title: Using multi-criteria decision making for selection of the optimal strategy for municipal solid waste management.
abstract: Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) is a relatively new tool for decision makers who deal with numerous and often contradictory factors during their decision making process. This paper presents a procedure to choose the optimal municipal solid waste (MSW) management system for the area of the city of Kragujevac (Republic of Serbia) based on the MCDM method. Two methods of multiple attribute decision making, i.e. SAW (simple additive weighting method) and TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution), respectively, were used to compare the proposed waste management strategies (WMS). Each of the created strategies was simulated using the software package IWM2. Total values for eight chosen parameters were calculated for all the strategies. Contribution of each of the six waste treatment options was valorized. The SAW analysis was used to obtain the sum characteristics for all the waste management treatment strategies and they were ranked accordingly. The TOPSIS method was used to calculate the relative closeness factors to the ideal solution for all the alternatives. Then, the proposed strategies were ranked in form of tables and diagrams obtained based on both MCDM methods. As shown in this paper, the results were in good agreement, which additionally confirmed and facilitated the choice of the optimal MSW management strategy.
authors.affiliation: University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Engineering, Sestre Janjic 6, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia.
authors.forename: Sasa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jovanovic
authors.affiliation: University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Engineering, Sestre Janjic 6, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia ssavic@kg.ac.rs.
authors.forename: Slobodan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Savic
authors.affiliation: University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Engineering, Sestre Janjic 6, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia.
authors.forename: Nebojsa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jovicic
authors.affiliation: University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Engineering, Sestre Janjic 6, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia.
authors.forename: Goran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Boskovic
authors.affiliation: University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Engineering, Sestre Janjic 6, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia.
authors.forename: Zorica
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Djordjevic
mesh_terms: D002947:Cities; D003657:Decision Making; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D012037:Refuse Disposal; D055771:Serbia; D062611:Solid Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D062611:Solid Waste
keywords: MCDM; SAW; TOPSIS; choice of optimal management system; municipal solid waste management