A Heuristic Procedure for Improving the Routing of Urban Waste Collection Vehicles Using ArcGIS

Abstract

This paper proposes a heuristic procedure created to improve the collection routes obtained with the support of the ArcGIS software and its complement, Network Analyst. After a series of experiments, it was found that the software presents several inconsistencies with logistical and operational management concepts, such as the unnecessary realization of U-turns in a dead end and unnecessary access to areas with difficult access to a single customer. These are issues that a collection route planner must consider to make a good decision that considers the cost of visiting areas with difficult access and the benefits of reaching that area. In this sense, our heuristic procedure considers a set of best practices in operational and logistical strategies that could be programmed within the Network Analyst. As it is well known in the science of vehicle routing, U-turns and sub-tours in the routes travelled by vehicles increase distances and operating costs, so in our work, we propose a systematic heuristic procedure to reduce the number of U-turns performed by a municipal waste collection truck, while using the ArcGIS-Network Analyst add-on to reduce the number of sub-tours in the route under the Directed-Capacitated Arc Routing Problem approach. It is then shown how the routes improved using our conceptual heuristic procedure, which provides better quality than the original routes obtained with ArcGIS and Network Analyst. Specifically, reducing the total distances travelled by the vehicle fleet, increasing the coverage of sidewalks visited by the truck in the urban perimeter of a city, and minimizing the time used in municipal solid waste collection operations. The importance of our work lies in the fact that effective MSW management is an essential municipal service whose regulation can drive innovation, sustainability, and efficiency in the MSW sector.