Multiple Criteria Analysis in Strategic Siting Problems / Edition 1

by Oleg I. Larichev, David L. Olson

Overview

1 Facility Location Problems The location problem has been with humans for all of their history. In the past, many rulers had the decision of locating their capital. Reasons for selecting various locations included central location,transportation benefits to foster trade, and defensibility. The development of industry involved location problems for production facilities and trade outlets. Obvious th criteria for location ofbusiness facilities includedprofit impact. In the 19 century, there seemed to be a focus on the cost of transporting raw materials versus the cost of transporting goods to consumers. Location decisions were made considering all potential gains and expenses. Some judgment was required, because while most benefits and costs could be measured accurately, not all could be. Successful business practice depended on the soundjudgment of the decision-maker in solvinglocation problems. Each of these enterprises produced some wastes. Finding a location to dispose of these wastes was not a difficult task. In less-enlightened times, governments resorted to fiat and land-condemnationto take the sites needed th for disposal. In the 19 century, industry grew rapidly in Great Britain and elsewhere as mass production served expanding populations of consumers. The by-products of mass-production were often simply discarded in the most expeditious manner. There are still mountains in the United States Introduction 2 with artificial facades created from the excess material discarded from mining activity. We have developed the ability to create waste of lethal toxicity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780792373797
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	05/31/2001
Edition description:	2001
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.02(d)

Table of Contents

1 Introduction.- 2 Methods and Decision Processes: Descriptive and Normative.- 3 High Level Waste Repository Selection.- 4 Analysis of Alternative Methods to Dispose of Plutonium.- 5 Project Selection and Control.- 6 Solid Waste Management System Selection.- 7 Pipeline Location Decisions.- 8 Problems and Tools.- 9 Support to the Multiattribute Decision Process.- Author Index.

Editorial Reviews

The current controversy over the U.S. Government's plan to bury radioactive waste in Yucca Mountain, Nevada underscores the importance of siting considerations in a variety of industrial and governmental contexts. Naturally, Larichev (Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia) and (Olson, Texas A&M U., US) give this example a central role in their treatment of multicriteria techniques for solving siting problems for a range of waste disposal facilities. After describing a number of multicriteria analysis tools on the operational level (including cost benefit analysis, weighting methods, analytic hierarchy process, and ELECTRE outranking methods), the authors discuss five examples of implementations of these methods to locations decisions, from the previously mentioned Yucca Mountain example to more mundane forms of waste facilities in Finland. Finally, comparative analysis is applied to review how the presented methods deal with various aspects of multiple criteria and the authors present their overall conclusions. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)