Water Pollution Reduction: Reverse Combinatorial Auctions Modelling Supporting Decision-Making Processes (original) (raw)
Related papers
IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2017
This paper builds on reverse combinatorial auctions theory and its selected environmental applications, which were presented at ISESS 2013 and ISESS 2015. It provides an approach for calculating the sensitivity and proposals for necessary adjustments of CombinatoRial Auction Body Software System (CRAB), which makes its use for the relevant decision-making tasks more user friendly. Two possibilities are suggested. The first approach is appropriate for cases with relatively small numbers of subjects, where it is possible to compute all feasible solutions ordered by total cost. In such cases it is possible to analyse changes of coalition structures with increasing the cost. The second one suggests modification of the CRAB software, which would make it possible to analyse cases with high numbers of feasible coalition structures located between the optimal coalition (i.e. the cost-effective one) and the structure consisting of individual projects. This approach is appropriate for complex real applications involving setting of cost levels.
Improving urban wastewater management through an auction-based management of discharges
Environmental Modelling & Software, 2011
This article proposes the use of an auction process in which the capacity of a WasteWater Treatment Plant (WWTP) is sold to coordinate different industrial discharges within the Urban Wastewater System (UWS). The main goal of coordination is to manage the wastewater inflow rate and pollutants to improve the WWTP operation. The system is modeled as a multi-agent system where each industry is represented by an agent, another agent represents the influent coming from the domestic use and one agent represents the WWTP. When the maximum level of the flow or the maximum concentrations of some components exceed the plant's capacity, an auction starts. In the auction, the WWTP agent is the auctioneer that sells its resources and the industry agents are the bidders that want to buy the resources. The winners of the auction will discharge to the sewage system and the losers will have to wait for the next opportunity. The resulting wastewater discharge schedules of the industries have been analyzed using the IWA/COST simulation benchmark as a case study. The results obtained through this simulation protocol show that the auction-based coordination mechanism using both pollution and hydraulic capacity constraints accomplishes the goal of improving the effluent quality, achieving a reduction in the impact of industrial discharges up to 20.99%.
As water quality continues to be degraded by nutrients and sediment in agricultural 8 watersheds, reverse auctions are receiving increased attention to cost-effectively address these 9 pollutants. Typically, reverse auctions include a selection process which depends on both the 10 monetary bid and a ranking of the environmental benefit, where the latter is often approximated 11 using simple models, such as the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). When the 12 environmental objective is to improve water quality, the cost-effectiveness of such ranking 13 methods cannot always be assured since simple models may poorly approximate the effects on 14 downstream water quality. In this paper, we introduce an alternative reverse auction approach 15 that takes advantage of richer watershed process models and optimization tools that are now 16 much more commonly available. This "improved" reverse auction allows decision-makers to 17 better consider the cost-effective assignment of conservation practices and to address water 18 quality or other environmental objectives. In a spatially detailed simulation, we demonstrate how 19 this approach can improve the design of a reverse auction for the Raccoon River Watershed in 20 Iowa, and estimate the potential gains from using the simulation-optimization approach relative 21 to simpler ranking methods for selecting bids. We also point out that simple bid ranking schemes 22 may not yield sufficient nutrient reductions to achieve water quality goals but bids are easily 23 selected to achieve any feasible water quality improvement in the "improved" auction process. 24 25
I mproving waste water treatment quality through an auction-based management of discharges
2000
This paper proposes the use of an auction process in which the capacity of a Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) is sold to coordinate the industrial discharges. The main goal of coordination is to manage the wastewater inflow rate and pollutants to improve the WWTP operation. The system is modeled as a multi-agent system where each industry is represented by
Auction of Pollution Permits in a Multi-Pollutant Setting
16th Annual IEEE Green Technologies Conference (GreenTech 2024), 2024
In the context of rising greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, we propose a pollution control system through the use of the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) auction mechanism. Agents bid on pollution permits that grant them a right to pollute a single unit of a pollutant. This auction algorithm efficiently allocates the pollution permits for multiple different pollutants based on the cost of pollution reduction. Previous work addressed only the single pollutant setting while this work addresses the multi-pollutant setting. Our analysis also shows conditions under which we can achieve the highly desirable property of budget balancing.
