title: A decision support system for the operational planning of solid waste collection.
abstract: This study presents the conception, modeling, and implementation of a decision support system applied to the operational planning of solid waste collection systems, called SCOLDSS. The main functionality of the system is the generation of alternatives to the decision processes concerning: (a) the allocation of separate collection vehicles, as well as the determination of their routes and (b) the determination of the daily amount of solid waste to be sent to each sorting unit, in order to avoid waste of labor force and to reduce the amount of waste sent to the landfills. To develop the computer system, a combination of quantitative techniques was used, such as: simulation of discrete events and algorithms/heuristics for vehicle allocation and routing. The system was developed using the Borland Delphi environment and the commercial software Arena to carry out the simulations. We also present a computational study with real-life data from the solid waste collection in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in which we show that the results provided by the computational system outperform the operation planning currently adopted.
authors.affiliation: Federal Center of Technological Education of Sao Vicente do Sul (CEFET-SVS), CIET, 97420-000 Sao Vicente do Sul-RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Eugênio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Oliveira Simonetto
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Borenstein
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001938:Brazil; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017046:Cost Savings; D004782:Environmental Health; D005843:Geography; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D014186:Transportation / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*