The current decision-making processes involved in Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) in South Africa suffer from a lack of coherence and do not include evaluation of trade-offs between qualitative and quantitative impacts, as well as environmental, economic, and social dimensions. In addition, insufficient capacity and knowledge among authorities, a lack of objectivity among Environmental Assessment Practitioners (EAPs), and mediocre reports add to the problems associated with effective decision-making. This work presents a framework aimed at improving the effectiveness and objectivity of the decision-making process applied in South Africa’s EIAs in the energy sector. A number of decision-making models and tools are available to researchers and practitioners throughout the world that could potentially be applied in EIAs. Among these are Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM), and Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA). Each of the tools has its own advantages and disadvantages. With respect to the CBA, its biggest disadvantage is the fact that it requires conversion into monetary terms of all impacts, which is sometimes difficult to achieve. The RIAM, on the other hand, fails to provide a systematic approach to the ranking of alternatives. Both of these issues are addressed by the MCA tools. The MCA framework, furthermore, is universal, transparent, easy to replicate, and does not require a particularly large amount of labour and financial resources to complete. It is, however, subjective, but this shortcoming can be overcome by making the decision process more transparent. The framework proposed in this research paper is based on the Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) technique that allows the identification of the proposed development's cumulative impact versus the current status of the environment. It then compares possible alternatives, where available, in order to identify the most optimal solution. The proposed solution takes into account the trade-offs between the different impact metrics. The research methodology followed in this paper comprised four steps, namely:<ul><li> Selection of case studies, </li><li> Information collection, </li><li> Framework application and testing and </li><li> Feedback. </li></ul> The development of the framework followed an eight-step approach that is generic for MCA and was tested on two case studies that have already gone through the Environmental Impact Assessment process, i.e. the Open Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) plant in the Western Cape and the Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant in the Northern Cape. The former was evaluated against the "no-go option", but included a decision tree comprised of impact areas, categories of impacts and dimensions (environmental, social, and economic). The latter included alternatives for four components of the project, but the decision tree comprised only of categories and dimensions. The effectiveness of the framework was verified by testing the results of the case studies against the recommendations proposed in the respective Environmental Impact Reports. In all cases, but one, the results of the framework correlated with the recommendations made by the Environmental Assessment Practitioners in the respective studies. In addition, a workshop with the decision-makers was held to obtain their viewpoints regarding the usefulness of the framework in their decision-making environment. These decision-makers supported the use of the framework in their environment as it offered an integrated and transparent approach to the evaluation of projects and alternatives. They emphasised, however, that the decision-making process was complex and the application of the framework alone would not be able to address all the challenges. The case studies demonstrated that the proposed framework could be successfully applied in the process of undertaking impact assessments in the energy sector. It can be used to determine the trade-offs between impacts and dimensions, while taking into consideration the opinions of specialists and decision-makers when assigning weights. The framework has the ability to clearly illustrate the benefit of introducing mitigation measures and it also indicates an alternative that produces the optimal cumulative impact. In conclusion, the work presented contributes to the new body of knowledge in the field of Environmental Impact Assessment in the energy sector as it will assist authorities in making objective and informed decisions, while ensuring greater transparency in the process. It also opens opportunities for conducting follow-on investigations, such the application of the framework in other sectors of the economy, undertaking a sensitivity analysis to compare the range of scores used in the evaluation of impacts, and investigating the possibility of acquiring input from Interested and Affected Parties (I&APs) and integrating those into the framework. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM) / unrestricted

