Farideh Delavari Edalat

Constraints on the Adoption of Adaptive Water Management Principles: the Case of Greater Tehran

Adaptive Water Management (AWM) could provide a sustainable route to address the existing complex problems of urban water management such as continued water shortage and flooding through the future. The AWM application could be a new alternative path in water management especially in developing countries which suffer from common weakening features such as unreliable infrastructure and poor institutional organisations. The AWM distinguishing characteristics such as polycentric governance, organisational flexibility and public participation are considered for feasibility study of the AWM implementation. The paper investigates whether AWM could be applied to a developing-country city in order to deal with future uncertainties of water supply/demand. The required data was collected from the water professionals of Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Company (TPWW Company), which is in charge of water supply and management of 12 million people of the Province. The key elements of AWM performance are transformed to a multi criteria decision model of Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) in order to facilitate quantification of the influence of corresponding qualitative elements derived from semi-structured interviews held in the Company, and for further analysis of urban water managers’ views in a structured way. The research findings show that despite the lack of structural adaptability there are positive attitudes towards inter departmental communication and linking to the external decisive actors such as the Company’s consumers. As a generalising result, the AWM concept would be applicable to the similar developing-country cities particularly located in the Middle-East region while simultaneously promoting technical and institutional performances.

Concepts and Approaches of Main Water Managements

Water management could be defined as the activities aimed at planning, developing, distributing and operating water resources, surface water, drainage and sewage. Some people distinguish between ‘water resource management’ (planning, developing and allocating the water resources) and ‘water management’ (the operation and control of water systems). Water system includes the water cycle and three major interacting elements: physical, biological/biogeochemical and human components (Craswell 2004). This chapter presents a review of the main water management approaches that have been introduced over the last decades through water supply management (WSM), water demand management (WDM) and integrated water resource management (IWRM). The chapter discusses if these approaches could deal with the challenges and uncertainty in the water management in a sustainable manner.

RMS Capacity Utilisation Through Product Life Cycles

This chapter proposes a methodology for evaluating RMS capacity and alternative configurations allocated to product families in an uncertain market condition. Production capacity of an RMS, as the hub of an integrated supply chain, is evaluated by developing a hybrid methodology of decision trees and Markov analysis. The proposed Markov chain model is developed to evaluate and monitor system reconfigurations required in accordance with changes in product families with consideration of the product life cycles. The proposed model is illustrated through an industrial case study with given product families and transition probabilities. The expected value consisting of revenue and changeover cost is taken into account for product-process (re)configuration and optimum capacity utilisation over configuration stages in the planning horizon.

Evolution of MS Paradigms Through Industrial Revolutions

This chapter presents industrial revolutions and evolution of manufacturing systems (MSs) and includes description of four industrial revolutions (IRs) and the literature survey on conventional MSs with the methodologies and tools used for system design and modelling. It presents definitions of MS concepts from a set of selective references and works, which have influenced on and led to development of the present RMS paradigm. To understand the evolution of MSs aimed at reconfigurability and the position of RMS among conventional MSs, the chapter commences by reviewing industrial revolutions and various types of production systems. Flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs), cellular manufacturing systems (CMSs), agile manufacturing systems (AMSs) and virtual cellular manufacturing systems (VCMS) are described with focusing on the concept, design and modelling aspects. In addition, the need to develop new methodologies aimed at greater flexibility through reconfigurability of MSs is presented.

Feasibility of an RMS Design

This chapter presents evaluation of economic and operational feasibility of an RMS design as its first tactical design stage. Because of risk and uncertainty in an RMS environment, this major task must be performed precisely before investment in its detailed design. The feasibility study is not only intended to evaluate the possibility of implementation of an RMS design but also to produce a reference base for its evaluation through the design loop over planning horizons. The RMS key feature of reconfigurability is described as its operational feasibility to deal with capacity changes and functionality, which are considered as the major attributes for feasibility evaluation. An integrated structure of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and fuzzy set theory is presented. The fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) model is examined in an industrial case study.

RMS Value Chain Architecture

This chapter presents development of RMS key characteristics through linkage with external stakeholders such as customers and suppliers of parts/raw materials to handle demand fluctuations that necessitate information sharing across the supply-chain tiers. RMS is developed as an integrated supply-chain hub to incorporate all processes and activities from ordering raw materials and parts, product design and development and production to delivery and consumption. The value chain processes and activities may be repeated for sustainability purposes in terms of product redesign, remanufacture and reuse of resources and materials en route for consumption.

Evaluation of the Public Participation

This chapter is intended to examine and evaluate public participation, as one of the essential principles of AWM. It discusses the public role in Greater Tehran water management considering two main perspectives derived from the conducted interviews with the managers of TPWW Company and its water consumers.

RMS Performance Evaluation Using ANP and Holonic Structure

This chapter is intended to develop holonic architecture for RMS being capable of adapting to unpredictable changes in demands. Holonic structure reflecting basic holons for RMSs is developed and then linked to an analytical network process (ANP) model, as a multi-criteria approach, to evaluate system performance. The proposed generic model provides flexibility for holons and facilitates evaluation of RMS considering economical and operational aspects as the main performance objectives. Moreover, new RMS requirements such as functionality and capacity for process reconfigurability along with reconfiguration time/cost are taken into account. By allowing interactions among all the ANP clusters and their relevant elements in terms of outer and inner dependencies, the critical factors affecting the system performance are explored and evaluated through a case study. In particular, the criticality of the elements affecting the system performance will be assessed with respect to planning horizons, economical/operational aspects, and process reconfigurability based on available capacity and feasible functionality.

Evaluation of Reconfigurable Machines Using FAHP

This chapter investigates the RMS characteristics, which are crucial for the machine selection and the machine (re)configuration. Changeover cost and changeover time while switching from one product to the other are taken into account. A fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) model is proposed to integrate decisive factors and facilitate the equipment selection process under uncertainty. The expected values of the normalised fuzzy sets are determined to identify the preference values of the alternative machines. The fuzzy multi-criteria model is analysed within the fuzzy domains of the operational characteristics along with economic, quality and performance criteria. The proposed model is examined using monitoring sensitivity analysis through a case study.

Concept and Application of Adaptive Water Management

This chapter illustrates what is known about the Adaptive Water Management (AWM) approach and how it could potentially be an alternative to the current approaches to water management. It highlights that despite many contributions to the AWM debate in recent years, still there is a lack of clarity surrounding the concept of AWM, and also there is no clear agreement on the measurements for reaching adaptability in AWM. The chapter is intended to take a step forward by developing a conceptual framework (Fig. 3.4) before moving on to the research methodology. The framework is intended to evaluate the extent of adaptability in an urban water management by using main AWM principles of polycentric governance, organisational flexibility and public participation. Accordingly, this chapter is an important component of this book as it helps build a conceptual foundation to investigate the possibility of AWM principle implementation in Greater Tehran through a proposed conceptual framework of AWM.