3132. A Spatial Decision Support System for designing the network of Household Waste Recycling Centres in South Yorkshire
Invited abstract in session MC-3: EEPA, stream EURO Excellence in Practice Award.
Monday, 12:30-14:00Room: Esther Simpson 1.01
Authors (first author is the speaker)
| 1. | Serena Fugaro
|
| Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia | |
| 2. | Antonino Sgalambro
|
| Analytics, Technology and Operations Department, Leeds University Business School | |
| 3. | Filippo Santarelli
|
| Institute for Applications of Calculus "Mauro Picone", National Research Council of Italy |
Abstract
In the UK Government's 25 Year Environment Plan, the location of municipal waste collection and recycling facilities plays a crucial role in achieving the recycling targets. Locally, these services are provided to residents through Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs). The UK Government recognises the need to plan the network of HWRCs carefully to ensure their efficient operation and appropriate use by residents. Local authorities are interested in reorganising HWRC networks with the dual aim of reducing operating costs and achieving high levels of user satisfaction, whilst meeting specific legislative requirements.
In this project, in collaboration with the Sheffield City Council in South Yorkshire (UK), we have developed a tailored spatial Decision Support System (DSS) for the optimal reconfiguration of HWRC networks. The model base component of the DSS builds upon a novel Multi-Objective Covering-Location-Allocation problem that formalises the underlying real-world Waste Management scenario taking into account multiple goals and different stakeholders (i.e. local authorities and service users). A soft-constrained solution approach is developed to accurately capture the actual dynamics driving the network design process, and to explore the impact of facility capacity flexibility.
The resulting Pareto sets are efficiently explored using a robust variant of the AUGMEnted ε-CONstraint method, and a computational characterisation of the proposed models is provided with benchmark instances from the real-world case study.
The DSS is framed in the open source QGIS software through the design and
implementation of an ad hoc plug-in that allows for an effective management of the DSS database component and a user-friendly graphical representation and comparison of Pareto Optimal solutions. The Graphical User Interface of the DSS has been co-designed with the local authorities to facilitate an intuitive visualisation of the characteristics of the alternative configurations generated by the model, and to enhance the usability of the tool by allowing the exploration of the trade-offs between objectives.
A thorough scenario and sensitivity analysis demonstrates how the DSS is successful in producing alternative configurations for the HWRC network design problem and providing quantitative and qualitative insights to support strategic planning and decision-making.
Keywords
- Decision Support Systems
Status: accepted
Back to the list of papers