Long-term Planning Strategies Research Articles

Underground Logistics Network Design for Large-Scale Municipal Solid Waste Collection: A Case Study of Nanjing, China

The challenges arising from the management of municipal solid waste (MSW) have a profound impact on the sustainable development of urban areas. As a sustainable solution, the transportation of MSW underground offers the potential to alleviate traffic congestion and reduce environmental pollution. In this study, we propose the implementation of a large-scale underground waste collection system (UWCS). To begin, a comprehensive operational process for the UWCS is designed based on an intelligent technology system, including facility operation, processing workflow, and technical parameters. Additionally, network planning methods for the UWCS are presented. A mixed-integer linear programming model is formulated with the objective of minimizing total cost. This model determines the optimal location and allocation of nodes within the network, as well as the pipeline layout and flow direction. Given the computational complexity, a hybrid optimization method, namely the genetic greedy algorithms and genetic variable neighborhood search algorithms (GGA-GVNS), is devised to obtain high-quality solutions for the model. Finally, to validate the efficacy of the proposed method, a simulation is conducted in the central city of Nanjing, China. The results demonstrate that the implementation of the UWCS network in Nanjing’s city center can yield an annual benefit of USD 5.99 million. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis reveals further MSW management-related insights and long-term planning strategies.

Big data for the comprehensive data analysis of IT organizations

Businesses have begun using IT apps for a variety of reasons in recent years. The rapid advancement of new technologies has opened up vast prospects for businesses to digitise their operations, enhance their use of information systems, and compete more effectively in the global marketplace. Information technology (IT) businesses can benefit greatly from Big Data analytics due to the depth and breadth of their data analysis. Big data can be used to examine IT departments in the following ways: performance analysis, forecast maintenance, security analysis, and resource analysis. When it comes to boosting their business's dependability, speed, quality, and effectiveness, most companies rely on big data. Companies can gain a competitive edge thanks to the massive amounts of data that big data is able to collect, store, and manage. Big data analytics is being used by a growing number of businesses to make sense of their mountain of data. In this paper, we examine the ways in which IBM, TCS, and Cognizant use big data within their operations. Long-term planning strategies and business intelligence practises are also suggested in this research as means of protecting personal information.

Thawing permafrost poses environmental threat to thousands of sites with legacy industrial contamination

Industrial contaminants accumulated in Arctic permafrost regions have been largely neglected in existing climate impact analyses. Here we identify about 4500 industrial sites where potentially hazardous substances are actively handled or stored in the permafrost-dominated regions of the Arctic. Furthermore, we estimate that between 13,000 and 20,000 contaminated sites are related to these industrial sites. Ongoing climate warming will increase the risk of contamination and mobilization of toxic substances since about 1100 industrial sites and 3500 to 5200 contaminated sites located in regions of stable permafrost will start to thaw before the end of this century. This poses a serious environmental threat, which is exacerbated by climate change in the near future. To avoid future environmental hazards, reliable long-term planning strategies for industrial and contaminated sites are needed that take into account the impacts of cimate change.

Multi-Object Navigation using Potential Target Position Policy Function.

Visual object navigation is an essential task of embodied AI, which follows the user's demands to let the agent navigate to the goal objects. Previous methods often focus on single object navigation. However, in real life, human demands are generally continuous and multiple, requiring the agent to implement multiple tasks in sequence. These demands can be addressed by repeatedly performing previous single task methods. However, dividing multiple tasks into several independent tasks to perform, without the global optimization between different tasks, the agents' trajectories may overlap, reducing the efficiency of navigation. In this paper, we propose an efficient reinforcement learning framework with a hybrid policy for multi-object navigation, aiming to maximally eliminate the noneffective actions. First, the visual observations are embedded to detect the semantic entities (such as objects). And the detected objects are memorized and projected into semantic maps, which can also be regarded as a long-term memory of the observed environment. Then a hybrid policy consisting of exploration and long-term planning strategies is proposed to predict the potential target position. In particular, when the target is directly oriented, the policy function makes long-term planning to the target based on the semantic map, which is implemented by a sequence of motion actions. In the alternative, when the target is not oriented, the policy function estimates an object potential position towards exploring the most possible objects (positions) that have close relations to the target. The relation between different objects is obtained with prior knowledge, which is used to predict the potential target position by integrating with the memorized semantic map. And then a path to the potential target is planned by the policy function. We evaluate our proposed method on two large-scale 3D realistic environment datasets, Gibson and Matterport3D, and the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and generalization of the proposed method.

