Avetisyan, H G (2013) Sustainable infrastructure modeling and policy analyses: Construction, energy and transportation industries. PhD thesis, University of Maryland, College Park, USA.
Abstract
Sustainable infrastructure operation assumes consideration of interrelated elements and problems within interacting industries in which the decisions made for one industry may affect those in interrelated industries. Problems related to global climate change and resource scarcity are main concerns for a society trying to build a sustainable infrastructure. These problems are targeted from many perspectives, including government-enforced policies and regulations that call for energy efficiency and transportation efficiency to build a sustainable infrastructure. There is a growing interest among engineers in accounting for sustainability under the impact of climate change policies that limit the amount of pollutants being released from projects and facilities. While specific problems can be targeted by specialists in each industry or field, an optimal sustainable solution will be very difficult to find if considered separately. Despite that directions for improvement are defined, the methods and techniques for reaching these specified goals are not yet well developed. Decision-makers do not have the necessary models to evaluate the impact of proposed carbon policies supporting sustainable infrastructure development. Yet, it is important to analyze the problem in a systematic fashion to find cost-efficient, technically well-designed and constructed and sustainable solutions. In this dissertation, an interdisciplinary approach is used with the aim of analyzing programs geared at reducing emissions and costs, and determining optimal allocation of resources along with profit maximization by developing and employing optimization, regression and game-theoretic models for the construction, energy and transportation industries. These models can be used by national, state, local and private agencies for assessing carbon-mitigation policies and low-cost carbon policy developments. Concepts from integer programming, multi-objective decision-making, bi-level programming, simulation and regression are employed in the development of models to support informed decision-making and policy analyses in the construction, transportation and energy sectors. The models incorporate industry-specific details covering engineering, economic and environmental aspects of sustainable practices. The application of these models to real-world case studies provides insights that will allow defined specific goals to be achieved in a cost-efficient way. Results of case studies were optimal and most importantly not intuitive.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Gabriel, S A and Hooks, E D M |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | efficiency; optimization; profit maximization; sustainability; climate change; government; policy; programming; regulation; energy efficiency; case studies; simulation |
| Index terms: | society, profit, maximization, infrastructure development, program, decision-making, programming, regulation, mitigation, agency, accounting, pollutant, climate change, global climate change, energy efficiency, efficiency, policy analysis, sustainable practice, case study, engineer, dissertation, modelling, energy sector, integer programming |
| Subjects: | algorithms, infrastructure engineering, financial risk, communities and social development, policy studies, research dissemination and communication, climate science, programming, economic analysis, analytical methods, performance management, software systems, decision analysis, sociology, sustainable practices, political science, environmental health, industry analysis, profession, data collection methods, sustainability and energy |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Business Strategy, Cost Management, Governance, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Digital Applications, Engineering Principles, Sustainability, Risk Management, Quality Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here