Welcome to the Proceedings of the 12th Conference on Evolutionary Multi-Criterion Optimization (EMO), held in Leiden, The Netherlands, March 20–24, 2023 in hybrid format.Why hold EMO conferences?...Show moreWelcome to the Proceedings of the 12th Conference on Evolutionary Multi-Criterion Optimization (EMO), held in Leiden, The Netherlands, March 20–24, 2023 in hybrid format.Why hold EMO conferences? This question was discussed at EMO 2007 by its founders. The doubts regarding the viability of the conferences were fortunately cast away as the importance, need, and ubiquity of multi-criterion optimization keeps growing each year at a tremendous pace, impacting other areas and being influenced itself by them.For millennia optimization (improving things) has played a crucial role for humans. In more recent times, EMO (and optimization in general) has become important in sciencein areas such as physics, biology, economics, social sciences,medical sciences, and mathematics. For instance, Snell’s law was discovered by Willebrord Snellius through experimentation, only later it was realized that it can be derived from Fermat’s principle of least time, stating that light always chooses the path that is traveled in the least time.As such, the laws of nature can often be perceived as a process of optimization and optimal decision-making. Secondly, another use of optimization is the following. Many insights can be gained by looking at extremal objects (for instance, given 2n points in the plane no three of which lie on a line, n of them blue and n of them red, it is always possible to create n line segments by using the given points such that the endpoints have different colors and no two segments intersect – this can be understood by looking at the appropriate extremal object). Thirdly, methodologies and techniques developed in the EMO community have been empowering many practical scenarios: from finding the best taxation system, the best returns on investments while avoiding too high risks,discovering potent drug candidates with few side effects, to designing engineering structures that optimally balance the energy consumption and the environmental impact (e.g., minimizing the CO2 or CH4 emission).In the EMO conferences, we focus mainly on the evolutionary approaches to solving multi-criterion optimization and decision-making problems since the applicability of analytical/deterministic methods is often limited. For the scenarios where both categories of approaches are applicable, the hybridizations of analytical and evolutionary algorithms have appeared over the years, combining the strengths of both categories.Such hybridizations were also covered in the EMO conferences. In recent years, the EMOcommunity has been bridged with theMulti-Criterion Decision-Making (MCDM) community, which focuses more on the decision-making aspects of the same problem. According to the EMO tradition, also in this year’s event, many works are dedicated to designing and studying algorithms, ranging from novel algorithmic operators to thetheoretical analysis of existing ones. Notably, there are some contributions that connect EMO with Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence, which draws more and more research interests nowadays. Also, appropriate attention – also as a tutorial – is paid tobenchmarking and empirical performance assessment, for instance, new benchmarking vi Preface problem sets. Furthermore, some submissions address real-world problems using EMO methodologies, which nicely complete the scope of the conference.Show less
De Almeida Vidotto, A.; Fossati, L.; Vink, J.S. 2023
NatureCoast is the largest research program that focused on the Sand Motor, a large sandy peninsula, constructed in 2011 on the Dutch North Sea coast near The Hague. This unprecedented pilot... Show moreNatureCoast is the largest research program that focused on the Sand Motor, a large sandy peninsula, constructed in 2011 on the Dutch North Sea coast near The Hague. This unprecedented pilot project involved placing 21.5 million m3 of sand on and in front of the beach with the aim that it would spread along the coast. The Sand Motor is a unique beach nourishment due to its size, the design philosophy behind it, and its multifunctionality. It combines the primary function of coastal protection with the creation of a new natural landscape that also provides new leisure opportunities. From the outset, “learning by doing” has been a crucial part of the project and NatureCoast was an integral part of this. Because of its innovations, the Sand Motor has triggered considerable political and scientific interest from all over the world. Broad research consortia were formed to conduct interdisciplinary research on the Sand Motor.The NatureCoast program was carried out by a consortium of knowledge institutes and universities, and the research was conducted in cooperation with end-users from private companies, research institutes and governmental organizations. The Dutch Technology Foundation (NWO-TTW) provided the largest shareof the project funds. The research in NatureCoast focused on six themes: coastal safety, dune formation, marine ecology, terrestrial ecology, hydrology and geochemistry, and governance. This book presents countless facets of the Sand Motor, but we also hope it demonstrates the scientific merits of interdisciplinary research and how, ultimately, societies can benefit from it. Show less
Tukker, A.; Wood, R.; Giljum, S.; Hubacek, K. 2018
