Development of a Business Intelligence Conceptual Model for Waste Collection and Transportation Monitoring

Project Work presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business IntelligenceThe need to answer ever-increasing urban challenges and the integration of new technologies in every aspect of our daily lives prompt the creation of the Smart City concept. These new technologies gather an enormous quantity of data that reveals interesting patterns about cities, enabling opportunities to enhance public decision-making and problem-solving. One critical aspect of urban life is its relationship with the environment. There’s a real need to work on a unified global approach on how to tackle issues such as pollution and waste management, but there is not a single framework or guideline to handle these new data gathered. This work focuses on structuring a framework of analysis for waste collection and transportation purposes. The objective was to develop monitoring dashboards for Departamento de Higienização Urbana (DMHU), using proven metrics of efficiency and effectiveness, result of a comprehensive literature review. A BI framework was developed using Power BI to perform efficiency-based analysis of waste collection circuits – the main process of DMHU. The receptivity of DMHU towards the solution presented seems to indicate that a BI solution is indeed valuable for complex monitoring problems such as solid waste management

SMANJENJE TROŠKOVA TRANSPORTA OTPADA U PROVINCIJI TAIF, SAUDIJSKA ARABIJA

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is a critical issue in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Management of solid waste in crowded conditions, especially in main cities such as the Al-Taif Province. This paper deals with that case study and focuses on how to solve material handling problems by applying conventional methods and computer ability. One of the costliest operations in the civil sector is transportation for material handling. City mayors considered transportation and materials handling as a subclass of the linear programming technique, thus linear programming problems take into consideration that the main objective is to handle materials from the city centre site to the identified dumping area. There are many methods and tools used to solve the transportation problem (TP) to find out the maximum or minimum in order to reduce cost or maximize profit. The methods related to manual solutions and others used many different computer applications. Manual solutions include the northwest corner method, the minimum cost method, the row minimum cost method, the column minimum cost method, and Vogel\u27s approximation method, and computer applications such as LINGO, Lingo, and solver function using Microsoft Excel. This case study focuses on applying the Microsoft Excel function to find the minimum cost of the transportation system in waste materials to reduce the transportation cost from the city centre to the final destination (dumping area) to be used. The results achieved with the model aided in obtaining optimal solutions and finally, the optimal solutions were checked.Gospodarenje čvrstim komunalnim otpadom kritično je pitanje u Kraljevini Saudijskoj Arabiji (KSA), posebice u uvjetima guste naseljenosti u glavnim gradovima i pokrajinama kao što je Taif. Ovaj rad prikazuje studiju slučaja i usredotočen je na to kako riješiti probleme gospodarenja i manipulacije materijalima primjenom konvencionalnih metoda i informatičkom tehnologijom. Jedan od najskupljih poslova u komunalnome sektoru jest transport materijala. Gradske uprave transport i rukovanje materijalima smatraju potklasom tehnologije linearnoga programiranja, stoga problemi linearnoga programiranja uzimaju u obzir da je glavni cilj rukovanje materijalima od središta grada do identificiranoga odlagališta. Postoje mnoge metode i alati koji se koriste za rješavanje problema transporta (TP) kako bi se saznao maksimum ili minimum u smislu smanjenja troškova ili maksimiziranja profita. Te metode primarno su se odnosile na manualna rješenja, a druge su se koristile mnogim različitim računalnim aplikacijama. Manualna rješenja uključuju metodu sjeverozapadnoga kuta (northwest corner method), metodu minimalnoga troška, metodu minimalnoga troška retka, metodu minimalnoga troška stupca i Vogelovu metodu aproksimacije te računalne aplikacije kao što su LINGO, Lingo i funkciju Solver koja je uključena u Microsoft Excel. Ova studija slučaja usredotočuje se na primjenu Microsoft Excel funkcije za pronalaženje minimalne cijene sustava transporta otpadnoga materijala kako bi se smanjio trošak transporta od centra grada do konačnoga odredišta (odlagalište). Rezultati dobiveni modeliranjem dali su optimalna rješenja koja su na kraju rada i provjerena

Circular economy implementation in waste management network design problem: a case study

