The construction industry plays a great role in a country's or an area's economy. Construction activities also have significant and increasing effects on the environment. Life‐cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the environmental management techniques that can be used to evaluate the environmental burdens of construction. The authors of this study applied the LCA approach and SimaPro 7.1 software within the framework of the International Organization of Standardization's (ISO) 14040 series of standards and analyzed the global warming potential (GWP) and acidification potential (AP) of the materials acquisition and construction phases of the Parand residential apartment complex located in the southwest part of Tehran province, Iran.
Due to financial constraints, water quality monitoring network design is an efficient way to manage water quality. The most crucial part is to find appropriate locations for monitoring stations. Considering the objectives of water usage, we evaluate existing water quality sampling stations of the Sefīd-Rūd River, located in the north of Iran, which has been used for irrigation and drinking water. There are several methods for assessment of existing monitoring stations such as Sanders method, multiple criteria decision making and dynamic programming approach (DPA) which DPA was opted in this study. The results showed that out of 21 existing monitoring stations, eight and seven stations should be retained on the upstream and downstream of the basins, respectively. Although the area of the downstream basin is larger than the upstream basin, the number of stations which was retained was less than upstream. This may mean that water quality of the downstream is more favorable than the upstream. Meanwhile the technique may be also suitable for optimization of the water quality network.
Each year, millions of tires reach their end of life. Worn-out tires are either buried or burned, both of which harm the environment through polluting the air and groundwater. Companies need to consider their social responsibility, such as employment and regional development, and the environmental impact of their activities when making strategic and operational decisions. This study addresses the closed-loop supply chain network design (SCND) and operations planning problem with regard to the three dimensions of sustainability using a mathematical programming approach. The options of retreading, recycling, and energy recovery together with the use of green technologies are considered to minimize the environmental impacts. The proposed decision model can help supply chain managers in tire manufacturing industry make better-informed decisions in order to achieve the three-fold objectives of sustainability. The developed mathematical model turns out to be a multi-objective, multi-echelon, and multi-product mixed integer linear programming. The model is solved using the Lp-metric method and CPLEX solver. The scenario approach is used to address the uncertainty in demand of new products and the rate of return of worn-out tires. The model solutions are the optimal location of the facilities considering population density and unemployment rate in addition to economic dimension, the optimal amount of allocation, the flow of materials, and the best green technology selection. Sensitivity analysis is also conducted to validate the model and test the robustness of the obtained solutions. Finally, managerial implications are provided.
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