This book offers a comprehensive reference guide to intelligence systems in environmental management. It provides readers with all the necessary tools for solving complex environmental problems, where classical techniques cannot be applied. The respective chapters, written by prominent researchers, explain a wealth of both basic and advanced concepts including ant colony, genetic algorithms, evolutionary algorithms, fuzzy multi-criteria decision making tools, particle swarm optimization, agent-based modelling, artificial neural networks, simulated annealing, Tabu search, fuzzy multi-objective optimization, fuzzy rules, support vector machines, fuzzy cognitive maps, cumulative belief degrees, and many others. To foster a better understanding, all the chapters include relevant numerical examples or case studies. Taken together, they form an excellent reference guide for researchers, lecturers and postgraduate students pursuing research on complex environmental problems. Moreover, by extending all the main aspects of classical environmental solution techniques to its intelligent counterpart, the book presents a dynamic snapshot on the field that is expected to stimulate new directions and stimulate new ideas and developments.

This book presents a selection of recently developed collective and computational intelligence techniques, which it subsequently applies to energy management problems ranging from performance analysis to economic analysis, and from strategic analysis to operational analysis, with didactic numerical examples. As a form of intelligence emerging from the collaboration and competition of individuals, collective and computational intelligence addresses new methodological, theoretical, and practical aspects of complex energy management problems. The book offers an excellent reference guide for practitioners, researchers, lecturers and postgraduate students pursuing research on intelligence in energy management. The contributing authors are recognized researchers in the energy research field.

Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of production and service systems. Computational Intelligence Systems find a wide application area in industrial engineering: neural networks in forecasting, fuzzy sets in capital budgeting, ant colony optimization in scheduling, Simulated Annealing in optimization, etc. This book will include most of the application areas of industrial engineering through these computational intelligence systems. In the literature, there is no book including many real and practical applications of Computational Intelligence Systems from the point of view of Industrial Engineering. Every chapter will include explanatory and didactic applications. It is aimed that the book will be a main source for MSc and PhD students.

How can environmental scientists and engineers use the increasing amount of available data to enhance our understanding of planet Earth, its systems and processes? This book describes various potential approaches based on artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, including neural networks, decision trees, genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic. Part I contains a series of tutorials describing the methods and the important considerations in applying them. In Part II, many practical examples illustrate the power of these techniques on actual environmental problems. International experts bring to life ways to apply AI to problems in the environmental sciences. While one culture entwines ideas with a thread, another links them with a red line. Thus, a “red thread“ ties the book together, weaving a tapestry that pictures the ‘natural’ data-driven AI methods in the light of the more traditional modeling techniques, and demonstrating the power of these data-based methods.

This comprehensively updated third edition explores the nature and role of environmental management and offers an introduction to this rapidly expanding and changing field. It focuses on challenges and opportunities, and core concepts including sustainable development. The book is divided into five parts: Part I (Introduction to Environmental Management): four introductory chapters cover the justification for environmental management, its theory, scope, goals and scientific background Part II (Practice): explores environmental management in economics, law and business and environmental management’s relation with environmentalism, international agreements and monitoring Part III (Global Challenges and Opportunities): examines resources, challenges and opportunities, both natural and human-caused or human-aggravated Part IV (Responses to Global Challenges and Opportunities): explores mitigation, vulnerability, resilience, adaptation and how technology, social change and politics affect responses to challenges Part V (The Future): the final chapter considers the way ahead for environmental management in the future. With its well-structured coverage, effective illustrations and foundation for further, more-focused interest, this book is easily accessible to all. It is an essential reference for undergraduates and postgraduates studying environmental management and sustainability, and an important resource for many students on courses including environmental science, environmental studies and human geography.

As businesses seek to compete on a global stage, they must be constantly aware of pressures from all levels: regional, local, and worldwide. The organizations that can best build advantages in diverse environments achieve the greatest success. Global Business Expansion: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a comprehensive reference source for the latest scholarly material on the emergence of new ideas and opportunities in various markets and provides organizational leaders with the tools they need to be successful. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as market entry strategies, transnational organizations, and competitive advantage, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for researchers, scholars, business executives and professionals, and graduate-level business students.

Today’s manufacturing systems are undergoing significant changes in the aspects of planning, production execution, and delivery. It is imperative to stay up-to-date on the latest trends in optimization to efficiently create products for the market. The Handbook of Research on Applied Optimization Methodologies in Manufacturing Systems is a pivotal reference source including the latest scholarly research on heuristic models for solving manufacturing and supply chain related problems. Featuring exhaustive coverage on a broad range of topics such as assembly ratio, car sequencing, and color constraints, this publication is ideally designed for practitioners seeking new comprehensive models for problem solving in manufacturing and supply chain management.