Manage illegal dumping of solid waste

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Du2024_PhD.pdf (30.45 MB)
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Date

2024

Authors

Du, Linwei

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Zillante, George
Chang, Ruidong

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Abstract

With the growing generation of waste globally, illegal dumping events are increasing as well. The generation of illegal dumping has a range of environmental, economic and social impacts. It has become a global concern to properly manage illegal dumping. Illegal dumping is a kind of behaviour. Therefore, unlike other waste management issues, managing illegal dumping requires both the timely detection of existing illegal dumping to minimize its impacts and avoid its recurrence in the future. However, there is a lack of research that contributes to illegal dumping management systematically and comprehensively. To investigate this issue, this study aims to understand the current situation of illegal dumping and manage it by combining two perspectives: technical management and policy management. This was achieved by: (1) Identifying illegal dumping high-risk areas and their characteristics through technological methods. (2) Investigating and analysing the current policies related to the management of illegal dumping, taking Australia as an example. (3) Combining system dynamics to assess the impacts of different policies on the management of illegal dumping and propose targeted suggestions. Data were collected through the literature review, government database and model simulation in order to achieve all the research objectives. A number of interesting results were found in this study. For example, by combining GIS and Python, this study constructed a model that could accurately identify illegal dumping related risks in the study area. This model could accurately identify areas with different levels of risk of illegal dumping.This result is extremely beneficial for practical management. Secondly, this model is also able to rank the factors that affect the occurrence of illegal dumping, which could help managers identify the priority factors. Similarly, this study examines the effectiveness of different waste management policies in Australia that may relate to illegal dumping. This study found that relying solely on current waste management policies and recycling policies will make it difficult for Australia to avoid illegal dumping in the future. Through model simulations, this study concludes that the effects of policies that act directly on illegal dumping management, such as publicity policies, cannot be ignored. This study quantified the effect of the publicity policy with the help of system dynamics. In addition, by comparing the effects of different investment options on illegal dumping for similar investments, this study identifies the best investment option for the study area. This study considered managing illegal dumping from both technical and policy perspectives. This study provides a comprehensive research framework to explore the management of illegal dumping issues. With respect to methodology, this study improves the accuracy of the research models in detecting illegal dumping sites and identifies the influencing factors that need to be prioritised for management at various risk levels. Policy assessment models developed in this study could contribute to future policies on illegal dumping. In addition, this study demonstrates a methodology for assessing the effectiveness of waste policies related to illegal dumping.

School/Discipline

School of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Dissertation Note

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2024

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This thesis is currently under embargo and not available.

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