Integrated decision-support framework for sustainable fleet implementation

Abstract

Issues regarding fossil fuel depletion, climate change and air pollution associated with motorised urban transportation have motivated intensive research to find cleaner, greener, and energy-efficient alternative fuels. Alternative fuel vehicles have a pivotal role in moving towards a sustainable future, with many already deployed as public transport fleet. Unlike private vehicles, the process of evaluating and selecting the appropriate fuel technology for the taxi fleet, for instance, can be demanding due to the involvement of stakeholders with different, often conflicting objectives. While many life cycle models have been developed as decision-support tools for evaluating vehicle technologies and fuel pathways based on multiple criteria, the different perspectives of fleet operators, policymakers and vehicle manufacturers may create a barrier towards the adoption of eco-friendly low carbon fleet. At present, the search for one optimal solution that performs the best in all aspects is difficult to achieve in practice. Therefore, there is a need for an integrated tool that can align the different priorities of economic, environmental and social perspectives of decision makers. This research aims to develop a computer-based framework that can be used as a shared justification tool to support multi-stakeholder decision making. The main contribution is the implementation and applicability testing of the framework via a probabilistic life cycle analysis with satisficing model. The model was initially tested and evaluated by representative third-party users from the transport industry. When demonstrated in an illustrative taxi case study, results from the life cycle analysis show constant compensation and trade-offs between the criteria. Subsequently, this thesis provides an example of how the satisficing choice model seeks a satisfactory solution that adequately meets the multiple objectives of decision makers. Also, the research provides insights for other research and industry efforts in developing tools to support decision making towards sustainable development practices.