Barriers to adoption of industry 4.0 and sustainability: a case study with SMEs

ABSTRACT The concepts of sustainable supply chains and Industry 4.0 are progressively getting attention in different domains. Companies have started developing and implementing these practices in their business models. However, several challenges influence the adoption of sustainability and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study aimed (i) to identify the adoption barriers of sustainability and I4.0 and (ii) to establish the interrelationship among these barriers for SMEs. An extensive literature search supported by interviews with supply chain practitioners from three SMEs identified 12 critical barriers to adoption. The barriers are then ranked using ‘Interpretive Structural Modeling’. The results suggest that the ‘lack of resources’ and the ‘lack of employee’s competence/expertise’ are the most influencing barriers. Changing government regulations on the allocation of capital and financial incentives for SMEs to encourage training and skills development programs could promote sustainable supply chains and practices. The study also reflects short-, medium- and long-term planning strategies for supply chain practitioners for adoption of sustainability and I4.0 in SMEs.

Willingness to Pay and Time Trade-off in Thai Patients with Port-Wine Stains.

BackgroundPort-wine stains are congenital vascular abnormalities that impact children’s and parents’ quality of life (QoL). There are currently no established criteria for assessing the quality of life in PWS patients. Utility measures such as willingness-to-pay (WTP) and time trade-off (TTO) can be used to quantify disease burden, impact on QoL, and assess the cost-effectiveness of interventions.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey study in Thailand from July 2021 to April 2022. The questionnaire included sociodemographic data and preference-based measurement, WTP and TTO. The primary outcome was a WTP and TTO for PWS laser treatment. The subsample analysis for the primary outcome was based on gender (male and female) and age (<5 years and ≥5 years). The household income was measured for time trade-off outcome.ResultsOut of 46 respondents, WTP for the base case at 40% improvement cost 6109.01 baht per visit. Patients were willing to spend their time 9.95 hours per visit for a clinical improvement of 40%. Female was willing to pay and spend more time than male, while those aged≥5 years were willing to pay and spend more time than those aged <5 years. High household income >100k per month willing to spend less time than lower income groups.ConclusionThere were obvious correlations between WTP and TTO with clinical outcomes. Utility indicators such as WTP and TTO can be used to measure disease burden, impact on QoL, and assess the cost-effectiveness of interventions. WTP and TTO could provide a more personalized approach to improving QoL, considering each patient’s unique treatment plan and priority. This could help with patient uncertainty and long-term planning strategies to increase the QoL cost-effectively.

Evaluating the importance of urban green spaces: a spatial analysis of citizens' perceptions in Thessaloniki.

In Greek cities, urban green spaces are scarce and well below acceptable standards. However, policy makers and planners are not prioritizing long-term planning strategies for urban green and do not attempt to engage citizens in relevant decision-making and urban planning processes. In this context, a web-based public survey was conducted in the city of Thessaloniki (Greece) during the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to identify citizens’ attitudes, satisfaction levels, actual behaviour and future expectations about urban green spaces (UGS). It also aimed to measure the effect of COVID-19 (mobility) restrictions on UGS visitation. All these issues were explored through a spatial lens, by developing measurable and mappable results suitable for future urban planning decisions. According to these results, citizens tend to report a very low satisfaction level about the current state of UGS (in terms of their adequacy and quality), and they tend to travel a great distance to reach an urban park (about 2 km on average). Moreover, the results indicate that spatial differences are very significant in terms of UGS availability and accessibility. Another important outcome of this study is that, unlike in other cities, the frequency of visiting green spaces in Thessaloniki did not increase during the pandemic. On the contrary, a slight downward trend was observed, maybe due to the combined effect of restriction measures and the lack of proximity/availability of UGS to local population groups. The maps produced in this study may thus facilitate well-informed planning decisions related to the development of new green projects.

