<p>Effects of functioning transportation infrastructure are receiving more and more environmental and social concern nowadays. Nevertheless, preliminary corridor plans are usually developed on the basis of technical and economic criteria exclusively. By the time of environmental impact assessment (EIA), which succeeds, relocation is practically impossible and only preventative measures can be applied.</p><p>This paper proposes a GIS-based method of delimiting motorway corridor and integrating social, environmental and economic factors into the early stages of planning. Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques are used to assess all possible alternatives. GIS-held weighted shortest path algorithm enables to locate the corridor. The evaluation criteria are exemplary. They include nature conservation, buildings, forests and agricultural resources, and soils. Resulting evaluation surface is divided into a grid of cells, which are assigned suitability scores derived from all evaluation criteria. Subsequently, a set of adjacent cells connecting two pre-specified points is traced by the least-cost path algorithm. The best alternative has a lowest total value of suitability scores.</p><p>As a result, the proposed motorway corridor is routed from origin to destination. It is afterwards compared with an alternative derived by traditional planning procedures. Concluding remarks are that the location criteria need to be adjusted to meet construction</p><p>requirements as well as analysis process to be automated. Nevertheless, the geographic information system and the embedded shortest path algorithm proved to be well suited for preliminary corridor location analysis. Future research directions are sketched.</p>

In this thesis I consider possibility to spend my vacation in one of the three countries: Spain, France, Italy. In each country I chose ten cities, which I would like to visit. I will use Travel Salesman Problem to decide the best route inside each country according to three criteria: Cost, Minutes and Transport. There is also a possibility to choose the type of transport: train or combination of train and airplane. Also I will use Weighted goal programming and Chebyshev goal programming to optimize all criteria simultaneously. In the end I will use multiple -- criteria decision analysis to compare results. According to three methods (ORESTE, ELECTRE III, TOPSIS) I will choose one of the states for my vacation. I will make all calculation in program MPL and in Excel using solver SANNA.

The aim of the thesis is to select a suitable heat source for a residential building using simulation modeling and multiple-criteria decision analysis. The market is offering plenty of possibilities, thus the part of this thesis is dedicated to description of main characteristics and pros and cons of most common heat sources (e.g. coal, biomass, natural gas, electricity, heat pumps). There are many ways to decide which source is an optimal solution for a house. In this thesis, there are presented four possible approaches: decision based on the analysis of the total costs of the source and the methods WSA, TOPSIS and ELECTRE III. In the end, the results of these methods are summarized together with the qualitative factors which are also considered in the decision making process.

Photovoltaic (PV) solar electricity generation has the potential to reduce the demand for more traditional fossil and nuclear power generation. Community PV solar installations allow energy users to share the electricity generated by these plants. Optimal siting of community solar installations will allow for maximum electricity generation while avoiding environmental conflicts, as well as, minimizing construction costs. This study identifies opportunities for community solar plants in Maricopa and Pinal Counties, Arizona, of ¼-acre in size. Input parameters fall into economic, physical, and environmental categories. Each of the input parameters were classified from 1 (not suitable) to 9 (highly suitable). Next, the classified rasters in each category were weighed according to importance, and Esri’s Weighted Sum tool was used to generate a combined raster for the category. The three resulting environmental, economic, and physical characteristic rasters were weighed again, and the Weighted Sum tool was used to generate a raster of community solar suitability scores. Next, a mask of locations inappropriate for community-scale solar development was created, including lakes, rivers, streams, and residential rooftops, which are too small to accommodate ¼-acre community solar installations. The masked areas were removed from the suitability raster, and the suitability raster was reclassified using standard deviations to generate a preference map with values ranging from 1 (low preference) to 3 (high preference). The model output reveals 68 percent of the study area is of medium or high preference for community solar installations. Maricopa and Pinal counties provide many opportunities for community solar installations.