A public organization has a section for customer service which is responsible of order entry from customers concerning errands within real estate and business equipment, cleaning, transport operations and handicap appliance. According to the co-ordinators in hospitals within the organisation the customers are requesting for staff to talk to physically, meaning a person to speak with face to face. The customers experiencing that it’s sometimes difficult to call customer service or use the web form, which is the only communication paths in the current situation. Proposed changes presented claim that a complement to customer service with local service centers in every hospital. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a change proposition by weigh between efficiency and working environment, this by using multi-criteria analysis. To achieve the goal a decision model is designed in the decision tool DecideIT. The aim of the study is to recommend decision makers to choose one of the options based on as rational grounds as possible. The result of the study showed that the preferred alternative is not to supplement customer service with local service centers. For the most part, the result depending on the survey (represented result from working environment criteria) which showed that the majority of customers do not request a person to speak with face to face at all. / Inom en offentlig verksamhet finns en kundtjänst vilken hanterar orderläggning åt personal inom verksamheten av felanmälan och beställningar för fastighet- och verksamhetsutrustning, Städ- och transportverksamheter samt hjälpmedel. Enligt samordnare på sjukhus inom offentlig verksamhet efterfrågar personal möjlighet att prata med en fysisk person ansikte mot ansikte, då de anser att det ibland är svårt att ringa eller använda webformulär vilka är de ända kontaktvägarna i dagsläget. Utifrån detta har ett förändringsförslag presenterats gällande att komplettera kundtjänst med lokala servicecenter på varje sjukhus. Studiens syfte har varigt att med multikriterieanalys avväga mellan effektivitet och arbetsmiljö vid ett kompletteringsförslag av kundtjänst. För att uppnå syftet med studien har en beslutsmodell konstruerats i beslutsverktyget DecideIT. Målet med studien har varigt att rekommendera beslutsfattare inom verksamheten att komplettera kundtjänst eller inte utifrån så rationella grunder som möjligt. Resultatet visade att det föredragna alternativet är att inte komplettera kundtjänst med lokala servicecenter. Till största del är resultatet beroende på enkätundersökningen (representerar kriteriet arbetsmiljö) vilken visade på att större delen av kunderna till kundtjänst inte efterfrågar en fysisk person att prata med ansikte mot ansikte över huvud taget.

Multi-criteria decision aid has emerged from the operational research field as the answer given to a couple of important questions encountered in complex decisions problems. Firstly, as decision aiding tools, such methods do not replace the decision maker with a mathematical model, but support him to construct his solution by describing and evaluating his options. Secondly, instead of using a unique criterion capturing all aspects of the problem, in the multi-criteria decision aid methods one seeks to build multiple criteria, representing several points of view. This work explores the application of multi-criteria decision aid methods for optimising food chain countermeasure strategies after a radioactive release to the environment. The core of the thesis is dedicated to formulating general lines for the development of a multi-criteria decision aid model. This includes the definition of potential actions, construction of evaluation criteria and preference modelling and is essentially based on the results of a stakeholders’ process. The work is centred on the management of contaminated milk in order to provide a concrete focus and because of its importance as an ingestion pathway in short term after an accident. Among other issues, the public acceptance of milk countermeasures as a key evaluation criterion is analysed in detail. A comparison of acceptance based on stochastic dominance is proposed and, based on that, a countermeasures’ acceptance ranking is deduced. In order to assess “global preferences” taking into account all the evaluation criteria, an ordinal method is chosen. This method allows expressing the relative importance of criteria in a qualitative way instead of using, for instance, numerical weights. Some algorithms that can be used for robustness analysis are also proposed. This type of analysis is an alternative to sensitivity analysis in what concerns data uncertainty and imprecision and seeks to determine how and if a model result or conclusion obtained for a specific instance of a model’s parameters holds over the entire domain of acceptable values for these parameters. The integrated multi-criteria decision aid approach proposed makes use of outranking and interactive methodologies and is implemented and tested through a number of case studies and prototype tools.

In today’s world there are 2.6 billion people that lack basic sanitation (37% of world inhabitants). In August of 2012, Cranfield University was awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with $810,000 to produce a prototype of the Cranfield’s innovative Nano-membrane Toilet (NMT). Finally, the prototype is going to be exhibited at the “Reinvent the Toilet Fair” during 21st and 22nd of March 2014 in the Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi (India). Cranfield’s NMT demands electricity for its daily performance. Nevertheless, it is targeted to off-grid communities. Consequently, a human-powered generator (HPG) was selected as a backup solution. The current MSc by Research aimed to design and test of a prototype of the aforesaid HPG. Moreover, to promote its usage, a portable power supply unit is designed to store energy and power small-loads like charging mobile phones and electric lighting. To select the most suitable design for our case study, a methodology using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution has been developed. As a result the plugged-in bike HPG alternative was selected. Next, prototypes of this generator and the portable power supply unit were developed, tested and shipped for display. While testing of the plugged-in generator and portable power supply unit, 26 Watt-hours (Wh) were harvested over 15 minutes, with its corresponding average charging power of 105 Watts. Nevertheless, the present study concludes 96 Wh as a more accurate energy level to be harvested during one hour of pedalling. Considering 96 Wh of energy, a round-trip battery efficiency of 70% (lead-acid), and a NMT’s demand of 283 Wh; a 10 people household needs to pedal the HPG over 4 hours and 20 minutes. Nevertheless, if considering an 85% inverter efficiency, 57.12 Wh are available to fully charge one mobile phone (5.6 Wh) and provide 4.5 hours of room and desk lighting (11 Watts bulb).

