An Optimization Approach for Waste Collection Routes Based on GIS in Hillah-Iraq

Waste management is one of the fundamental services untaken by municipalities to retain cities clean and healthy. It represents a high priority and urgent issue for many communities around the world. Rapid progress in the economy and urbanization has had a significant impact on the increase in waste disposal volumes. In this study, Geographical information system GIS was suggested and implemented for optimizing the waste collection (WC) routes in Al Hillah city. The ArcGIS Network Analyst model was developed to improve the efficiency of WC in the Municipality of Hillah (MoH), through the redistribution of waste collection bins and improved trucks routing in terms of distance and time. Sixty routes are resulted and optimized to minimize the total distances of the current route. Simultaneously, it helps in reducing the time required for each route to complete the waste collection process. The final result shows about 30% of the aggregated route distances are minimized in addition to the resulted duration times. The optimal scenario suggested in this study is found to be more efficient in terms of assembly time and distance traveled by waste trucks.