The planning and implementation of effective water resources management strategies need an assessment of multiple (physical, environmental, and socio-economic) issues, and often requires new research in which knowledge of diverse disciplines are combined in a unified methodological and operational framework. Such integrative research to link different knowledge domains faces several practical challenges. The complexities are further compounded by multiple actors frequently with conflicting interests and multiple uncertainties about the consequences of potential management decisions. This thesis aims to overcome some of these challenges, and to demonstrate how new modeling approaches can provide successful integrative water resources research. It focuses on the development of new integrated modeling approaches which allow integration of not only physical processes but also socio-economic and environmental issues and uncertainties inherent in water resources systems. To achieve this goal, two new approaches are developed in this thesis. At first, a Bayesian network (BN)-based decision support tool is developed to conceptualize hydrological and socio-economic interaction for supporting management decisions of coupled groundwater-agricultural systems. The method demonstrates the value of combining different commonly used integrated modeling approaches. Coupled component models are applied to simulate the nonlinearity and feedbacks of strongly interacting groundwater-agricultural hydrosystems. Afterwards, a BN is used to integrate the coupled component model results with empirical knowledge and stakeholder inputs. In the second part of this thesis, a fuzzy-stochastic multiple criteria decision analysis tool is developed to systematically quantify both probabilistic and fuzzy uncertainties associated with complex hydrosystems management. It integrates physical process-based models, fuzzy logic, expert involvement and stochastic simulation within a general framework. Subsequently, the proposed new approaches are applied to a water-scarce coastal arid region water management problem in northern Oman, where saltwater intrusion into a coastal aquifer due to excessive groundwater extraction for irrigated agriculture has affected the aquifer sustainability, endangering associated socio-economic conditions as well as traditional social structures. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed methods. The first method can aid in the impact assessment of alternative management interventions on sustainability of aquifer systems while accounting for economic (agriculture) and societal interests (employment in agricultural sector) in the study area. Results from the second method have provided key decision alternatives which can serve as a platform for negotiation and further exploration. In addition, this approach suits to systematically quantify both probabilistic and fuzzy uncertainties associated with the decision problem. The new approaches can be applied to address the complexities and uncertainties inherent in water resource systems to support management decisions, while serving as a platform for stakeholder participation.

Infrastructure privatization decisions have an enormous financial and social impact on all stakeholders, including the public sector, the private sector, and the general public. Appropriate privatization decisions, however, are difficult to make due to the conflicting nature of the objectives of the various stakeholders. This research introduces a multi-criteria decision-making framework for evaluating and comparing a wide range of privatization schemes for infrastructure facilities. The framework is designed to resolve conflicts that arise because of the varying points of view of the stakeholders, and accordingly, determine the most appropriate decision that satisfies all stakeholders’ preferences. The developed framework is expected to help in re-engineering the traditional conflict resolution process, particularly for construction conflict resolution and infrastructure privatization decisions. The framework provides decision support at the management level through three successive decision support processes related to 1. Screening of feasible solutions using the Elimination Method of multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA); 2. Analyzing the actions and counteractions of decision makers using conflict resolution and decision stability concepts to determine the most stable resolution; and 3. Considering the uncertainty in decision maker’s preferences using Info-gap Theory to evaluate the robustness of varying uncertainty levels of the decisions. Based on the research, a procedure and a decision support system (DSS) have been developed and tested on real-life case studies of a wastewater treatment plant and a construction conflict. The results of the two case studies show that the proposed DSS can be used to support decisions effectively with respect to both construction conflicts and infrastructure privatization. The developed system is simple to apply and can therefore save time and avoid the costs associated with unsatisfactory decisions. This research is expected to contribute significantly to the understanding and selecting of proper Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) programs for infrastructure assets.

Infrastructure privatization decisions have an enormous financial and social impact on all stakeholders, including the public sector, the private sector, and the general public. Appropriate privatization decisions, however, are difficult to make due to the conflicting nature of the objectives of the various stakeholders. This research introduces a multi-criteria decision-making framework for evaluating and comparing a wide range of privatization schemes for infrastructure facilities. The framework is designed to resolve conflicts that arise because of the varying points of view of the stakeholders, and accordingly, determine the most appropriate decision that satisfies all stakeholders’ preferences. The developed framework is expected to help in re-engineering the traditional conflict resolution process, particularly for construction conflict resolution and infrastructure privatization decisions. The framework provides decision support at the management level through three successive decision support processes related to 1. Screening of feasible solutions using the Elimination Method of multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA); 2. Analyzing the actions and counteractions of decision makers using conflict resolution and decision stability concepts to determine the most stable resolution; and 3. Considering the uncertainty in decision maker’s preferences using Info-gap Theory to evaluate the robustness of varying uncertainty levels of the decisions. Based on the research, a procedure and a decision support system (DSS) have been developed and tested on real-life case studies of a wastewater treatment plant and a construction conflict. The results of the two case studies show that the proposed DSS can be used to support decisions effectively with respect to both construction conflicts and infrastructure privatization. The developed system is simple to apply and can therefore save time and avoid the costs associated with unsatisfactory decisions. This research is expected to contribute significantly to the understanding and selecting of proper Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) programs for infrastructure assets.

