Date of Award

2015-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Civil Engineering

Advisor(s)

Ruey L. Cheu

Second Advisor

Tomas Horak

Abstract

This Thesis focuses on evaluation of utilization of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for solving the residential recyclables collection routing problems.

Recyclables collection is considered as a part of reverse logistics to which a specific routing problem is connected. Rise of recycling rate in recent years, and always high transportation costs are the main drivers for looking for the new methods how to optimize routing in residential recyclables collection. Geospatial relation of data by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software can be used to design and analyze the routing strategy. In this Thesis ArcGIS and its Network Analyst extension is used to analyze potential routing improvement in one selected recyclables collection shift in El Paso, Texas. Equation describing the time requirements for the process of recyclables collection with the consideration of effects of set-out rate and turns was established. Despite that the Network Analyst was not designed for solving high density routing tasks of this kind, an approach to obtain acceptable routing solution by this ArcGIS extension was developed. By applying this approach on the selected recyclables collection shift it was found that comparable, routing solution can be obtained. In the end, possible ways how to improve this approach to make the Network Analyst to perform even better in high density routing task is presented together with suggested changes in the investigated collection shift.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

96 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Karel Kus

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