DEVELOPMENT OF PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT MODEL FOR SOLID WASTEMANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN QASSIM REGION - SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract

Presently, the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is facing challenges of managing large volumes of solid waste due to population growth and rapid urbanization and industrialization. Annually more than 15 million tons of solid waste is being generated mostly from urban areas with an average generation rate of 1.5 to 1.8 kg/capita-day. Presently, the focus of municipalities is on collection and disposal of waste while innovative solid waste management methods such as material recovery, waste recycling, and waste to energy recovery are the least addressed options. In order to develop an efficient and integrated management system, it is essential to assess the existing performance of solid waste facilities in the country. In the absence of performance benchmarking process in Saudi Arabia, municipalities are functioning without knowing their existing level of service. Consequently, solid waste managers do not know about the underperforming processes in their municipalities and thus are not motivated to improve them. In this research, a comprehensive performance management framework is developed to cover different aspects of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) facilities. The framework provides guidelines to initiate and establish an efficient performance assessment process in regions where previous benchmarking data is negligible or completely absent. The framework developed in this research will facilitate the managers and decision makers to assess the performance and establish new benchmarks for continuous improvement in their MSWM systems. The developed framework is applied on a case study of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in the cities v of Buraydah and Unayzah in Qassim province. The study will be highly useful for the municipalities operating in Qassim region as well as around the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In the absence of a structured performance assessment mechanism, the municipalities in the KSA are rely on emergency response and managing their MSWM systems without a proactive performance improvement mechanism. For long-term sustainability, all the key components of a MSWM system need to perform efficiently. Identifying suitable performance indicators (PIs) for the regions without having an established performance benchmarking process is a daunting task. A framework is developed for selection of PIs for performance assessment of seven key components, including public service and participation, personnel, physical assets, operational, environmental, sustainability, and financial. Interview surveys were conducted with decision makers from two municipalities and academia in the Qassim Region of KSA to evaluate the PIs against three decision criteria, i.e., ‘relevance’, ‘measurability’ and ‘understandability’. Initially, 86 potential PIs were identified under these seven components through an exhaustive review of literature and expert knowledge. Finally, 61 PIs were selected and ranked using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE II). After identification of suitable PIs, a novel hierarchical modeling framework is developed for performance assessment of MSWM systems. Fuzzy rule based modeling using Simulink MATLAB has been used for performance inferencing to assist the managers working at different levels of organizational hierarchy for effective decision-making. Depending on the performance of the key component, the operation management can hone in the sub-components to acquire useful information for intra-municipality performance management. Further, the outputs of individual indicators are useful to inter-municipality benchmarking. The model has been implemented on two municipalities operating in Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia. The results demonstrate the model’s pragmatism for continuous performance improvement of municipal solid waste management systems in the country and other parts of the world with similar situations. The model developed in this study is a step towards achieving the sustainability objectives for integrated waste management stated in Saudi Arabia Vision 2030.