Author(s)

E. Zechman & S. Ranjithan

Abstract

Generating alternatives for a regional wastewater treatment optimisation problem E. Zechman & S. Ranjithan Department of Civil Engineering, North Carolina State University, USA Abstract Regional wastewater-treatment strategies offer cost-effective options to meet pollution limits in fast-growing urban areas. Formal optimisation procedures have been applied effectively to solve relatively simpler versions of this problem. Contemporary heuristic search procedures (e.g., evolutionary algorithms (EAs)) offer enhanced capabilities to solve more complex versions of th~s problem. While these optimisation procedures continue to offer increased capabilities for systematic search for efficient solutions, some decision criteria and issues are not easily modelled. Optirnisation procedures can still be made useful if they can be utilized effectively to generate in addition to the optimal solution a small number of different alternatives that are near optimal. Alternatives with maximal differences between t

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