Economic considerations and decision support tool for wastewater reuse scheme planning
2007
Abstract The reuse of upgraded wastewater for beneficial uses is increasingly adopted and accepted as tool in water management. However, funding of schemes is still a critical issue. The focus of this paper is on economic considerations of water reuse planning. A survey of pricing mechanisms for reclaimed water revealed that most schemes are subsidised to a great extent. In order to minimise these state contributions to the implementation and operation of reuse projects, their planning should identify a least cost design option.
Cost allocation for a regional wastewater treatment system
Water Resources Research, 1979
There are economies of scale in the construction of regional wastewater treatment systems. Effluent dischargers have the option of participating in a regional system or constructing separate smaller systems. In order to encourage participation in a regional system so that the economies are realized, the cost allocation method employed must offer economic incentives. The cost allocation problem is viewed in game theoretic terms, and the Shapley value (a game theory solution) is suggested as an allocation method. The method is applied to the Meramec River Basin in Missouri where eight dischargers are identified. The problems of application are discussed and the reactions of the eight dischargers are cited. INTRODUCTION Comprehensive regional wastewater treatment systems can provide economic and environmental benefits to wastewater dischargers, since it may be less expensive to construct and operate a single large treatment facility than to have numerous smaller facilities for the various discharges. Environmental benefits can arise from the increased reliability possible in larger, better funded systems, and the opportunity to move effluents to those discharge points where they will result in minimal adverse impacts. While regional wastewater treatment systems can be shown to offer significant advantages, such systems are often difficult to implement. The first step in the development of such a system is to determine the location and equipment configuration that yields a least cost solution. Oncea regional system is found to be economically efficient, it must then be "sold" to each discharger and a single regional authority must be formed. Such regional authorities require state and local legislative approval. In some cases, a regional system can be formed as an extension of some previously existent adjacent sanitary agency, or alternatively some existing regional governance can be given increased authority. The formation of such authorities is at,political process often tied to other regional issues, The Areawide Wastewater Treatment Program implemented by EPA under Section 208 of the 1972 Amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act is one atteml•t to deal with these situations. Along with the potential cost savings of regional wastewater treatment systems comes the problem of their distribution: how should economic benefits (cost savings) be distributed among all members of a regional system? If one or more dischargers do not receive what they consider to be their 'fair' share of the benefits (i.e., they are overcharged), they may be encouraged to withdraw from the regional system and treat their effluents in a smaller facility. Thus the least cost solution is not attained and a suboptimum solution results that can be altered to the advantage of all dischargers. This paper is addressed to the problem of implementing a cost allocation method that will provide incentives for least
An optimization approach to wastewater systems planning at regional level
Journal of …, 2002
A regional wastewater system planning problem consists of finding the minimum-cost configuration for the system needed to drain the wastewater produced at the communities located within a region, while meeting the quality standards defined for the receiving water bodies and complying with all (other) relevant regulatory aspects. There are several possible solutions to this kind of problem. They range from solutions where each community treats its wastewater separately, to solutions where all the wastewater produced in the region is sent to a single treatment plant. It is likely that the most effective solution both in terms of public expenditure, equipment reliability, and environmental impact will be found somewhere between these two extremes. This paper presents an optimization approach to wastewater systems planning at regional level. The approach applies only to sanitary sewer networks. A simulated annealing algorithm is used to solve the optimization model upon which the approach is based. For the application of this approach a user-friendly computing tool was developed. Within this tool, both the acquisition of data and the output of results are made through a flexible GIS interface.
Water Resources Research, 1979
A branch‐and‐bound method for use in planning regional wastewater treatment systems is extended to include a methodology for generating and evaluating alternative plans. Since many planning issues are related to a specific configuration of regional facilities, economic trade‐offs among alternative plans are evaluated using imputed values of individual facilities or groups of them. The imputed values, or bounds on them, are calculated from information contained in the branch‐and‐bound tree using an ‘imputed value incidence matrix.’ The general approach, which can be applied to other public facility location problems, is designed to aid an analyst in gaining more insights into the problem under study than obtainable from conventional optimization methods. The procedure is designed for use within a larger planning process where the steps are to generate, to evaluate, and to elaborate on alternative plans. The method is illustrated using the regional wastewater system for DuPage County,...