A DSS to minimize carbon footprint of integrated waste management system

The concept of ‘Sustainability’ is increasingly used to describe a paradigm upon which future policies must be based. In the view of a urban sustainable development, a strategic role in the governance of the smart City is played by waste integrated management systems (IWMS). The raising complexity of a IWMS relies on the high number of design and management variables and relationships related to collection, treatments and disposal phases. Waste management practices can affect greenhouse gas emission by influencing energy consumption, methane generation, carbon sequestration and non-energy related manufacturing emission. A decision support system can be modelled aiming to evaluate and minimize the carbon footprint of a IWMS. The model proposed goes beyond the existing technical and organizational solutions outlining the different options in a much broader view concerning both waste collection and treatments.