Discrete event simulation for exploring strategies: an urban water management case.
This paper presents a model structure aimed at offering an overview of the various elements of a strategy and exploring their multidimensional effects through time in an efficient way. It treats a strategy as a set of discrete events planned to achieve a certain strategic goal and develops a new form of causal networks as an interfacing component between decision makers and environment models, e.g., life cycle inventory and material flow models. The causal network receives a strategic plan as input in a discrete manner and then outputs the updated parameter sets to the subsequent environmental models. Accordingly, the potential dynamic evolution of environmental systems caused by various strategies can be stepwise simulated. It enables a way to incorporate discontinuous change in models for environmental strategy analysis, and enhances the interpretability and extendibility of a complex model by its cellular constructs. It is exemplified using an urban water management case in Kunming, a major city in Southwest China. By utilizing the presented method, the case study modeled the cross-scale interdependencies of the urban drainage system and regional water balance systems, and evaluated the effectiveness of various strategies for improving the situation of Dianchi Lake.
Huang
Dong-Bin
DB
ETH Zurich, Department of Environmental Sciences, NSSI, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
Scholz
Roland W
RW
Gujer
Willi
W
Chitwood
Derek E
DE
Loukopoulos
Peter
P
Schertenleib
Roland
R
Siegrist
Hansruedi
H
D002681:China; D002947:Cities; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D011050:Policy Making; D045483:Rivers; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014881:Water Supply