Gyvenant šių dienų Lietuvoje jau neužtenka buityje ar gamyboje susidarančių atliekų tvarkyti taip kaip buvome įpratę anksčiau. Kitaip tvarkyti atliekas skatina Europos Sajungos ir kiti tarptautiniai įsipareigojimai. Gerėjant gyventojų gyvenimo sąlygoms, išaugus vartojimui, žmonės ypač daug perka ir keičia buitinės technikos, bei kitų prekių, kurių pasekoje susidaro įvairių atliekų. Lietuvoje pasirinkta strategija įdiegiant regioninę atliekų tvarkymo sistemą, nors žvelgiant į atskiras savivaldybes, galima teigti, kad kai kuriose ši, regioninė atliekų tvarkymo sistema nėra optimaliausias variantas. Regioninės atliekų tvarkymo sistemos diegimui, apskričių savivaldybės yra įkūrusios regiono atliekų tvarkymo centrus, kurių vienas artimiausiu tikslų tai senų sąvartynų uždarymas. Kaip tik sąvartynų uždarymo klausimui spręsti galime panaudoti sprendimų paramos sistemas, o būtent, daugiakriterinę analizę. Daugiakriterinei analizei atlikti gali būti pasitelkiama keletas kompiuterinių programų, tokių kaip HYPSE ar Sprendimų analizės modulis (DAM), kurią šiame darbe ir naudojame. Sprendimų analizės modulio panaudojimui buvo nustatyti tam tikri kriterijai, o alternatyva tai kiekvienas Jurbarko rajono sąvartynas. Kiekvienas kriterijus apibūdina kiekvieną alternatyvą (sąvartyną). / These days there isn‘t enough just taking care of communal or industry waste as we all are accustomed in Lithuania. The different waste managing is Europian Union and other international commit for Lithuania. Better everyday life in Lithuania brings bigger usage, that makes people to buy more life eguipment and other everyday goods, which brings to new waste. There is a regional waste managing system strategy in Lithuania, which isn't very optimal system for some of the Lithuanian municipalities. For this purpose district local governments established regional waste management centers, whose one of the first tasks is to close old landfills. For this problem to solve we will use decision making preferences, and that is multiple criteria decision analysis. There is several computer software for applying multiple criteria decision analysis, just like HYPSE and Decision analysis module (DAM), wich one we used in this study. For use of Decision analysis module we defined criteria, and alternative was Jurbarkas district landfills. Every criteria characterizes every alternative (landfill).

Cloud computing is an emerging trend where clients are billed for services on a pay-per-use basis. Service level agreements define the formal negotiations between the clients and the service providers on common metrics such as processing power, memory and bandwidth. In the case of service level agreement violations, the service provider is penalised. From service provider's point of view, providing cloud services efficiently within the negotiated metrics is an important problem. Particularly, in large-scale data center settings, manual administration for resource allocation is not a feasible option. Service providers aim to maximize resource utilization in the data center, as well as, avoiding service level agreement violations. On the other hand, from the client's point of view, the cloud must continuously ensure enough resources to the changing workloads of hosted application environments and services. Therefore, an autonomous cloud manager that is capable of dynamically allocating resources in order to satisfy both the client and the service provider's requirements emerges as a necessity. In this thesis, we focus on the autonomous resource allocation in cloud computing environments. A distributed resource consolidation manager for clouds, called IMPROMPTU, was introduced in our previous studies. IMPROMPTU adopts a threshold based reactive design where each unique physical machine is coupled with an autonomous node agent that manages resource consolidation independently from the rest of the autonomous node agents. In our previous studies, IMPROMPTU demonstrated the viability of Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to provide resource consolidation management that simultaneously achieves lower numbers of reconfiguration events and service level agreement violations under the management of three well-known outranking-based methods called PROMETHEE II, ELECTRE III and PAMSSEM II. The interesting question of whether more efficient single synthesizing criterion and outranking based MCDA methods exist was left open for research. This thesis addresses these limitations by analysing the capabilities of IMPROMPTU using a comprehensive set of single synthesizing criterion and outranking based MCDA methods in the context of dynamic resource allocation. The performances of PROMETHEE II, ELECTRE III, PAMSSEM II, REGIME, ORESTE, QUALIFEX, AHP and SMART are investigated by in-depth analysis of simulation results. Most importantly, the question of what denotes the properties of good MCDA methods for this problem domain is answered. / Graduate / 0984