Changes in hourly electricity consumption under COVID mandates: A glance to future hourly residential power consumption pattern with remote work in Arizona

The transition to remote work brings uncertainty to the future power consumption pattern. The COVID mandates in 2020 have accelerated the transition to remote work, generating major uncertainty regarding how residential power consumption patterns will shift. Understanding these shifts is vital for regional operators who will need to implement long-term planning strategies if companies continue to adopt remote work practices. Additionally, if new COVID variants prompt extended stay-at-home mandates, the resulting behavior shifts will decide the optimal combination of power generation in a region. Our study examines changes in hourly residential power consumption patterns resulting from COVID mandates in Arizona. We estimate how the COVID mandates and subsequent remote work practices could change the power consumption patterns using individual-consumer-level hourly power consumption data for 6,309 consumers and a machine learning framework. We also simulate how the hourly power consumption pattern will change with increasing penetration of remote work under winter and summer temperature settings. We then use our simulations to test the policy effectiveness of changing time-of-use (TOU) rates. Our results show that COVID mandates likely increase the power consumption in the afternoon by 13%, and can change the power consumption pattern in winter from a two-peaked shape to a one-peaked shape. Furthermore, we show that the residents' income, race, and house size are significantly correlated with the changes in power consumption, and the correlation is not linear. We find that, by increasing the peak hour prices and decreasing the off-peak hour prices by 10% of the TOU pricing, the peak electricity demand could be reduced by 10%. Our results show under the new remote work era: (1) the need for modifying previous energy generation combination planning due to changing peak demand hours; (2) equity concerns regarding TOU pricing and the inability of vulnerable groups to shift electricity consumption; (3) the ability of governments and utilities to lower the maximum load of power consumption by modifying the TOU rates.

Why survey data is fundamental to developing data-driven strategies

Understanding airport customers is ever more critical to adapt operations to the current and post- COVID-19 airport market. Gathering insight as to how the airport market has changed is critical to help instill confidence in air travel, meet the needs of airport users and identify opportunities to enhance revenues. Survey research is the most reliable method of collecting information directly from individuals about what they believe and how they behave. Surveys can be administered using a variety of formats to help identify short-term operational challenges as well as long-term planning strategies. Survey design and data analysis, however, must be carefully executed. Ideally, project professionals should possess a deep knowledge of survey research methods and statistical analysis, as well as experience with the nuances of the entire airport ecosystem to ensure scarce budgets and resources are best used.

The development of intensive beef cattle farming system in North Sulawesi with strategy management concept approach

Beef cattle production in North Sulawesi needs to be increased because its growth was very slow, unable to keep up with the rate of consumer demand. The intensive system approach to beef cattle development was intended to increase production by increasing the ability or optimizing the productivity of the available production factors, where the current conditions for beef cattle development in North Sulawesi were generally maintained traditionally (extensively). This study aimed to obtain the concept of a long-term planning strategy from an intensive system of beef cattle development in North Sulawesi. A qualitative research method was used to determine farmers’ perceptions and formulate development strategies using a four-stage qualitative analysis approach, a Lingkert scale, and a three-stage strategy formulation for the David Fred model. The results showed that farmers in North Sulawesi were less interested in the application of the intensive farming system in developing beef cattle, because the traditional (extensive) farming system have been considered beneficial for the farmers. Therefore, to achieve the development of intensive farming systems, the strategy had to be built for driving force in the market and consumers.

