The research project was formulated to solve serious environmental and possible public health problems in rural and regional areas caused by the common failure of soil disposal systems used for application of effluent from on-site domestic sewage treatment systems. On-site sewage treatment systems adopt a treatment train approach with the associated soil disposal area playing a crucial role. The most common on-site sewage treatment system that is used is the conventional septic tank and subsurface effluent disposal system. The subsurface effluent disposal area is given high priority by regulatory authorities due to the significant environmental and public health impacts that can result from their failure. There is generally very poor householder maintenance of the treatment system and this is compounded by the failure of the effluent disposal area resulting in unacceptable surface and groundwater contamination. This underlies the vital importance of employing reliable science-based site suitability assessment techniques for effluent disposal. The research undertaken investigated the role of soil physico-chemical characteristics influencing the behaviour of effluent disposal areas. The study was conducted within the Logan City Council area, Queensland State, Australia. About 50% of the Logan region is unsewered and the common type of on-site sewage treatment used is a septic tank with subsurface effluent disposal area. The work undertaken consisted of extensive field investigations, soil sampling and testing, laboratory studies and extensive data analysis. In the field study, forty-eight sites were investigated for their effluent application suitability. The sites were evaluated based on the soil physico-chemical characteristics. The field investigation indicated that there were nine soil orders in the study area. These soil orders were Dermosols, Chromosols, Kandosols, Kurosols, Vertosols, Sodosols, Tenosols, Rudosols and Anthrosols. The soils in all the investigated sites were acidic soils in the pH range between 5 and 6.5. The complexity of the large data matrix obtained from the analysis was overcome by multivariate analytical methods to assist in evaluating the soils' ability to treat effluent and to understand the importance of various parameters. The analytical methods selected to serve this purpose were PROMETHEE and GAIA. The analysis indicated that the most suitable soils for effluent renovation are the Kandosols whilst the most unsatisfactory soil order was found to be Podosol. The GAIA analysis was in agreement with quantitative analysis conducted earlier. An extensive laboratory column study lasting almost one year was undertaken to validate the results of the data analysis from the field investigation. The main objectives of this experiment were to examine the soil behaviour under practical effluent application and to investigate the long-term acceptance rate for these soils. Twelve representative soils were selected for the column experiment from the previously investigated sites and undisturbed soil cores were collected for this purpose. The results from the column study matched closely with the evaluation conducted at the earlier stages of the research. Soil physico-chemical analysis before and after effluent application indicated that the soils' acidity was improved toward neutrality after effluent application. The results indicated that soils have a greater ability to handle phosphorus than nitrogen. The most favorable cation exchange capacity for soils to treat and transmit effluent was between 15 and 40 meq/100g. Based on the results of the column study, the long-term acceptance rate (LTAR) was determined for the investigated twelve soil types. Eleven out of twelve soils reported specific LTAR values between 0.18-0.22 cm/day. For the duration of the laboratory study, the Podosol order did not reach its LTAR value due to the extremely sandy nature of the soil. The time required to achieve LTAR varied between different soils from 40 to 330 days. The outcomes of this research was integrated into a soil suitability map for on-site sewage treatment systems for Logan City Council. This will assist the authorities in providing sustainable solutions for on-site systems failure.

Para auxiliar os gestores das organizações em seu processo decisório, o emprego de métodos de apoio à tomada de decisão é utilizado desde o século passado, a partir da década de 1950, havendo forte ênfase nas questões econômico-financeiras e operacionais das alternativas. Atualmente, o uso de métodos que consideram as questões relativas à sustentabilidade ambiental das alternativas é um assunto que tem despertado interesse, conforme se observa na literatura recente, ainda que relativamente escassa. Contudo, a práxis da maioria dos métodos multicritério existentes tem embasamento no tomador de decisão como um indivíduo ao invés de um grupo e a ampla diferença entre o comportamento de um indivíduo e de um grupo é negligenciado. Neste novo tipo de abordagem, soluções para resolver os conflitos que inevitavelmente surgem da necessidade de atender os diferentes critérios dos agentes envolvidos devem ser propostas. Para estes casos, a Teoria dos Jogos é reconhecidamente uma abordagem que permite a resolução de conflitos por meio da avaliação de diferentes cenários com diferentes alternativas. Neste sentido, a presente pesquisa apresenta um método multicriterial, baseado em indicadores de sustentabilidade em conjunto com a Teoria dos Jogos e o equilíbrio de Nash, para que seja uma das ferramentas de apoio na escolha do sistema de tratamento de esgoto sanitário para municípios. Para tornar possível a metodologia proposta, indicadores de sustentabilidade foram selecionados para serem usados como critérios na avaliação de alternativas de sistema de tratamento de esgoto. Além disto, vetores de pesos para os critérios foram definidos para representar perfis de jogadores. A partir disto, foi proposta uma função de pagamentos e um exemplo foi gerado a partir da definição do jogo e seus jogadores, tendo sido o software Gambit utilizado para encontrar o equilíbrio de Nash do jogo. Como resultado, a aplicação da metodologia proposta permite tratar o processo de escolha de ETE como um processo de escolha em grupo, ao invés de uma escolha individual, e visa contribuir para quebrar o paradigma da busca pela eficiência baseada nos critérios formados pelo binômio técnico e econômico na escolha de sistemas de tratamento de esgoto. Desta forma, a aplicação do novo método visa proporcionar meios para se enxergar o mesmo problema sobre diferentes focos e, com a utilização de diferentes critérios, poderia facilitar o processo da tomada de decisão para a escolha da alternativa técnica, econômica, ambiental e socialmente mais adequada. / To assist the managers of organizations in their decision making, the use of methods to support the decision are used since the last century, from the 1950s, with a strong emphasis on economic issues, financial and operational details of the treatment plants sewage. Currently, the use of methods to consider issues relating to the environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment plants is a subject that has attracted attention, as shown in recent studies, although relatively scarce. However, the practice of most existing methods are based on multicriteria decision-maker as an individual instead of a group and the wide difference between the behavior of an individual and a group is neglected. In this new approach, solutions to resolve the conflicts that inevitably arise from the need to meet the various criteria of the parties involved must be proposed. For these cases, game theory is admittedly an approach that allows the resolution of conflicts through the evaluation of different scenarios with different alternatives. With this research we sought to develop a measurement methodology based on indicators of sustainability in conjunction with game theory and Nash equilibrium, that is one of tools to support the choice of system of sewage treatment for a particular municipality . For the proposed new methodology, sustainability indicators were selected to be used as criteria in the evaluation of alternative system of sewage treatment and weight vectors for the criteria were defined as profiles of players. From this, we choose a function of reward and an example was generated from the definition of the game and its players, the software Gambit was used to find the Nash equilibrium of the game. The proposed methodology allows us to treat the process of choosing ETE as a selection process in group, rather than an individual choice, and aims to deconstruct the paradigm of the quest for efficiency based on criteria formed the duo in the technical and economic choice of systems for wastewater treatment. Thus, applying the new method aims at providing means to see the same problem on different sides, and with the use of different criteria, could facilitate the process of decision making for the choice of alternative technical, economic, environmental and socially suitable.

