A GIS-Based Simulation Model of Solid Waste Collection Operations

摘要

This paper presents an on-going project to build a simulation model of a municipal solid waste collection system within an ArcGIS 9.1 environment. This model simulates seven basic collection stages of an entire fleet of waste collection vehicles throughout the day. The model requires three specific digital map layers: (i) street segments, (ii) collection district parcels, and (ii) transfer stations. Users input required data to supply information for the model to proceed. Parameters for the model are mostly based on Global Position System (GPS) data collected from vehicles in the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada over one-year period. Most of those parameters are in the form of probability distributions that allows the model to capture the stochastic nature of collection operations. Users can assign the simulation model to automatically run for a number of times. Outputs from the model include time requirements, fuel consumption and green house gas emissions for each collection activity for each truck in the fleet. Those outputs are presented as average and standard deviation values to show the variation of the collection process.