Tsunami risk hazard in Tokyo Bay: The challenge of future sea level rise

Sea level rise is one of the major challenges facing humanity in the 21st century, and could compound the risks posed by tsunamis to coastal cities. The authors conducted computer simulations of tsunami inundation and propagation into Tokyo Bay, and analysed the risks that such events pose to the cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki, for different sea level rise scenarios . The results show that unless significant investment in improved coastal defences is made, the area that can potentially be flooded by such events will gradually increase in the course of the 21st century. However, the risk to the life of the inhabitants of these cities will broadly remain unchanged until sea levels become +1.0 m higher than at present. From then, the risk of casualties taking place will rapidly increase, as the depth and velocity of the tsunami wave will substantially rise. Such results provide some indication regarding the long-term planning strategy to manage coastal defences around Tokyo Bay, highlighting the need to eventually reinforce coastal defences and the important contribution of tsunami evacuation to minimize casualties during such events.

The Effect of Urban Land Use Changing on Green Area Neighborhoods No. 336 &amp; 338 in Baghdad – Case Study

The role of the green areas lies in being one of the systems that plays the vital role in achieving the environmental dimension besides the socio-cultural body and the economic dimension in the hidden value of ecosystem services. However, many developing countries are characterized by a state of low community environmental awareness, which coincides with the basic need for land for housing and other uses, to take precedence over nature protection strategies. In the absence of clear planning and long-term planning strategies, all this led to abuses and violations of urban land use. In Iraq, the situation became more apparent due to the political, security and social conditions that followed the year 2003. Hence, the research problem of the phenomenon of excesses on the use of green land in the Iraqi cities in general and Baghdad in particular, which led to many bad effects. The aim of the research is to explore the importance of green spaces and the value of biological diversity, and to detect the effects of the phenomenon of continuous abuses. In order to address the problem of research and achieve its objectives, the premise of its content has been developed: Green infrastructure as a hierarchical and interrelated thematic system that can contribute to the production of a basic design of the city that believes in its functions and enhances its role and ensure its sustainability. The study followed an analytical descriptive approach to data collection and vocabulary extraction in relation to green areas, levels and hierarchies, and the extraction of theoretical indicators for the effects of the changes that occurred on them. They were tested in practice in neighboorhoods no. 338, 336 in the city of Baghdad, in the light of a field analysis and survey. The research found a decline in the area of ​​green areas as their ratios do not meet the local and global standards required, especially with the increasing of urban and population density over the past decade. In addition to what the neighborhoods suffer from urban chaos and a severe shortage of infrastructure services. Greenness and its functional and visual role in beautifying the urban landscape can be observed only in the remaining agricultural use, in nurseries and orchards, which are private property that does not include the general population in the use of its functions. Finally, the research presented its vision regarding the treatment of the negative effects that were diagnosed, in light of the strategy to provide green spaces in the random neighbourhoods at multiple levels, starting with the residential clusters, through the streets and roads pedestrians, and ended with the level of neighborhoods.&#x0D;

An Integrated Simulation-based Process Control and Operation Planning (IS-PCOP) System for Marine Oily Wastewater Management

The chronic discharge of oily wastewater, mainly including bilge water, offshore produced water and ballast water, has been referred to as a major contributor to marine oil pollution. Although gravity-based treatment techniques have been widely used to separate oil from wastewater, many dissolved toxic organics, particularly Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), are not likely to be effectively removed and may cause severe environmental problems. Further treatment has therefore become necessary for the shipping and offshore oil and gas industries, particularly in the harsh environments (e.g., the Arctic Ocean) where ecosystems are extremely vulnerable. Among many chemical and biological treatment techniques, ultraviolet (UV) irradiation and advanced oxidation techniques have been recently regarded as promising solutions to the removal of PAHs. Such advanced treatment systems, as compared to the traditional ones, are usually lack of in-depth understanding of reaction mechanisms and kinetics, process control requirements, and long-term planning strategies. More particularly, the integration of process control and operation planning has been proven in the literature to greatly reduce process cost and improve system performance. However, such integration is usually complicated by many factors such as the multi-scale nature of decisions, the lack of knowledge of process dynamics and control, and uncertainty. These deficiencies can drastically hinder the widespread application of these advanced treatment systems in the shipping and offshore industries. In response to these knowledge and technique gaps, this research proposes an integrated process control and operation planning system to aid marine oily wastewater management based on experimental study, process modeling, process control, operation planning and their coupling.