Multi-criteria decision making is a common issue in everyday life. If the decision doesn't have a significant impact on the future of the company, it is possible to decide intuitively. However, if they do have such an impact, it is sensible to use decision methods. A company implementing changes via projects might find itself in a situation, where it doesn't have enough resources to execute all projects at once and therefore the company has to decide which projects shall be executed, when and in which order. The choice of an appropriate method also depends on other factors. If the company has strictly defined restrictions it is possible to use multi-criteria programming methods; if the company wants to know the order in which to execute the projects, it will use one of the methods of multicriteria evaluation of options. If there are multiple decision-makers, whose decisions might vary, it is possible to use team expert choice methods. The next important task after choosing the project selection method is to prepare project plans, also based on appropriate methodology.

In the energy field, the decisions need to take into consideration several factors such as the needs of the population, the environment, suitability, capital cost, sustainability, political goals and the actors involved, with their interests and preferences. The lack of homogeneity in all the factors that must be consider makes it necessary to design a process that guides the analysis process of any type of decision-maker. Decision analysis methods have been developed to aid decision-makers identify a problem, determine the criteria to be consider and their importance, recognize the stakeholders that need to be involved and pose the different alternatives to resolve or to best address the problem. These techniques range from simple to more mathematically oriented ones, from single criterion evaluation to multiple criteria, and from purely qualitative or quantitative to mixed techniques. Within the field of decision analysis, multi-criteria techniques are better suited to aid in decision situations in the energy field as these decisions require several considerations beside economic ones. This thesis uses theories and notions of decision analysis to construct a framework to be used in any energy related decision situations by non-experts. The framework tackles common challenges faced by multi-criteria decision analysis methods, including the identification of stakeholders and decision-makers, the aggregation of various decision-makers, preferences and heterogeneous inputs, and the selection of suitable criteria, alternatives and methods.

The rapid advance in information and communication technologies has effectively facilitated the development and implementation of information systems (IS) projects in modern organizations for reorganizing their business processes and streamlining the provision of their products and services in today's dynamic environment. Such a development brings organizations with numerous benefits including increased automation of business processes, improved customer service, and timely provision of effective decision support. As a result, evaluating and selecting the most appropriate IS project for development and implementation from a pool of available IS projects becomes a critical decision to make in modern organizations. Evaluating and selecting appropriate IS projects for development in an organization, however, is complex and challenging. The complexity of the evaluation and selection process is due to the multi-dimensional nature of the decision making process, the conflicting nature of the multiple selection criteria, and the presence of subjectiveness and imprecision of the human decision making process. The challenging of the evaluation and selection comes from the need for making transparent and balanced decisions based on a comprehensive evaluation of all available IS projects in a timely manner. Much research has been done on the development of various approaches for evaluating and selecting IS projects, and numerous applications of those approaches for addressing real world IS project evaluation and selection problems have been reported in the literature. In general, existing approaches can be classified into (a) cost-benefit analysis based approaches, (b) utility based approaches, and (c) optimization oriented approaches. These approaches, however, are not totally satisfactory due to various shortcomings including (a) the inability to tackle the subjectiveness and imprecision of the selection process, (b) the failure to adequately handle the multi-dimensional nature of the problem, and (c) cognitively very demanding on the decision maker. To address these issues above, this research has developed three novel approaches for effectively solving the IS project evaluation and selection problem under uncertainty in an organization. The first approach is developed for helping the decision maker better model the subjectiveness and imprecision inherent in the decision-making process with the use of linguistic variables approximated by fuzzy numbers. The second approach is designed to reduce the cognitive demanding on the decision maker in the IS project evaluation and selection process with the introduction of fuzzy pairwise comparison. The third approach is formulated with respect to the use of intelligent decision support systems for facilitating the use of specific multi-criteria analysis approaches in relation to individual IS project evaluation and selection situations. The developed approaches have been applied for solving three IS project evaluation and selection problems in the real world settings. The results show that the three developed ap proaches are of practical significance for effectively and efficiently solving the IS project evaluation and selection problem due to (a) the simplicity and comprehensibility of the underlying concept, (b) the adequate handling of inherent uncertainty and imprecision, and (c) the ability to help the decision maker better understand the IS project selection problem and the implications of their decision behaviours.

