Hierarchical multiobjective analysis for large-scale systems: Review and current status

Large-scale systems are often characterized by hierarchical structure, and they usually have multiple objectives that are noncommensurable. Two well-known approaches to the analysis of systems-hierarchical system theory and multiobjective optimization-have been developed to deal with these two aspects of large-scale systems. The past decade has seen an increasing concern with the integration of these two approaches into a unified framework for large-scale systems, leading to the emergence of a new field known as hierarchical multiobjective analysis. This paper provides a systematic review of the literature associated with the modeling and optimization of large-scale systems, focusing on research based on the hierarchical multiobjective approach, the overlapping decomposition approach, and the multimodel approach. A large number of recently published papers that fall within these areas are reviewed.