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Risto Lahdelma, Pekka Salminen:
Siting a Waste Storage Area With SMAA-O Method

Techreport
Year: 2008
Number: 871
Institution: TUCS
Keywords: EIA; SMAA; multicriteria decision aiding; siting problem; solid waste treatment; ordinal measurement
Laboratory: Algorithmics

Abstract

We describe application of multicriteria decision aiding (MCDA) in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure for siting a waste storage area. The world’s largest biofuel-based combined heat and power (CHP) plant was built in Pietarsaari, Finland. The plant produces certain by-products, such as flue dust and bottom ash. The by-products need to be processed and stored to prevent releases to the environment. Different storage sites imply different impacts on people, nature and economy. Cardinal measurement of the different impacts was considered too costly. Instead, ordinal measurement of the criteria was applied, i.e., experts ranked the different alternative storage sites according to each criterion. In addition to pure ordinal information, the experts were able to state that some ordinal intervals were more significant than others. To properly treat this kind of information, we extended the SMAA-O MCDA method and used it to evaluate the acceptability of the different sites. Three of the alternatives were found acceptable subject to some valuations and one of them was acceptable subject to a wide range of different valuations. This alternative was then chosen for implementation.


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