problem in cartography. Firstlly, we have defined the different sectorization problems and we have established the links between these problems with some classical problems which are well studied in the literature : political districting problem, locationallocation problems and constrained graph partitioning problems. Two types of methods have been proposed to solve the sectorization problem. Heuristics have been developed and they compute an optimum Pareto for the different sectorization problems. And for the sectorization problem with predefined centers, we have used a box algorithm and experimented it to find a representation of the Pareto front. The branch and bound method was used to solve optimally the sectorization problem without predefined centers. Before we apply this procedure, we add some valid inequalities in the mathematical formulation for restrict the space of solutions and we develop a preprocessing procedure to reduce the size of the problem.

Neste trabalho é estudado o problema do atendimento de prazos na execução de serviços. O objetivo da pesquisa é propor um método de planejamento de produção para uma empresa prestadora de serviços de construção que atua no setor de telecomunicações. Após a descrição e análise do processo da empresa, são identificados os principais aspectos que devem ser considerados para a elaboração de um método de programação de atividades adequado. Cinco métodos são propostos e testados através de simulação. A análise dos resultados revela que o método ATC - Apparent Tardiness Cost, desenvolvido por Vepsalainen e Morton (1987), é superior aos demais em relação ao principal objetivo considerado, a minimização dos atrasos ponderados. / This work approaches the problem of meeting due dates in the service industry. The objective of this research is to propose a production planning method for a company that is responsible for projecting and building telecommunication networks. After the description and analysis of the company´s process, the main aspects that must be considered for the development of a convenient scheduling method are identified. Five methods are proposed and tested through simulation. The ATC rule - Apparent Tardiness Cost, created by Vepsalainen and Morton (1987), shows the best results regarding the main objective considered, the minimization of weighted tardiness.

Em um ambiente caracterizado pela elevação dos níveis de competitividade e surgimento de demandas mais complexas para a manutenção das instituições, cresce a consciência de que as abordagens convencionais para o tratamento da avaliação de desempenho não são mais suficientes. O cenário atual requer que se lance mão de ferramentas capazes de tratar essa questão com a devida atenção, utilizando, por exemplo, análises multidimensionais e referenciamento de unidades eficientes através do estabelecimento de benchmarkings. Este trabalho procura chamar a atenção da comunidade acadêmica para uma técnica capaz de auxiliar na obtenção de resultados satisfatórios para essa questão: a Análise Envoltória de Dados, ou DEA, disseminando-a como técnica a ser utilizada na realização de estudos que objetivem verificar a eficiência relativa das unidades sob análise através da proposição de uma sistemática de apoio à sua aplicação. Partindo-se de uma revisão que busca elucidar aspectos a respeito da importância de despenderem-se esforços com o estabelecimento de um conjunto de indicadores de desempenho adequado àquilo que, de fato, precisa ser medido, chega-se a um breve apanhado a respeito das principais técnicas de análise multicriterial utilizadas na avaliação de desempenho, com destaque para o Método de Análise Hierárquica - AHP - e a DEA. Especificamente quanto à DEA, foco deste trabalho, são abordadas, além dos modelos tradicionais que consideram retornos constantes e variáveis à escala de produção, respectivamente CCR e BCC, também algumas evoluções sobre os mesmos, considerando a atribuição de restrições aos pesos das variáveis, como no cone-ratio DEA, e a eliminação do eventual empate registrado entre unidades consideradas eficientes, caso do cross-efficiency e do super-efficiency DEA. Em seguida, procede-se à elaboração da sistemática para a utilização da DEA, núcleo deste trabalho, a qual consiste numa seqüência de passos a ser seguida com o intuito de viabilizar a aplicação da análise envoltória de dados em situações de naturezas distintas. A aplicação da sistemática se dá através do estudo de dois casos. No primeiro, tendo por objetivo sugerir uma nova forma de avaliar o desempenho dos países do globo tendo em vista o seu grau de sustentabilidade, 76 nações são avaliadas segundo as perspectivas social, econômica e ambiental, resultando na proposição de um indicador consolidado, o Grau de Sustentabilidade Nacional, ou GSN. No caso subseqüente, ao estudar-se as companhias de transporte aéreo de passageiros, objetiva-se identificar aquelas operacionalmente mais eficientes de acordo com seu porte de operação, resultando na identificação de uma certa influência quanto à origem geográfica das companhias sobre o desempenho apresentado, embora não se tenham identificado indícios de que afiliação a uma das grandes alianças globais também cause alguma influência no resultado. As aplicações conduzidas neste trabalho evidenciam a potencialidade de uso da DEA como ferramenta para a avaliação do desempenho sob uma perspectiva multicriterial em cenários distintos. / In an environment characterized by the raise in competitiveness levels and the emergence of more complex demands to deal with current issues, people get more conscious about the insufficiency of ordinary approaches for performance appraisal. The current scenery demands analysts to use a set of tools that are able to handle this issue with the required attention, for example, using multidimensional analysis and benchmarking efficient units. This work intends to call the academic community's attention to a technique able to assist the attaining of satisfactory results for this issue: the Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA, disseminating it as a technique to be used when conducting studies aiming at verifying the efficiency of units, through the proposal of a systematic to assist its implementation. Starting from a literature review that brings some light to aspects concerning the importance of establishing a set of performance indicators suitable for what, in fact, is in need of measurement, a brief summary of the main multicriteria techniques usually used for performance assessment is made, allowing more space for the discussion over the Analytic Hierarchy Process - AHP - and DEA. Specifically about DEA, focus of this dissertation, besides the traditional models that consider constant and variable returns to scale, respectively CCR and BCC, some extensions are also studied, allowing for weight restrictions, like in cone-ratio DEA, and the break of eventual matches registered among efficient units, like in cross-efficiency and super-efficiency DEA. Next, in the core of this work, a systematic for DEA implementation is structured, consisting on a sequence of steps to be followed in order to make the data envelopment analysis application feasible in distinct situations. The practical application of the suggested systematic is accomplished through the study of two cases. In the first one, with the objective of proposing a new way of assessing the performance of countries in their search for the sustainable growth, 76 nations are evaluated according to their social, economic and environmental perspectives, resulting in the proposal of a consolidated indicator: the National Sustainability Factor, or GSN. On the subsequent case, aiming at studying passenger transporting air companies, the objective is to identify those companies which are operationally more efficient according to their size, resulting in the identification of a certain influence of their geographic base location over the performance shown, although no evidence has been found that the affiliation to one of the major global alliances may also cause any kind of influence in the results. The applications conduced in this work evidence the potential for DEA to be used as a performance assessment tool under a multicriteria perspective in distinct sceneries.

This thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is dealing with the theoretical definition of the research issues - loans and multicriteria decision making. The second part focuses on the factual selection of the optimal variant for the selected client's loan. In this selection was used methods of multicriteria comparison. It were also compared loans from banks and loans which are provided by non-banking companies.