Due to the increase in investments in physical structure and incentives by educational institutions, agencies of innovation promotion and financing, technology-based companies show annual growth. However, organizations need to be prepared for positive or negative scenarios, reinforcing how the strategy becomes evolutionary, as well as each business that interacts with its environment. For the entrepreneurs, understanding the value of the organizational life cycle means identifying changes likely to interfere with the company growth and development. Taking into account these scenarios, this dissertation research aimed to propose a model for measuring the level of competitiveness in technology-based companies based on intangible assets related to each phase of the organizational life cycle, through a bibliographical and applied research on the characteristics of the sector. The entire model used 57 performance indicators, considering theories about Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and some elements of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The proposed research instrument was applied in 31 companies, and seven of them are situated in the creation stage, 5 in the launch phase, 9 in the stabilization phase, 3 in the expansion phase, 1 in the ripening phase, and 6 in the evolution phase. This modeling considered each organizational life cycle, returning in its evaluation stage an index representative of the competitive performance of each evaluated company, then allowing the comparison and discussion of the results obtained. In addition, simulations were exemplified in the case of that companies had adopted strategic actions. Thus, it is concluded to be possible to measure and evaluate the competitiveness level in technology-based companies considering the intangible assets which interfere in the organizational life cycle. / Devido ao aumento de investimentos em estrutura física e aos incentivos por parte das instituições de ensino, órgãos de fomento e financiamento à inovação, às empresas de base tecnológica apresentam crescimento anualmente. Entretanto, as organizações necessitam estar preparadas para cenários positivos ou negativos, reforçando o quanto a estratégia faz-se evolutiva, assim como cada negócio que interage com o seu ambiente. Para os empreendedores, entender o valor do ciclo de vida organizacional significa identificar as mudanças que acontecem com o crescimento e desenvolvimento da empresa. Além disso, em um ambiente competitivo, os ativos intangíveis têm sido a fonte de vantagens sustentáveis para o aumento de valor nas organizações. Frente a estes cenários, a pesquisa desenvolvida nesta dissertação de mestrado teve por objetivo propor uma modelagem de mensuração do nível de competitividade em empresas de base tecnológica a partir dos ativos intangíveis que interferem no ciclo de vida organizacional, fundamentada em uma pesquisa bibliográfica e aplicada sobre as características do setor. No total foram levantadas 57 indicadores de desempenho, utilizando-se para tanto os pressupostos referente aos Key Performance Indicators (KPI) e alguns elementos de Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). O instrumento de pesquisa proposto foi aplicado em 31 empresas, sendo que sete encontram-se na fase da criação, 5 na fase de lançamento, 9 na fase de estabilização, 3 na fase expansão, 1 na fase de amadurecimento e 6 na fase de evolução. A modelagem foi baseada em cada ciclo de vida, retornando em sua etapa de avaliação um índice que representa o desempenho competitivo em cada empresa avaliada, permitindo-se assim a comparação e discussão dos resultados obtidos. Posteriormente, foram exemplificadas simulações, caso as empresas adotassem ações estratégicas. Ao término, conclui-se que é possível medir e avaliar o nível de competitividade em empresas de base tecnológica a partir dos ativos intangíveis que interferem no ciclo de vida organizacional.