The paper presents a new approach to support the strategic decision-making in the area of municipal solid waste management applying modern circular economy principles. A robust two-stage integer non-linear program is developed. The primary goal tends to reduce the waste production. The generated waste should be preferably recycled as much as possible and the resultant residual waste might be used for energy recovery. Only some waste residues are appropriate for landfilling. The aim is to propose the near-optimal waste allocation for its suitable processing as well as waste transportation plan at an operational level. In addition, the key strategical decisions on waste treatment facilities location must be made. Since waste production is very often hard to predict, it is modeled as an uncertain decision-dependent quantity. To support the circular economy ideas, advertising and pricing principles are introduced and applied. Due to the size of available real-world data and complexity of the designed program, the presented model is linearized and uncertainty is handled by a robust optimization methodology. The model, data, and algorithm are implemented in MATLAB and Julia, using the state-of-the-art solvers. The computational result is a set of decisions providing a trade-off between the average performance and the immunization against the worst-case conditions. © 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

Decision Analysis Methodology to Evaluate Integrated Solid Waste Management Alternatives for a Remote Alaskan Air Station

Eareckson Air Station (AS), a remote U.S. Air Force installation, faces the complex decision of selecting a new municipal solid waste (MSW) management strategy to replace its current non-compliant system. This research effort applies value-focused thinking and multiattribute preference theory to decision analysis techniques to produce a multiple-objective decision analysis model that captures all of the site\u27s MSW goals, objectives, and concerns in order to facilitate the evaluation of MSW management strategies available. The model ranks 40 specific MSW management alternatives, which were developed in accordance with the decision-maker\u27s assumptions and constraints, based on how well they meet Eareckson\u27s overall strategic objective, a 20-year compliant MSW system. The model provides insight to the decision-maker as to which strategy is best suited for Eareckson\u27s MSW management needs. Sensitivity analysis is incorporated in the model to assess and illustrate the effects of changes in model objective weights and changes in model parameters. Overall, the model provides the Eareckson AS decision-maker with a decision tool to make a better decision when choosing a new MSW management strategy. The model results suggest that the Eareckson AS MSW strategy should be a Class II municipal solid waste landfill (MSWLF) along with a recycling combination that includes at least paper and cardboard recycling. The top-ranked alternative consists of a Class II MSWLF along with recycling aluminum cans, steel cans, glass, paper, and cardboard. Sensitivity analysis shows that fl%is top-ranked alternative is relatively insensitive

Analyzing solid waste landfills using satellite imagery and designing new landfill reception areas

Solid waste disposal is important for environmental management for good quality of life in urban cities. Among them is the final disposal of waste in landfills. Landfills can receive tons of waste, but they must be far away from natural resources and urban areas. The research aimed to analyze the physical and biological conditions and design a geolocation map of new sanitary landfills in three urban cities in Peru (Chilca, El Tambo and Huancayo). Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS satellite imagery was used to analyze the physical (LST and Methane) and biological (NDVI and SAVI) conditions of the landfills. The geolocation of the landfills was analyzed through the relationship, intersection and discrimination between their surface criteria (soil type, current use, geology and physiography) and climatic factors (temperature, humidity and precipitation). The physical and biological conditions of the landfills were: CH4: Chilca 8.33g > Huancayo 4.76g > El-Tambo 3.17g; SAVI: Chilca 0.61 > El Tambo 0.54 > Huancayo 0.51; LST: Huancayo 26.15°C > Chilca 24.03°C > El Tambo 22.75°C; NDVI: Chilca 0.85 > Huancayo 0.81 > El Tambo 0.8. In the three cities, "natural grasslands" were considered suitable land for the new solid waste landfill site. The multiple relationship, intersection, and discrimination of surface criteria and climatic factors were categorized into five types of sustainable geolocation (very appropriate > appropriate > moderately adequate > less appropriate > inappropriate) for new solid waste landfills. It was very important to discount the influence areas (rivers and lagoons) to avoid damaging the natural resources.      

Multi-objective sustainable location-districting for the collection of municipal solid waste : two case studies

This paper presents a multi-objective location-districting optimization model for sustainable collection of municipal solid waste, motivated by strategic waste management decisions in Iran. The model aims to design an efficient system for providing municipal services by integrating the decisions regarding urban area districting and the location of waste collection centers. Three objectives are minimized, given as 1) the cost of establishing collection centers and collecting waste, 2) a measure of destructive environmental consequences, and 3) a measure of social dissatisfaction. Constraints are formulated to enforce an exclusive assignment of urban areas to districts and that the created districts are contiguous. In addition, constraints make sure that districts are compact and that they are balanced in terms of the amount of waste collected. A multi-objective local search heuristic using the farthest-candidate method is implemented to solve medium and large-scale numerical instances, while small instances can be solved directly by commercial software. A set of randomly generated test instances is used to test the effectiveness of the heuristic. The model and the heuristic are then applied to two case studies from Iran. The obtained results indicate that waste collection costs can be reduced by an estimated 20-30 %, while significantly improving the performance with respect to environmental and social criteria. Thus, the provided approach can provide important decision support for making strategic choices in municipal solid waste management. Keywords: multi-objective optimization, local search, best-worst methodpublishedVersio

Site suitability analysis for decentralized sustainable solid waste management system for Coimbatore city using GIS.