<p>Background and Motivation</p><p>Unlike what is common in Europe and the rest of the world, Norway has traditionally met most of its stationary energy demand (including heating) with electricity, because of abundant access to hydropower. However, after the deregulation of the Norwegian electricity market in the 1990s, the increase in the electricity generation capacity has been less than the load demand increase. This is due to the relatively low electricity prices during the period, together with the fact that Norway’s energy companies no longer have any obligations to meet the load growth. The country’s generation capacity is currently not sufficient to meet demand, and accordingly, Norway is now a net importer of electricity, even in normal hydrological years. The situation has led to an increased focus on alternative energy solutions.</p><p>It has been common that different energy infrastructures – such as electricity, district heating and natural gas networks – have been planned and commissioned by independent companies. However, such an organization of the planning means that synergistic effects of a combined energy system to a large extent are neglected. During the last decades, several traditional electricity companies have started to offer alternative energy carriers to their customers. This has led to a need for a more comprehensive and sophisticated energy-planning process, where the various energy infrastructures are planned in a coordinated way. The use of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) appears to be suited for coordinated planning of energy systems with multiple energy carriers. MCDA is a generic term for different methods that help people make decisions according to their preferences in situations characterized by multiple conflicting criteria.</p><p>The thesis focuses on two important stages of a multi-criteria planning task:</p><p>- The initial structuring and modelling phase</p><p>- The decision-making phase</p><p>The Initial Structuring and Modelling Phase</p><p>It is important to spend sufficient time and resources on the problem definition and structuring, so that all disagreements among the decision-maker(s) (DM(s)) and the analyst regarding the nature of the problem and the desired goals are eliminated. After the problem has been properly identified, the next step of a multi-criteria energy-planning process is the building of an energy system model (impact model). The model is used to calculate the operational attributes necessary for the multi-criteria analysis; in other words, to determine the various alternatives’ performance values for some or all of the criteria being considered. It is important that the model accounts for both the physical characteristics of the energy system components and the complex relationships between the system parameters. However, it is not propitious to choose/build an energy system model with a greater level of detail than needed to achieve the aims of the planning project.</p><p>In my PhD research, I have chosen to use the eTransport model as the energy system model. This model is especially designed for planning of local and regional energy systems, where different energy carriers and technologies are considered simultaneously. However, eTransport can currently provide information only about costs and emissions directly connected to the energy system’s operation. Details about the investment plans’ performance on the remaining criteria must be found from other information sources. Guidelines should be identified regarding the extent to which different aspects should be accounted for, and on the ways these impacts can be assessed for each investment plan under consideration. However, it is important to realize that there is not one solution for how to do this that is valid for all kind of local energy-planning problems. It is therefore necessary for the DM(s) and the analyst to discuss these issues before entering the decision-making phase.</p><p>The Decision-Making Phase</p><p>Two case studies have been undertaken to examine to what extent the use of MCDA is suitable for local energy-planning purposes. In the two case studies, two of the most well-known MCDA methods, the Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), have been tested. Other MCDA methods, such as GP or the outranking methods, could also have been applied. However, I chose to focus on value measurement methods as AHP and MAUT, and have not tested other methods. Accordingly, my research cannot determine if value measurement methods are better suited for energy-planning purposes than GP or outranking methods are.</p><p>Although all MCDA methods are constructed to help DMs explore their ‘true values’ – which theoretically should be the same regardless of the method used to elicit them – our experiments showed that different MCDA methods do not necessarily provide the same results. Some of the differences are caused by the two methods’ different ways of asking questions, as well as the DMs’ inability to express clearly their value judgements by using one or both the methods. In particular, the MAUT preference-elicitation procedure was difficult to understand and accept for DMs without previous experience with the utility concept. An additional explanation of the differences is that the external uncertainties included in the problem formulation are better accounted for in MAUT than in AHP. There are also a number of essential weaknesses in the theoretical foundation of the AHP method that may have influenced the results using that method. However, the AHP method seems to be preferred by DMs, because the method is straightforward and easier to use and understand than the relatively complex MAUT method.</p><p>It was found that the post-interview process is essential for a good decision outcome. For example, the results from the preference aggregation may indicate that according to the DM’s preferences, a modification of one of the alternatives might be propitious. In such cases, it is important to realize that MCDA is an iterative process. The post-interview process also includes presentation and discussion of results with the DMs. Our experiments showed that the DMs might discover inconsistencies in the results; that the results do not reflect the DM’s actual preferences for some reason; or that the results simply do not feel right. In these cases, it is again essential to return to an earlier phase of the MCDA process and conduct a new analysis where these problems or discrepancies are taken into account.</p><p>The results from an MAUT analysis are usually presented to the DMs in the form of expected total utilities given on a scale from zero to one. Expected utilities are convenient for ranking and evaluation of alternatives. However, they do not have any direct physical meaning, which quite obviously is a disadvantage from an application point of view. In order to improve the understanding of the differences between the alternatives, the Equivalent Attribute Technique (EAT) can be applied. EAT was tested in the first of the two case studies. In this case study, the cost criterion was considered important by the DMs, and the utility differences were therefore converted to equivalent cost differences. In the second case study, the preference elicitation interviews showed, quite surprisingly, that cost was not considered among the most important criteria by the DMs, and none of the other attributes were suitable to be used as the equivalent attribute. Therefore, in this case study, the use of EAT could not help the DMs interpreting the differences between the alternatives.</p><p>Summarizing</p><p>For MCDA to be really useful for actual local energy planning, it is necessary to find/design an MCDA method which: (1) is easy to use and has a transparent logic; (2) presents results in a way easily understandable for the DM; (3) is able to elicit and aggregate the DMs' real preferences; and (4) can handle external uncertainties in a consistent way.</p>

