Search

• The study depicts societal issues associated with the development projects. • A road map developed that focuses on avenues related to establishment of new development projects. • The SEETA model, based on Multi-Criteria Decision Making techniques is proposed. • Model is demonstrated using comparison of fourteen hydropower plants. • The hydropower plants are compared around five main and fifteen sub-criteria. Selecting an appropriate location for a large infrastructure project poses difficult situations. It shall satisfy sustainability indicators and establish harmony among multiple goals of multiple stakeholders. In such a situation, Multi-Criteria Decision Making techniques allow assessing qualitative and quantitative attributes, analysing and removing subjective biases and help in arriving at objective decisions. However, a single Multi-Criteria Decision Making technique may not be an effective tool to generate concrete results as there is no validation of the results. By utilising hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods, one can incorporate, gauge, and assess the range of social, economic, and environmental impacts precisely and achieve an accurate result by validating results by other methods. Therefore, this paper develops a model called as Social, Economic, Environmental and Technical Assessment model. It combines four fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making techniques viz. Fuzzy Stepwise Weighted Assessment Ratio Analysis, Fuzzy Multi-Objective Optimization by Ratio Analysis, Fuzzy Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment and Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution. This paper utilises the case of hydropower plants in India, how the policy and decision-makers can arrive at the selection of the best location for an infrastructure project. According to the assessment value, Teesta Low Dam IV (Darjeeling, West Bengal) is the preferred hydropower plant for all selected methods. The State could bring social justice, ecological stability; achieve economic benefits and sustainability by appropriating this proposed model in other development fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The post-harvest and marketing system is a chain of interlinked activities starting after the harvest time and continuing until the delivery of the food product to the consumers. An efficient post-harvest system ensures that the harvested product reaches the customer in the shortest possible time interval without compromising the volume, quality, and safety of the product. The objective of this paper is to identify and model the critical causal factors of post-harvest losses (PHL) in the fruit and vegetable (F&V) supply chain in India, with the help of a detailed literature review and expert opinions. Fifteen causal factors were identified using the decision making and trial evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method, which is a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) tool. This was applied for determining the cause-effect relationships among the identified factors. The results highlighted that the most critical factors that should be tackled to ensure progressive PHL reduction are: lack of proper packaging facilities (PHL3), lack of proper storage facilities (PHL1), insufficient infrastructure (PHL4), improved handling of the products at the farm and marketplace (PHL2), lack of processing facilities (PHL5), lack of linkage between the farmers and processing units (PHL6), lack of linkages in the marketing channel (PHL9), and large number of intermediaries (PHL15). The findings of this study are intended to guide various supply chain members and decision-makers for reducing PHL and improving the overall performance of the F&V supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community Energy systems are predicted to emerge as a clean and sustainable means of providing last mile energy access to off-grid communities in developing nations like India. Interestingly, rate of deployment and sustainability of such systems are low due to lack of conceptual framework determining sustainability of community energy projects with respect to inherent grassroots barriers. There is a dearth of pertinent research studies providing best practices to project planners and decision makers for accelerated deployment and sustainable operation of community microgrids. This paper aims to identify the typical grassroots barriers and their relationship with corresponding enablers under seven broad dimensions with respect to solar, biomass and micro-hydro based community energy projects. Thereby, set of critical barriers and enablers is extracted by applying integrated multi criteria decision making approach to develop decision maps and conceptual framework for realizing sustainable community energy projects. The developed decision maps offer best practices to community energy projects' stakeholders to ensure sustainable project planning. The conceptual framework establishes direct and indirect relationships among significant enablers and critical barriers while providing policy implications to decision makers and utilities for achieving Universal Electrification through clean energy sources. • Community Energy barriers and enablers are identified with respect to solar, biomass, and micro-hydro technologies. • Barriers and enablers are evaluated through multi criteria decision analysis under seven broad dimensions. • Critical factors are determined through integrated Fuzzy TOPSIS-IRP methodology. • Decision map and conceptual framework is developed for sustainable CE systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]