Valuation of Flexible Transmission Investment Options Under Uncertainty

Significant uncertainty surrounds the future development of electricity systems, primarily in terms of size, location and type of new renewable generation to be connected. In this paper we assess the potential for flexible network technologies, such as phase-shifting transformers, and non-network solutions, such as energy storage and demand-side management, to constitute valuable interim measures within a long-term planning strategy. The benefit of such flexible assets lies not only in the transmission services provided but also in the way they can facilitate and de-risk subsequent decisions by deferring commitment to capital-intensive projects until more information on generation development becomes available. A novel stochastic formulation for transmission expansion planning is presented that includes consideration of investment in these flexible solutions. The proposed framework is demonstrated with a case study on the IEEE-RTS where flexible technologies are shown to constitute valuable investment options when facing uncertainties in future renewable generation development.

How Anglo/Dutch Collaboration Produced Radical Long-Term Integrated Coastal Planning Solutions for a Vulnerable Peninsula on Britain's South Coast

This paper describes how a small and vulnerable coastal community achieved one of the first examples in Britain of an integrated long-term planning strategy by reaching out to their European neighbours. Centred around Medmerry, Europe’s largest open-coast realignment scheme when it opened in November 2013, the strategy incorporates integrated and long-term adaptation of the Manhood Peninsula’s economy, environment and planning, recognising the particular climate change, development and infrastructure challenges facing a low lying, exposed peninsula in the south east of England. This paper describes the unusual history behind Towards ICZM on the Manhood Peninsula, demonstrating the value of listening to locals, combining different approaches and drawing on diverse disciplines and international experience and expertise. The paper describes how two local residents facilitated a ground-breaking five-day planning workshop involving experts from the Netherlands and Britain brainstorming with the local community and local authorities to explore a variety of sustainable, resilient and radical coastal management strategies to ensure the long term economic, social and environment future for the whole peninsula. The Going Dutch workshop helped a diverse and divided local population to understand and articulate their problems and aspirations. It also allowed representatives from local and national organisations to exchange views and concerns with each other and with local people in an informal but constructive manner. As a result of the workshop, the Manhood Peninsula Partnership was created, enabling further exploration and implementation of sustainable coastal, environmental and economic adaptations for the area. The paper outlines the partnership and its achievements, including its ICZM strategy that has been incorporated this year into the Chichester District Local Plan.

Effective Load Carrying Capability Evaluation of Renewable Energy via Stochastic Long-Term Hourly Based SCUC

This paper evaluates the effective load carrying capability (ELCC) of renewable resources, including wind and solar, via the stochastic long-term hourly based security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) model. Different from traditional approaches which approximate ELCC of renewable resources using system peak loads, nonsequential block load duration curves, or rolling-based sequential methods, the stochastic long-term hourly based SCUC could accurately examine the impacts of short-term variability and uncertainty of renewable resources as well as chronological operation details of generators on hourly supplydemand imbalance and power system reliability in a long-term horizon. Uncertainties of hourly wind, solar, and load in a 1-year horizon are simulated via the scenario tree using the Monte Carlo method, and Approximate Dynamic Programming is adopted for effectively solving the stochastic long-term hourly based SCUC model. Variability correlations between wind speed and solar radiation are considered within the scenario sampling procedure. Moreover, parallel computing is designed with the pipeline structure for accelerating the computational performance of Approximate Dynamic Programming. Numerical case studies on the modified IEEE 118-bus system illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed stochastic long-term hourly based SCUC model and the Approximate Dynamic Programming solution approach for evaluating ELCC of renewable resources. This would help independent system operators (ISO) designs effective long-term planning strategies for operating power systems efficiently and reliably.

