Publications
Chifari, Rosaria
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2016, ISBN: 9788449066801.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Integrated assessment, Municipal solid waste, Naples
@phdthesis{Chifari2016,
title = {Integrated assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Metabolism. The case of the Metropolitan Area of Naples, Italy},
author = {Rosaria Chifari},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10803/399508},
isbn = {9788449066801},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-01-01},
pages = {258},
school = {Universitat Aut\`{o}noma de Barcelona},
abstract = {This dissertation develops a procedure for the integrated assessment of the performance of Municipal Solid Waste Management System (MSWMS) across dimensions and scales interfacing the quantitative analysis of biophysical flows with the socio-economic analysis. The usefulness and the shortcomings of this procedure have been tested in a real case study (The Metropolitan Area of Naples (MAN), Campania Region, Southern Italy). This procedure can be used as decision support system for carrying out an informed choice, based on the simultaneous consideration of different criteria of performance, when deciding about technological choices. The proposed decision support system combines two elements: (a) a holistic framework of analysis making it possible to carry out a multi-scale and multi-criteria analysis of: (i) the performance of a given MSWMS (ii) the option space of future changes in the existing network; (iii) the changes implied by the introduction of innovative technologies. (b) an integrated package of indicators referring to different criteria and scales that can be selected “\`{a} la carte” by social actors through participatory processes increasing the quality of the information used in the process of governance. The innovative holistic framework builds on the theory of metabolic networks and the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) accounting method. In this approach a MSWMS is perceived as an organ of a socio-ecological system that modulates the interaction between the metabolic processes of the urban area, which consume a flow of inputs and generate a flow of wastes, and those of the embedding ecosystems providing both some of the inputs used by the MSWMS and local sink capacity. The tool-kit for integrated analysis can characterize: (i) the waste flows produced by the urban system in terms of quantity and quality; (ii) the mix of inputs required for the operation of the stages of the waste management process, such as technology, employment, energy, water and material flows; (iii) the degree of openness of the system, that is, the imports and exports of urban waste flows in the stages of its operation; (iv) the final outputs released into the local environment. Preliminary data from the case study have been used to develop and illustrate the proposed theoretical framework. The metabolic network approach is then used to generate: (i) a multi-scale integrated representation of the current performance of the MSWMS of the MAN and (ii) a decision support tool to explore the policy option space. In relation to the last point, two alternative political options have been checked: “internalization of waste processing” and “increasing recycling rate”. The analysis pinpoints the different trade-offs associated to each of them. The application of the proposed method shows its usefulness: (i) it is semantically open since it can be applied in different geographic and cultural contexts; (ii) it can evaluate the effects of constraints belonging to different incommensurable dimensions such as technical, economic and social (viability and desirability) and environmental (feasibility) and (iii) it illustrates that there are not optimal solutions when coming to technological interventions. However, the analytical tool-kit demands large amounts of data from multiple and variegated sources. A robust quality check of the information requires time and commitment of the different actors that is difficult to maintain. Last but not least, the interaction with experts on the different steps of the process has proven the difficulty in opening a more complex discussion about the “big picture” of MSWMS. This discovery flags again the importance of the development of the presented analytical tool-kit, capable of providing a more holistic vision of the functioning of the MSWMS and useful inputs for better informed decisions.},
keywords = {Integrated assessment, Municipal solid waste, Naples},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
This dissertation develops a procedure for the integrated assessment of the performance of Municipal Solid Waste Management System (MSWMS) across dimensions and scales interfacing the quantitative analysis of biophysical flows with the socio-economic analysis. The usefulness and the shortcomings of this procedure have been tested in a real case study (The Metropolitan Area of Naples (MAN), Campania Region, Southern Italy). This procedure can be used as decision support system for carrying out an informed choice, based on the simultaneous consideration of different criteria of performance, when deciding about technological choices. The proposed decision support system combines two elements: (a) a holistic framework of analysis making it possible to carry out a multi-scale and multi-criteria analysis of: (i) the performance of a given MSWMS (ii) the option space of future changes in the existing network; (iii) the changes implied by the introduction of innovative technologies. (b) an integrated package of indicators referring to different criteria and scales that can be selected “à la carte” by social actors through participatory processes increasing the quality of the information used in the process of governance. The innovative holistic framework builds on the theory of metabolic networks and the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) accounting method. In this approach a MSWMS is perceived as an organ of a socio-ecological system that modulates the interaction between the metabolic processes of the urban area, which consume a flow of inputs and generate a flow of wastes, and those of the embedding ecosystems providing both some of the inputs used by the MSWMS and local sink capacity. The tool-kit for integrated analysis can characterize: (i) the waste flows produced by the urban system in terms of quantity and quality; (ii) the mix of inputs required for the operation of the stages of the waste management process, such as technology, employment, energy, water and material flows; (iii) the degree of openness of the system, that is, the imports and exports of urban waste flows in the stages of its operation; (iv) the final outputs released into the local environment. Preliminary data from the case study have been used to develop and illustrate the proposed theoretical framework. The metabolic network approach is then used to generate: (i) a multi-scale integrated representation of the current performance of the MSWMS of the MAN and (ii) a decision support tool to explore the policy option space. In relation to the last point, two alternative political options have been checked: “internalization of waste processing” and “increasing recycling rate”. The analysis pinpoints the different trade-offs associated to each of them. The application of the proposed method shows its usefulness: (i) it is semantically open since it can be applied in different geographic and cultural contexts; (ii) it can evaluate the effects of constraints belonging to different incommensurable dimensions such as technical, economic and social (viability and desirability) and environmental (feasibility) and (iii) it illustrates that there are not optimal solutions when coming to technological interventions. However, the analytical tool-kit demands large amounts of data from multiple and variegated sources. A robust quality check of the information requires time and commitment of the different actors that is difficult to maintain. Last but not least, the interaction with experts on the different steps of the process has proven the difficulty in opening a more complex discussion about the “big picture” of MSWMS. This discovery flags again the importance of the development of the presented analytical tool-kit, capable of providing a more holistic vision of the functioning of the MSWMS and useful inputs for better informed decisions.
AGAUR Grant ID 2017 SGR 230 / Copyright © 2023