Gis Based Secondary Storage and Transportation System Planning for Municipal Solid Waste

Rapid urban growth has brought with it an inevitable problem of municipal solid waste management. A major portion of total expenditure on solid waste management (SWM) is spent on collection and transportation of waste. Optimization of route is always a challenging task for city planners. Geographical Information System (GIS) is an important tool to solve the problems of waste transportation from collection to landfill site based upon least cost. The cost factor is affected by the labor cost, vehicle cost, time, distance and type of road among others. ArcGIS software may be used for digitization of spatial data in GIS environment. Network Extension module is used for finding the route with least cost. The proposed methodology can be used as a tool by urban local bodies to make work schedule for efficient collection of solid waste. This methodology has been validated for the city of Varanasi (India). It is observed that the present waste storage and collection system in Varanasi is inadequate and unplanned. An initial investment of approx. Rs. 76.45 million is estimated for improvement of waste storage and transportation system and approximately Rs. 52.40 million is required per annum for managing these two services efficiently. Keyword: Municipal solid waste, GIS, waste collection, transportation, route planning, optimization. I rnational Journal of Civil E gi eering and Technology (IJCIET), ISSN 0976 – 6308(Print) ISSN 0976 – 6316(Online) Volume 1 Number 1, May June (2010), pp. 108-130 © IAEME, http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet.html IJCIET © IAEME International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET) ISSN 0976 – 6308(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6316(Online) Volume 1, Number 1, May June (2010), © IAEME