Abstract
Waste management problems are subject to uncertainties presented as intervals, random variables and/or fuzzy sets. During the past 20 years, inexact programming methods have been developed and applied increasingly to waste management problems under uncertainty. To obtain a snapshot of these studies, this paper gives a review on recent developments, applications, challenges, and barriers associated with inexact programming techniques in supporting waste management. The results indicate that the majority of inexact programming methods can be categorized as two-stage stochastic programming, chance-constrained programming, fuzzy flexible programming, fuzzy robust programming, interval-parameter programming, mixed-integer programming, multiple-objective programming, and nonlinear programming. The demanding areas for future research efforts would include: expansion of conventional concepts to quantify uncertainties, integration of single inexact programming method with other programming methods to deal with multiple uncertainties and even complexities (e.g. nonlinearities and interactions), integration of inexact programming with other modeling techniques (e.g. life cycle assessment, multiple-criteria decision analyses, and waste flow simulation) to support sustainable waste management, development of more efficient algorithms to solve the proposed methods, linkage of waste management with its environmental impacts (e.g. air pollutants and GHG emissions as well as leachate pollution) within an inexact optimization framework, and applications of the developed methods to novel (e.g. specific types of wastes) or real-world waste management cases in different countries.
Highlights
In a waste management system, there are usually various types of waste-management facilities with different functions, which are interrelated to each other through the transferred waste flows (Belien et al 2014; Ghiani et al 2014)
During the past several decades, various inexact programming methods were applied to waste management; they were mainly categorized as stochastic mathematical programming (SMP), fuzzy mathematical programming (FMP), interval-parameter mathematical programming (IMP), and combinations of these methods (Singh 2012)
This paper presents a review on application of inexact programming methods to waste management under uncertainty
Summary
In a waste management system, there are usually various types of waste-management facilities (e.g., incinerators, landfills, composting plants and recycling centers) with different functions, which are interrelated to each other through the transferred waste flows (Belien et al 2014; Ghiani et al 2014). Following this study, Maqsood et al (2004) proposed an inexact twostage mixed integer linear programming (ITMILP) model through integrating mixed integer, two-stage stochastic and interval-parameter programming approaches within a general optimization framework and applied ITMILP to the planning of regional solid waste management systems under uncertainty. Huang et al (2001b) developed an integrated fuzzy-stochastic linear programming model and applied it to municipal solid waste management, which integrates CCP, fuzzy linear programming, interval-parameter programming and mixed-integer linear programming within a general framework.
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