Para auxiliar os gestores das organizações em seu processo decisório, o emprego de métodos de apoio à tomada de decisão é utilizado desde o século passado, a partir da década de 1950, havendo forte ênfase nas questões econômico-financeiras e operacionais das alternativas. Atualmente, o uso de métodos que consideram as questões relativas à sustentabilidade ambiental das alternativas é um assunto que tem despertado interesse, conforme se observa na literatura recente, ainda que relativamente escassa. Contudo, a práxis da maioria dos métodos multicritério existentes tem embasamento no tomador de decisão como um indivíduo ao invés de um grupo e a ampla diferença entre o comportamento de um indivíduo e de um grupo é negligenciado. Neste novo tipo de abordagem, soluções para resolver os conflitos que inevitavelmente surgem da necessidade de atender os diferentes critérios dos agentes envolvidos devem ser propostas. Para estes casos, a Teoria dos Jogos é reconhecidamente uma abordagem que permite a resolução de conflitos por meio da avaliação de diferentes cenários com diferentes alternativas. Neste sentido, a presente pesquisa apresenta um método multicriterial, baseado em indicadores de sustentabilidade em conjunto com a Teoria dos Jogos e o equilíbrio de Nash, para que seja uma das ferramentas de apoio na escolha do sistema de tratamento de esgoto sanitário para municípios. Para tornar possível a metodologia proposta, indicadores de sustentabilidade foram selecionados para serem usados como critérios na avaliação de alternativas de sistema de tratamento de esgoto. Além disto, vetores de pesos para os critérios foram definidos para representar perfis de jogadores. A partir disto, foi proposta uma função de pagamentos e um exemplo foi gerado a partir da definição do jogo e seus jogadores, tendo sido o software Gambit utilizado para encontrar o equilíbrio de Nash do jogo. Como resultado, a aplicação da metodologia proposta permite tratar o processo de escolha de ETE como um processo de escolha em grupo, ao invés de uma escolha individual, e visa contribuir para quebrar o paradigma da busca pela eficiência baseada nos critérios formados pelo binômio técnico e econômico na escolha de sistemas de tratamento de esgoto. Desta forma, a aplicação do novo método visa proporcionar meios para se enxergar o mesmo problema sobre diferentes focos e, com a utilização de diferentes critérios, poderia facilitar o processo da tomada de decisão para a escolha da alternativa técnica, econômica, ambiental e socialmente mais adequada. / To assist the managers of organizations in their decision making, the use of methods to support the decision are used since the last century, from the 1950s, with a strong emphasis on economic issues, financial and operational details of the treatment plants sewage. Currently, the use of methods to consider issues relating to the environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment plants is a subject that has attracted attention, as shown in recent studies, although relatively scarce. However, the practice of most existing methods are based on multicriteria decision-maker as an individual instead of a group and the wide difference between the behavior of an individual and a group is neglected. In this new approach, solutions to resolve the conflicts that inevitably arise from the need to meet the various criteria of the parties involved must be proposed. For these cases, game theory is admittedly an approach that allows the resolution of conflicts through the evaluation of different scenarios with different alternatives. With this research we sought to develop a measurement methodology based on indicators of sustainability in conjunction with game theory and Nash equilibrium, that is one of tools to support the choice of system of sewage treatment for a particular municipality . For the proposed new methodology, sustainability indicators were selected to be used as criteria in the evaluation of alternative system of sewage treatment and weight vectors for the criteria were defined as profiles of players. From this, we choose a function of reward and an example was generated from the definition of the game and its players, the software Gambit was used to find the Nash equilibrium of the game. The proposed methodology allows us to treat the process of choosing ETE as a selection process in group, rather than an individual choice, and aims to deconstruct the paradigm of the quest for efficiency based on criteria formed the duo in the technical and economic choice of systems for wastewater treatment. Thus, applying the new method aims at providing means to see the same problem on different sides, and with the use of different criteria, could facilitate the process of decision making for the choice of alternative technical, economic, environmental and socially suitable.