Alsulami, Badr T (2012) Incorporating complexity and uncertainty into appraising sustainability of civil infrastructure systems: Hybrid fuzzy modelling approach. PhD thesis, Griffith University, Australia.
Abstract
Sustainable development (SD) is a concept with multi-dimensional aspects. Through a pattern of resource use, SD aims to enhance both economic and social growth, while minimizing negative environmental impacts. Vital contributors to SD are the civil infrastructure systems (CIS) which have a huge impact on the spatial and temporal dimensions. Examining the performance sustainability of CIS requires an interdisciplinary approach involving engineering, environmental, economic and social sciences. This hard and complex process necessitates a proper assessment of the diverse conditions under which the CIS operates. As a result, many attempts have been made to develop sustainability performance assessment models for CIS. Nevertheless, all of these models have failed to provide a practical assessment model that has the capability to manage two key facts underpinning the sustainable development concept, namely, the interaction between the sustainability components, and the uncertainty problem that might occur at any different phase of the decision making process. The latter is due to the lack of either information or constraints in human thinking. This thesis presents a new assessment model that would overcome the limitations of previous assessment models. It provides a novel sustainability assessment model that has the capability to consider system complexity through modelling the interaction among the sustainability indicators (SIs), and integrating uncertainty analysis into the overall approach.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Mohamed, Sherif and Sipe, Neil |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | sustainable development; civil infrastructure systems; hybrid fuzzy modelling; sustainability indicators; Australia |
| Index terms: | interaction, modelling, dimension, social science, decision-making process, Australia, sustainability performance, uncertainty analysis, complexity, environmental impact, sustainable development, sustainability assessment, sustainability indicator |
| Subjects: | environmental impact, analytical methods, sustainability assessment, theoretical framing, health safety and environment, Geography, behavioral psychology, environmental hazards, health monitoring assessment and metrics, decision analysis, systems engineering |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Geographical Context, Health and Safety, Sustainability, Risk Management, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
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