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Environmental Management Optimization
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Environmental Management Optimization

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2021) | Viewed by 12534

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Angel Udías Moinelo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
European Commission, Directorate D – Sustainable Resources– Joint Research Center, via E. Fermi 2749, 21027 Ispra (VA), Italy
Interests: water resources management, environmental impact assessment, decision support systems, multi-criteria analyses, heuristics, machine learning, participatory processes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Lluís Miquel Plà-Aragonès

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mathematics, University of Lleida, Fac. of Law, Economics and Tourism 73, Jaume II, 25001 Lleida, Spain
Interests: operations research mainly in agriculture; herd management and markov decision models; decision models applied to farm systems; decision support systems; agrifood supply chain management optimisation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The next decade will be critical in the transition to climate neutrality and sustainable consumption and production. This transformation will require new environmental management strategies able to satisfy water, food, energy and material demands in an environmentally sustainable way. Operation research will play a key role in the search for such environmentally sustainable strategies. The perspective and approach to these problems may differ in developing countries, so we also encourage contributions emphasising this aspect. We expect that this issue will help in the understanding, dissemination, and development of solutions to the complex environmental problems that society has to solve in an adequate way in the coming years. This Special Issue intends to put together the newest studies related to optimization techniques for environmental management including energy, water, food, and other environmental issues.

Prof. Dr. Angel Udías Moinelo
Prof. Dr. Lluís Miquel Plà-Aragonès
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Environmental resources management optimization
  • Optimization approaches to food-energy-water nexus
  • Land-use planning and management
  • Environmental decision support tools
  • Multi-objective optimization
  • Sustainable supply chain 
  • Water resources management optimization
  • Sustainable forest management
  • Bioenergy supply chain optimization
  • Pollution control optimization
  • Ecosystem services management
  • Optimization models for development in the domain of environmental regulation and competition
  • OR in environment and climate change adaptation
  • Wildlife protection optimization
  • Optimization pollution monitoring network
  • Routing optimization for waste management
  • Agricultural, water, and fertilization management
  • Manure farm management
  • Agricultural sustainable land management