<p>In planning a suitable road network, planners put into consideration factors like gradients or slope of the area, available land-use and soil type, community or national landmarks and governmental interest. These different considerations and interest make the planning process complex and as such there might be confusion of interest in the decision making. The use of GIS and Multi-criteria analysis has helped planners to achieve desired and more accurate results and as such reducing the complex nature in the planning process allowing different stakeholders to reach a general conclusion.</p><p>Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) prevents the imposition of limit on the form of criteria and gives opportunity to decision makers to enter their own judgments. This provides a better communication among the decision makers and the entire community and as such creating a more open choice for analysis and possible changes if necessary. The aim of this thesis is to introduce the possibility of using GIS and MCA in road path planning in Nigeria, using Lokoja, the capital of Kogi state as a case study.</p><p>In actualizing the aim, satellite images of the area of study was obtained from the Landsat home page and analyzed to derive the land-use map. The land-use over the area of study was classified into five different classes using the unsupervised method of classification. A DEM over the area of study was downloaded from the website of the Consortium of Spatial information (CSI) and the DEM was used to derive the slope map over the area of study and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was used in weighting the criterions according to preference.</p><p>As the conclusion of the analysis, a road path between two points was obtained. The start point of the road was located on an approximate coordinate of 219002, 958986 meters and the destination point on an approximate coordinate of 320322, 878101 meters. The start and destination point were selected randomly without any pre-knowledge of the area. The thesis has succeeded in showing that it is possible to determine a road path between two points using Geographic information system (GIS) and Multi-criteria analysis in Nigeria.</p>

<p>This paper is part of the research programme ViSuCity, a programme with the goal of creating more sustainable urban planning through the development of better visual tools, which ultimately means better communication between various parties of public planning. The paper concerns the implementation of MCE into a 3D program for visualization. Multi criteria evaluation (MCE) is a technique that has been developed during the last 20 years. It merges GIS with AHP, forming a decision making tool for localization of, for example, new buildings.The result is an automated tool that enables advanced analysis of geographic areas.The tool has a very high potential due to the completely automated MCE and it is adapted for people without a technical background, let alone formal training in MCE. It provides great opportunities to test different scenarios, something that should be an important advantage. The incorporation of MCE into 3D models has made it easier for users to relate the maps to reality, since a detailed 3D model is very easily understood in terms of geographical placement. A brand new feature that has not previously been used is the ability to import new objects and give feedback to the analysis. A summary of research on the MCE underlines the current situation, that relatively little research exists surrounding the use and demand of MCE. This paper unfortunately contributes to this fact since no user studies have been done due to lack of time. This is something future research should focus on.</p> / ViSuCity