GIS Technology for Vehicle Routing and Scheduling in Solid Waste Collection Systems

Abstract

Rapid improvements in the hardware and software for geographic information system (GIS) have enhanced its potential for solving various types of engineering and management problems. This study develops a multiobjective, mixed-integer programming model for collection vehicle routing and scheduling for solid waste management systems synthesized within a GIS environment. The integration of the mathematical programming model and the GIS were demonstrated through application to a specific site in Taiwan. The proposed interactive design procedure using GIS allows a decision maker to analyze many waste collection alternatives before selecting a final operational scenario. Such a system also has potential application in many other environmental planning and management problems.