Application of System Dynamics for Municipal Waste Management in China: A Case Study of Beijing

Municipal domestic waste is the most complex one among the solid wastes. Its improper disposal will easily cause serious environmental pollution, occupy substantial landfill and waste the recyclable resources. System dynamics methodology presents special merits in the study of the municipal waste management. In this paper, 16 study achievements of the system dynamics are summarized with regard to the solid waste management in China; studies on the system dynamics models are focused for the municipal waste management in Beijing, covering the relatively detailed structure designs for population subsystem, waste discharge subsystem, waste disposal subsystem, waste charging subsystem, waste pollution/landfill loss subsystem, and macro-economy and green GDP accounting subsystem; the preliminary simulation findings are described and a conclusion is proposed; finally, it is envisioned that the system dynamics models of municipal domestic waste management should combine with the GIS technology to facilitate the spatial presentation of findings, with the optimization technology to screen the best decision-making plan, and with the safety & early-warning technologies to prepare emergency plans. Keyword: system dynamics, municipal domestic waste, solid waste management, decision-making