Precipitation dominates fire occurrence in Greece (1900–2010): its dual role in fuel build-up and dryness

Abstract. Historical fire records and meteorological observations spanning over one century (1894–2010) were assembled in a database to collect long-term fire and weather data in Greece. Positive/negative events of fire occurrence on an annual basis were considered as the years where the annual values of the examined parameters were above (positive values) or below (negative values) the 95% confidence limits around the trend line of the corresponding parameter. To analyse the association of positive/negative events of fire occurrence with meteorological extremes, we proceeded with a cross-tabulation analysis based on a Monte Carlo randomization. Positive/negative values of total annual precipitation were randomly associated with the corresponding values of burned areas, and significant associations were observed for seasonal precipitation totals (spring and fire season). Fire season precipitation is the dominant factor coinciding with negative values of area burned, while years with high spring precipitation coincide with years with large areas burned. These results demonstrate the dual role of precipitation in controlling a fire's extent through fuel build-up and dryness. Additionally, there is a clear outperformance of precipitation-related variables compared with temperature-related weather revealing that, at least in Greece, total area burned at the national scale is controlled by precipitation totals rather than air temperature. This analysis improves our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of fire regimes and provides valuable information concerning the development of models relating fire activity to weather parameters, which are essential when facing a changing climate that may be associated with shifts in various aspects of the typical fire regimes of ecosystems. Our results may allow fire managers to more easily incorporate the effect of extreme weather conditions into long-term planning strategies. They contribute to the exploration of fire–climate relationships and may become more important if climate change scenarios are used to predict the occurrence of future extreme weather taking into consideration that climate change is discussed on the basis of changes of extremes rather than changes in means.

Establishing a space sector for sustainable development in Kenya

To expeditiously address fundamental national development needs e.g., health, education, food security and natural resource management; Kenya needs to invoke space-based technologies. A vibrant domestic space sector further spawns a plethora of other space-related opportunities – congruous with the government’s long-term planning strategy; Kenya Vision 2030. We specifically analyse Kenya’s technological environment, and then characterize phase-by-phase technological evolution it requires to establish a space sector and become self-reliant in space technology for sustainable development. Kenya needs to build human, organisational and societal capacity through ‘leapfrogging’ technology transfer mechanisms. Mastering satellite engineering, earth observation and acquiring launch capability constitute the priority areas.

Power and Liberty: A Long-Term Course Planning Strategy to Encourage the Contextualization of Events in American History

Applying a consistent historical theme throughout a social studies course is an effective long-term planning strategy that can promote student engagement, retention of information, and contextualized knowledge of history's continuity and change. This article demonstrates how one such theme, power and liberty, might be incorporated into a secondary American history course. Teachers should introduce the theme early in the course using questions designed to help the students define and understand the parameters of power and liberty as a lens through which the past might be viewed. A subsequent and repeated application of consistent scaffolding questions to events in American history promotes the analysis of how those events changed the balance of power and liberty for individuals and various groups in society. Armed with this contextualized knowledge, students can then apply the theme of power and liberty as another approach to the examination of current events in American society.

Harvesting heterogeneous renewable resources: Uncoordinated, selfish, team-, and community-oriented strategies

Using the example of a fishing fleet harvesting in different fishing zones with different carrying capacities and growth rates, we investigate strategies for the exploitation of distributed renewable resources by a crowd of agents without centralized coordination. In agent-based simulations we compare the performance of uncoordinated random harvesting, team playing, selfish individualistic and community-oriented (Collective Intelligence or COIN) behaviours operating with long and short time-horizon planning. Demonstrating the usefulness of COIN-based harvesting, more cooperative long-term planning strategies are found to relieve the pressure on the resource, reduce fluctuations and diminish the risk of overharvesting. Further, the outcome of an evolutionary dynamics where strategies in the agent population spread proportional to relative economic performance are strongly influenced by the harvesting pressure. In order of decreasing resource abundance we find that first an uncoordinated random, then a cooperative COIN-strategy and later the selfish strategy for an overharvested resource dominate the agent population. We also report that increasing harvesting pressure increasingly favours short-term and more individualistic strategies.