Combining Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis and Life-Cycle Assessment: Challenges, Proposals, and Real-World Applications
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 May 2021) | Viewed by 6526
Special Issue Editors
Interests: multi-criteria decision analysis; group decision and negotiation; decision support systems
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The literature on sustainability assessment recognizes the importance of life-cycle assessment (LCA) as a means to encompass the impacts of a product, service or process, without burden shifting. LCA focuses on environmental impacts, but the life-cycle perspective is also used in social LCA and life-cycle costing, which addressed together result in the more comprehensive life-cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA).
As LCA, or more generally LCSA, yield multiple indicators concerning a potentially large number of impact categories, multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) has been used to provide a synthesis of the assessment. This is useful as a means to interpret and communicate results, as well as to support policy- and decision-makers.
This Special Issue intends to gather contributions addressing the combined use of MCDA and LC approaches, namely, concerning its current challenges, new proposals and real-world application. Topics of interest include:
- Discussing the role of MCDA in LCA/LCSA studies and vice versa;
- Novel MCDA methods or variants to be used together with LCA/LCSA;
- Synthetic indicators for LCA/LCSA;
- DEA and MCDA approaches to assess eco-efficiency;
- Elicitation of MCDA parameters, including participatory approaches;
- Multiobjective optimization and LCA/LCSA
- Studies combining MCDA and LCA/LCSA in industry;
- Studies combining MCDA and LCA/LCSA in public administration and policy making.
Prof. Dr. Luis C. Dias
Prof. Dr. Fausto Freire
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- life-cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA)
- life-cycle assessment (LCA)
- social LCA
- life-cycle costing
- eco-efficiency
- multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA)
- data envelopment analysis (DEA)
- decision support systems
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.