Universal Decision Support System for Selection of MSW Route Optimization Method

Abstract

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) collection utilizes the highest percentage of the MSW management budget. Additionally, choosing a vehicle route optimization method is complex, difficult and does not always yield the most practical approach. There is limited published information about a decision support system (DSS) that assists in selecting the appropriate route optimization algorithm. This study aims to design and develop a universal DSS framework that suggests effective route optimization method(s). The system consists of 21 optimization data items and four criteria that assess the available constraints and recommends the most suitable optimization method(s). The DSS prototype was validated by testing it on the available literature and observing if the suggested method by the system complies with that utilized by the researchers. It was found that the system was able to predict the method which is used in 73% of studies. Moreover, the system suggested an enhanced version of the methods used in 18% of studies. It could be concluded that the proposed framework can help to select the best algorithms in almost all existing scenarios that have been used during development. Therefore, it is recommended to use the framework for selecting the appropriate route optimization algorithm for MSW collection.