          The effective solid waste management in a developing country like India has become an essential concern of the society. Municipality and corporation have framed many policies and municipal solid waste rules for a sustainable solid waste management, but the increase in population and urbanization leads to many challenges in implementing an effective system. Disposal of waste is an important action in solid waste management but due to many flaws in system the centralized disposal of waste is not effective. In this research the site selection for decentralized processing unit zone wise is done using GIS and weighted overlay analysis. The weighted overlay analysis is done by using thematic layers like land use land cover, geomorphology, geology, soil, lineaments, ground water depth, distance from water bodies, distance from railway track, drainage density, road density ,distance from roads are used as inventory maps to arrive the suitable area to carry out decentralized solid waste management. The results revealed the suitable area in sqkm under five classifications as highly suitable, high to moderately suitable, moderately suitable, poorly suitable and not suitable. Keywords: site suitability, south zone, Coimbatore decentralized waste management, weighted overlay analysis

Facility Location Problems: Models, Techniques, and Applications in Waste Management

This paper presents a brief description of some existing models of facility location problems (FLPs) in solid waste management. The study provides salient information on commonly used distance functions in location models along with their corresponding mathematical formulation. Some of the optimization techniques that have been applied to location problems are also presented along with an appropriate pseudocode algorithm for their implementation. Concerning the models and solution techniques, the survey concludes by summarizing some recent studies on the applications of FLPs to waste collection and disposal. It is expected that this paper will contribute in no small measure to an integrated solid waste management system with specific emphasis on issues associated with waste collection, thereby boosting the drive for e�ective and e�cient waste collection systems. The content will also provide early career researchers with some necessary starting information required to formulate and solve problems relating to FLP

Solid waste management: Belo Horizonte’s study case

The main objective of this study is to present the instruments related to solid waste in Brazil, specifically in the city of Belo Horizonte, as well as to characterize the aspects of waste management abroad. In addition to websites of different governments, scientific databases were consulted, among them are: SciELO, Science Direct and Web of Science. Although having a major regulatory framework on the management of solid waste, and that the Law 12.305 of August 2010, Brazil is lagging when it comes to the application of what is regulated. In 2015, it was decided to extend the deadline for municipalities to close their dumpsters and then use landfills, which was not fulfilled. Thus, it was decided to extend the deadline, share that view by different scholars as an error. During this study, it was observed that among the major flaws in the Brazilian management model, is meeting deadlines established by law, which differs from the model adopted in Europe, after the deadline, fines are levied on the waste generator that does not comply with the provisions. Unfortunately, in Brazil, solid waste management by the government is still seen in the wrong way, for something interesting to remember is that with a good waste management, spending vector control (and therefore healthy) will be considerably reduced.The main objective of this study is to present the instruments related to solid waste in Brazil, specifically in the city of Belo Horizonte, as well as to characterize the aspects of waste management abroad. In addition to websites of different governments, scientific databases were consulted, among them are: SciELO, Science Direct and Web of Science. Although having a major regulatory framework on the management of solid waste, and that the Law 12.305 of August 2010, Brazil is lagging when it comes to the application of what is regulated. In 2015, it was decided to extend the deadline for municipalities to close their dumpsters and then use landfills, which was not fulfilled. Thus, it was decided to extend the deadline, share that view by different scholars as an error. During this study, it was observed that among the major flaws in the Brazilian management model, is meeting deadlines established by law, which differs from the model adopted in Europe, after the deadline, fines are levied on the waste generator that does not comply with the provisions. Unfortunately, in Brazil, solid waste management by the government is still seen in the wrong way, for something interesting to remember is that with a good waste management, spending vector control (and therefore healthy) will be considerably reduced

Beverage Producer Responsibility & Recycling

The goal of this project was to recommend a framework for a producer responsibility system (PRS) to address the sustainable waste management of glass beverage containers in Hong Kong. The objectives we created to accomplish this goal were to identify the scale of beverage container waste; the mechanics, costs, and difficulties of recycling; and examples of PRS around the world. Results were obtained through interviews, tours, a focus group, and literary searches. From our conclusions, we generated a framework