A multiobjective decision support/numerical modeling approach for design and evaluation of shallow landfill burial systems
Abstract
The capability to objectively evaluate design performance of shallow landfill burial (SLB) systems is of great interest to diverse scientific disciplines, including hydrologists, engineers, environmental scientists, and SLB regulators. The goal of this work was to develop and validate a procedure for the nonsubjective evaluation of SLB designs under actual or simulated environmental conditions. A multiobjective decision module (MDM) based on scoring functions (Wymore, 1988) was implemented to evaluate SLB design performance. Input values to the MDM are provided by hydrologic models. The MDM assigns a total score to each SLB design alternative, thereby allowing for rapid and repeatable design performance evaluation. The MDM was validated for a wide range of SLB designs under different climatic conditions. Rigorous assessment of SLB performance also requires incorporation of hydrologic probabilistic analysis and hydrologic risk into the overall design. This was accomplished through the development of a frequency analysis module. The frequency analysis module allows SLB design event magnitudes to be calculated based on the hydrologic return period. The multiobjective decision and frequency analysis modules were integrated in a decision support system (DSS) framework, SLEUTH (Shallow Landfill Evaluation Using Transport and Hydrology). SLEUTH is a Microsoft Windows$\sp{\rm tm}$ application, and is written in the Knowledge Pro Windows (Knowledge Garden, Inc., 1991) development language.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Monke, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Agricultural engineering|Sanitation
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