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 4870 KiB  
Article
Bioenergy Potential of Crop Residues in the Senegal River Basin: A Cropland–Energy–Water-Environment Nexus Approach
by Marco Pastori, Angel Udias, Luigi Cattaneo, Magda Moner-Girona, Awa Niang and Cesar Carmona-Moreno
Sustainability 2021, 13(19), 11065; https://doi.org/10.3390/su131911065 - 07 Oct 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2116
Abstract
Access to energy services is a priority for sustainable economic development, especially in rural areas, where small- and medium-sized enterprises have many difficulties in accessing reliable and affordable electricity. Western African countries are highly dependent on biomass resources; therefore, understanding the potential of [...] Read more.
Access to energy services is a priority for sustainable economic development, especially in rural areas, where small- and medium-sized enterprises have many difficulties in accessing reliable and affordable electricity. Western African countries are highly dependent on biomass resources; therefore, understanding the potential of bioenergy from crop residues is crucial to designing effective land-management practices. The assessment of the capability to use crop residues for electricity production is particularly important in those regions where agriculture is the dominant productive sector and where electrification through grid extension might be challenging. The objective of this work was to guide the development of sustainable strategies for rural areas that support energy development by simultaneously favouring food self-sufficiency capacity and environmental benefits. These complex interlinkages have been jointly assessed in the Senegal river basin by an integrated optimization system using a cropland–energy–water-environment nexus approach. The use of the nexus approach, which integrates various environmental factors, is instrumental to identify optimal land-energy strategies and provide decision makers with greater knowledge of the potential multiple benefits while minimizing trade-offs of the new solutions such as those connected to farmers’ needs, local energy demand, and food and land aspects. By a context-specific analysis, we estimated that, in 2016, 7 million tons of crop residues were generated, resulting in an electricity potential of 4.4 million MWh/year. Several sustainable land-energy management strategies were explored and compared with the current management strategy. Our results indicate that bioenergy production from crop residues can increase with significant variability from 5% to +50% depending on the strategy constraints considered. An example analysis of alternative irrigation in the Guinea region clearly illustrates the existing conflict between water, energy, and food: strategies optimizing bioenergy achieved increases both for energy and food production (+6%) but at the expense of increasing water demand by a factor of nine. The same water demand increase can be used to boost food production (+10%) if a modest decrease in bioenergy production is accepted (−13%). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Management Optimization)
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20 pages, 952 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Sustainable Forest and Air Quality Management and the Current Situation in Europe through Operation Research Methods
by Gokhan Ozkaya and Ceren Erdin
Sustainability 2020, 12(24), 10588; https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410588 - 18 Dec 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2357
Abstract
Forests cover 30 percent of the Earth’s land surface, almost four billion hectares, and they are necessary to sustain human health, economic growth, and environmental health. Approximately 25 percent of the global population depends on forests for food and work. The world population [...] Read more.
Forests cover 30 percent of the Earth’s land surface, almost four billion hectares, and they are necessary to sustain human health, economic growth, and environmental health. Approximately 25 percent of the global population depends on forests for food and work. The world population is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Therefore, there is a need for urgent action plans at all levels to ensure sustainable forest management and policy collaboration among all stakeholders, in order for forests to continue to serve our ecosystem and life in the future. The study compares 30 countries using 15 indicators related to forest and air quality. This was performed with TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and VIKOR (VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje, meaning Multi-Criteria Optimization and Compromise Solution), which are among the most used multi-criteria decision-making methods in the literature. According to the analysis results, Denmark, Luxembourg, Lithuania, and Germany are the best performing countries in terms of indicators, whereas Slovakia, Estonia, Turkey, Latvia, Chile, and Canada are the worst performing. The paper aims to present the current situation of some developed and developing countries and compare them to each other in terms of forest and air quality indicators. In addition, the article aims to inform all stakeholders and raise awareness to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Global Forest Goals of the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017–2030 targets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Management Optimization)
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Review

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29 pages, 1671 KiB  
Review
A Review on Sustainability of Watershed Management in Indonesia
by Budi Hadi Narendra, Chairil Anwar Siregar, I Wayan Susi Dharmawan, Asep Sukmana, Pratiwi, Irfan Budi Pramono, Tyas Mutiara Basuki, Hunggul Yudono Setio Hadi Nugroho, Agung Budi Supangat, Purwanto, Ogi Setiawan, Ryke Nandini, Nur Arifatul Ulya, Virni Budi Arifanti and Tri Wira Yuwati
Sustainability 2021, 13(19), 11125; https://doi.org/10.3390/su131911125 - 08 Oct 2021
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 7007
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of the implementation and obstacles of watershed management, and the alternative solutions based on a synoptic review of related studies and experiences across Indonesia. The review found that problems in the institutional aspect were hierarchical confusion, discrepancy, and [...] Read more.
This paper provides an overview of the implementation and obstacles of watershed management, and the alternative solutions based on a synoptic review of related studies and experiences across Indonesia. The review found that problems in the institutional aspect were hierarchical confusion, discrepancy, and asynchrony among regulations, and weak (participation, synchronization, and coordination) among watershed management stakeholders. The weaknesses in the planning stage are integration among sectors, a lack of community participation, and limited readiness to integrate watershed planning into regional planning. Stakeholders’ involvement is also a critical factor in successful implementation of degraded watershed rehabilitation, including in peatland and mangrove areas. Failure should be minimized by providing adequate information on degraded watershed characteristics, appropriate species choices, and effective mechanical construction for soil and water conservation. Community participation as the main factor in driving watershed management should be achieved by strengthening public awareness of the importance of a sustainable watershed and providing access for the community to be involved in each stage of watershed management. Another problem is data gaps which are essential to address from the planning to evaluation stages. The gaps can be bridged by using remotely sensed data and by applying hydrological-based simulation models. Simplified criteria for watershed assessment may also be required, depending on site-specific issues and the watershed scale. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Management Optimization)
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