Featuring a multidisciplinary approach, Systems Analysis for Sustainable Engineering: Theory and Applications provides a proven framework for applying systems analysis tools to account for environmental impacts, energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness, socioeconomic implications, and ecosystem health in engineering solutions.
This pioneering work addresses the increased levels of sophistication embedded in many complex large-scale infrastructure systems and their interactions with the natural environment. After a detailed overview of sustainable systems engineering, the book covers mathematical theories of systems analysis, environmental resources management, industrial ecology, and sustainable design. Real-world examples highlight the methodologies presented in this authoritative resource.
Coverage Includes:
- Structured systems analysis for sustainable design.
- Systems analysis and sustainable management strategies.
- Ecomomic valuation, instruments, and project selection.
- Statistical forecasting models.
- Linear, nonlinear, integer, and dynamic programming models.
- Multicriteria decision analyses.
- System dynamics models and simulation analyses.
- Water resources and quality management.
- Air quality management.
- Solid waste management.
- Soil and groundwater remediation planning.
- Industrial ecology and sustainability.
- Green building and green infrastructure systems.
- Energy resources management and energy systems engineering.
- Land resources management and agricultural sustainability.
From the Foreword
The dictionary definition of "sustainability" is given as the capacity to endure. In scientific applications, sustainability has become a wide-ranging term that is used and applied to almost every facet of management of life that includes economics, public health, ecology, water resources, environmental resources, mineral resources, and the like. In the engineering field this term is finding its roots in its mechanistic and applied definitions and applications. This book by Prof. Chang introduces a systems analysis perspective to the engineering interpretation of the sustainability field, which is timely and fills an important gap in this field.
The book provides an integrated perspective of the traditional methodologies of the engineering field and extends this knowledge base to their application in the sustainability field. In this sense, the book is an essential and primary resource for practitioners and theoreticians alike who are specializing in various fields of the application of sustainability concepts. In the engineering application of the sustainability concept the book provides a comprehensive review of the fields—water resources management, water quality management, air quality management, solid waste management, and soil and groundwater remediation planning—with rigor. In this sense, it is also an essential reference book for undergraduate and graduate courses in which the sustainability field is covered. The book concludes with a review of the sustainability field by introducing a comprehensive discussion of green technologies, which are the most current and innovative applications of the sustainability concept.
This comprehensive textbook on sustainability will remain in our libraries as a primary reference tool for years to come.
From the Preface
As current engineering education has evolved into sustainable engineering, the systems analysis approach has become very important in the rapidly changing world facing economic development and globalization, population growth and migration, and climate change. Sustainable engineering is moving beyond the traditional disciplinary boundaries, which creates unprecedented synergistic effects among industrial engineering, civil and environmental engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and electric and computer engineering. Graduate engineering programs that are committed to supporting many meritorious competing modifications will have to set up goals in response to such challenges. The goal of this educational change should be reflected in programmatic course adjustment along this front. Concerns about the increased levels of sophistication embedded in many complex large-scale infrastructure systems and their interactions with the natural environment led to the creation of this textbook. The objective of this textbook is thus to respond to such needs to introduce the principles of systems analysis for sustainable engineering theory and applications. To streamline the readers’ learning curves, the book is divided into four parts, including (1) overview, (2) mathematical theories for systems analysis, (3) environmental resources management, and (4) industrial ecology and sustainable design. It is designed for senior level undergraduate students and master's level students who have solid backgrounds in domain knowledge and may be able to elevate their understanding of sustainability science and sustainable engineering through a semester-long course. Practicing engineers in the industry who are able to embrace this emerging area through a self-learning process with this book will also create a broader strategy to deal with problems in engineering systems and reach a goal.
Table of Contents
Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgements.
Part I: Overview. Chapter 1: Introduction to Sustainable Systems Engineering. Chapter 2: Structured Systems Analysis for Sustainable Design. Chapter 3: Systems Analysis and Sustainable Management Strategies. Chapter 4: Economic Valuation, Instruments, and Project Selection.
Part II: Mathematical Theories for Systems Analysis. Chapter 5: Statistical Forecasting Models. Chapter 6: Linear Programming Models. Chapter 7: Integer Programming Models. Chapter 8: Nonlinear Programming Models. Chapter 9: Dynamic Programming Models. Chapter 10: Multi-criteria Decision Analyses. Chapter 11: System Dynamics Models and Simulation Analyses.
Part III: Environmental Resources Management. Chapter 12: Water Resources Management. Chapter 13: Water Quality Management. Chapter 14: Air Quality Management. Chapter 15: Solid Waste Management. Chapter 16: Soil and Groundwater Remediation Planning.
Part IV: Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Design. Chapter 17: Industrial Ecology and Sustainability. Chapter 18: Green Building and Green Infrastructure Systems. Chapter 19: Energy Resources Management and Energy Systems Engineering. Chapter 20: Land Resources Management and Agricultural Sustainability. Chapter Study Questions. Index.
About the Author
Ni-Bin Chang is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Central Florida. He has published more than 250 publications and is a member of the International Association of Environmental Information Sciences.
