Inexact Inventory Theory–Based Waste Management Planning Model for the City of Xiamen, China

Abstract

In this study, an inexact inventory-theory-based waste management planning (IIWMP) model was developed and applied to support long-term planning of the municipal solid waste (MSW) management system in the City of Xiamen, the special economic zone of Fujian, China. In the IIWMP model, the techniques of inventory model, inexact chance-constrained programming, interval-valued fuzzy linear-programming, and mixed-integer linear programming were integrated. The waste inventory problem that existed in Xiamen’s MSW management systems are addressed in association with the complexities of multiple uncertainties. Decision alternatives for waste allocation and capacity expansion with minimized system cost under different risk levels were provided for MSW management in the City of Xiamen. The results indicate that the developed model was useful for identifying desired waste management policies under various uncertainties.