The Development of Decision Support System for Waste Management; a Review M. S. Bani, Z. A. Rashid, K. H. K. Hamid, M. E. Harbawi, A.B.Alias, and M. J. Aris Abstract—Most Decision Support Systems (DSS) for waste management (WM) constructed are not widely marketed and lack practical applications. This is due to the number of variables and complexity of the mathematical models which include the assumptions and constraints required in decision making. The approach made by many researchers in DSS modelling is to isolate a few key factors that have a significant influence to the DSS. This segmented approach does not provide a thorough understanding of the complex relationships of the many elements involved. The various elements in constructing the DSS must be integrated and optimized in order to produce a viable model that is marketable and has practical application. The DSS model used in assisting decision makers should be integrated with GIS, able to give robust prediction despite the inherent uncertainties of waste generation and the plethora of waste characteristics, and gives optimal allocation of waste stream for recycling, incineration, landfill and composting. Keywords—Review, decision support system, GIS and waste management. I. INTRODUCTION OLID waste management is a high priority issue for all societies around the world and owing to major problem nowadays. Increasing the solid waste generation rates and disposal cost, environmental and health concern, limited landfill space, legislative changes, political climate, and social attitudes have significant on waste management efforts [5]. Mohammad Shahnor Bani is a postgraduate M.Eng student with the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, University Technology MARA (UITM), Shah Alam, Malaysia ( e-mail:shahnor_85@yahoo.com). Zulkifli Abdul Rashid, MSc. Eng., is a lecturer with the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, University Technology MARA (UITM), Malaysia (Corresponding author: phone: +603-55436341; fax: +603-55436300; e-mail: zulmas06@yahoo.com.my or zulkifli466@salam.uitm.edu.my). Ku Halim Ku Hamid, PhD, is a Professor Of Chemical Engineering with Faculty of Chemical Engineering, and Head of Environmental Research Center at University of Technology MARA (UITM), Shah Alam, Malaysia (e- mail: maulana_ kuhalim@yahoo.co.uk). Mohanad El Harbawi, PhD, is a lecturer with Faculty of Chemical Engineering, University of Technology Petronas (UTP), Tronoh, Perak Malaysia (e-mail: mohanad_75@yahoo.com). Azil Bahari Alias MSc. is a lecturer with the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, University Technology MARA (UITM), Malaysia. Mohammad Jindra Aris MSc.Eng (Chem. Proc & Bioprocs. System Eng is a senior lecturer with the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, University Technology MARA (UITM), Malaysia. (e-mail: astrojin@yahoo.com). Finding acceptable strategies to cope such a problem cause the development of strategic waste management, pollution control technologies, and to more rigorous legislation on waste handling and disposal, to minimize the environmental impact associated with solid waste [6]. Without the proper management and the better technology, waste cannot be treating efficiently and can damage the environmental or habitat and harm the human. Also, the legislation and policy regarding waste management must be changed to improve the effectiveness of waste management and strengthen the rules and regulation of environmental issue. All this issue owing to development and application of decision support system (DSS) in overall waste management and environmental issues from both economic and environmental standpoints. DSS as a computer integrated tools systems is capable to assist the planner or decision makers in various steps of design procedures [11]. The application of DSS nowadays becomes widely implemented in many applications proportional with growing study and research of DSS and resulted in the development of variety of scientific problem-solving and model based methods for many decision problems. Initially, DSS acknowledge as interactive computer based systems, which help decision makers, utilize data and model to solve unstructured problem [19]. Diaz et al. (2005) defines the DSS as a new generation of information system, the goal of which is to try to discover what would happen if a series of decision are taken, or going further, by automatically providing the decision or suggestions that assist the users [15]. II. STRUCTURE OF DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM To develop the DSS for waste management, the DSS architecture proposed by Sprague and Watson (1996) have been applied in this field and also has been used by Chang (1996), MacDonald (1996), Bhargava (1997), Hasstrup et al. (1998), Boyle and Baetz (1998), Diaz et al. (2005), and Simonetto & Brenstein (2007). The important basic of this structure was supported by Pearson (1995) [36]. Fig. 1 shows the structure of DSS which basically consists of three components; database management, model base management, and user interface or dialogue [1, 7, 13, 19, 30, 32]. S World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 49 2009 161