scholarly journals Multi-objective optimization identifies trade-offs between self-sufficiency and environmental impacts of regional agriculture in Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Author(s):  
Christian Buschbeck ◽  
Larissa Bitterich ◽  
Christian Hauenstein ◽  
Stefan Pauliuk

Regional food supply, organic farming, and changing food consumption are three major strategies to reduce the environmental impacts of the agricultural sector. In the German Federal State of Baden-Württemberg (population: 11 million), multiple policy and economic incentives drive the uptake of these three strategies, but quantitative assessments of their overall impact abatement potential are lacking. Here, the question of how much food can be produced regionally while keeping environmental impacts within political targets is tackled by comparing a scenario of maximum productivity to an optimal solution obtained with a multi-objective optimization (MO) approach. The investigation covers almost the entirety of productive land in the state, two production practices (organic or conventional), four environmental impact categories, and three demand scenarios (base, vegetarian, and vegan). We present an area-based indicator to quantify the self-sufficiency of regional food supply, as well as the database required for its calculation. Environmental impacts are determined using life cycle assessment. Governmental goals for reducing environmental impacts from agriculture are used by the MO to determine and later rate the different Pareto-efficient solutions, resulting in an optimal solution for regional food supply under environmental constraints. In the scenario of maximal output, self-sufficiency of food supply ranged between 61% and 66% (depending on the diet), and most political targets could not be met. On the other hand, the optimal solution showed a higher share of organic production (ca. 40%–80% com¬pared to 0%) and lower self-sufficiency values (between 40% and 50%) but performs substantially better in meeting political targets for environmental impact reduction. At the county level, self-sufficiency varies between 2% for densely populated urban districts and 80% for rural counties. These results help policy-makers benchmark and refine their goalsetting regarding regional self-sufficiency and environmental impact reduction, thus ensuring effective policymaking for sustainable community development.

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-113
Author(s):  
M. Farsi

The main aim of this research is to present an optimization procedure based on the integration of operability framework and multi-objective optimization concepts to find the single optimal solution of processes. In this regard, the Desired Pareto Index is defined as the ratio of desired Pareto front to the Pareto optimal front as a quantitative criterion to analyze the performance of chemical processes. The Desired Pareto Front is defined as a part of the Pareto front that all outputs are improved compared to the conventional operating condition. To prove the efficiency of proposed optimization method, the operating conditions of ethane cracking process is optimized as a base case. The ethylene and methane production rates are selected as the objectives in the formulated multi-objective optimization problem. Based on the simulation results, applying the obtained operating conditions by the proposed optimization procedure on the ethane cracking process improve ethylene production by about 3% compared to the conventional condition.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 336 ◽  
pp. 02022
Author(s):  
Liang Meng ◽  
Wen Zhou ◽  
Yang Li ◽  
Zhibin Liu ◽  
Yajing Liu

In this paper, NSGA-Ⅱ is used to realize the dual-objective optimization and three-objective optimization of the solar-thermal photovoltaic hybrid power generation system; Compared with the optimal solution set of three-objective optimization, optimization based on technical and economic evaluation indicators belongs to the category of multi-objective optimization. It can be considered that NSGA-Ⅱ is very suitable for multi-objective optimization of solar-thermal photovoltaic hybrid power generation system and other similar multi-objective optimization problems.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Xin Li ◽  
Xiaoli Li ◽  
Kang Wang

The key characteristic of multi-objective evolutionary algorithm is that it can find a good approximate multi-objective optimal solution set when solving multi-objective optimization problems(MOPs). However, most multi-objective evolutionary algorithms perform well on regular multi-objective optimization problems, but their performance on irregular fronts deteriorates. In order to remedy this issue, this paper studies the existing algorithms and proposes a multi-objective evolutionary based on niche selection to deal with irregular Pareto fronts. In this paper, the crowding degree is calculated by the niche method in the process of selecting parents when the non-dominated solutions converge to the first front, which improves the the quality of offspring solutions and which is beneficial to local search. In addition, niche selection is adopted into the process of environmental selection through considering the number and the location of the individuals in its niche radius, which improve the diversity of population. Finally, experimental results on 23 benchmark problems including MaF and IMOP show that the proposed algorithm exhibits better performance than the compared MOEAs.


Author(s):  
Rizk M. Rizk-Allah ◽  
Aboul Ella Hassanien

This chapter presents a hybrid optimization algorithm namely FOA-FA for solving single and multi-objective optimization problems. The proposed algorithm integrates the benefits of the fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA) and the firefly algorithm (FA) to avoid the entrapment in the local optima and the premature convergence of the population. FOA operates in the direction of seeking the optimum solution while the firefly algorithm (FA) has been used to accelerate the optimum seeking process and speed up the convergence performance to the global solution. Further, the multi-objective optimization problem is scalarized to a single objective problem by weighting method, where the proposed algorithm is implemented to derive the non-inferior solutions that are in contrast to the optimal solution. Finally, the proposed FOA-FA algorithm is tested on different benchmark problems whether single or multi-objective aspects and two engineering applications. The numerical comparisons reveal the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


2010 ◽  
Vol 29-32 ◽  
pp. 2496-2502
Author(s):  
Min Wang ◽  
Jun Tang

The number of base station location impact the network quality of service. A new method is proposed based on immune genetic algorithm for site selection. The mathematical model of multi-objective optimization problem for base station selection and the realization of the process were given. The use of antibody concentration selection ensures the diversity of the antibody and avoiding the premature convergence, and the use of memory cells to store Pareto optimal solution of each generation. A exclusion algorithm of neighboring memory cells on the updating and deleting to ensure that the Pareto optimal solution set of the distribution. The experiments results show that the algorithm can effectively find a number of possible base station and provide a solution for the practical engineering application.


2012 ◽  
Vol 433-440 ◽  
pp. 2808-2816
Author(s):  
Jian Jin Zheng ◽  
You Shen Xia

This paper presents a new interactive neural network for solving constrained multi-objective optimization problems. The constrained multi-objective optimization problem is reformulated into two constrained single objective optimization problems and two neural networks are designed to obtain the optimal weight and the optimal solution of the two optimization problems respectively. The proposed algorithm has a low computational complexity and is easy to be implemented. Moreover, the proposed algorithm is well applied to the design of digital filters. Computed results illustrate the good performance of the proposed algorithm.


Author(s):  
Federico Maria Ballo ◽  
Massimiliano Gobbi ◽  
Giampiero Mastinu ◽  
Amir Pishdad

As lightweight design assumes greater importance in road vehicles development, the present paper is mainly devoted to the structural optimization of a brake caliper. In the first part of the study a simplified finite element model based on beam elements of a brake caliper has been developed and validated. By using the developed model, a multi-objective optimization has been completed. The total mass of the caliper and the deformations at some critical locations have been minimised. The considered design variables are related to the shape of the caliper and the cross sections of the beam elements. The obtained optimal solutions are characterized by an asymmetric shape of the caliper. Optimised symmetric shapes currently used have been compared with the asymmetric ones in terms of performance. In the second part of the study, a detailed analysis on the optimal caliper shape has been carried out by performing a structural topology optimization. The minimum compliance problem has been solved using the SIMP (solid isotropic material with penalization) approach and the optimal solution has been compared with the ones obtained by applying the multi-objective optimization on the simplified model (beam elements). The obtained design solutions represent a good starting point for future developments in actual industrial applications.


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