Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Using GIS for Optimisation in Transportation Planning

by Günter Kiechle

The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for preparing input data for optimisation algorithms improves the practical applicability of such algorithms in the field of transportation planning. This promising combination of technologies is the subject of a collaboration between the University of Vienna and Salzburg Research. 

Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs) are a widely investigated class of problems in combinatorial optimisation, and include many transportation tasks (eg parcel services). In general, a VRP consists of a set of customers that must be served via a fleet of vehicles, each of which leaves from and returns to a central depot. The type of VRP determines whether customers have goods delivered to them, are transported from one location to another, or are served in some other way.

Using GIS for Real-World Input Data
In research, most solution techniques for this class of problem are designed and tested by means of synthetic problem structures. However, the tackling of real-world VRPs requires a thoroughly elaborated data basis in order to provide reasonable outcomes. If this is not the case, even the best solution techniques are of no use for practical applications.
Essential input data for real-world VRPs is gathered by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Whereas most researchers use Euclidean distances between customers and depots for their optimisation algorithms, a GIS can provide real distance information derived from a digital road network.
Experiences in former projects showed that using distance data of limited quality in optimisation algorithms leads to results of even more limited quality. In the worst case, a valid solution for a given input dataset might actually be unfeasible in reality.
 

more about GIS applications:

MODELING AND VISUALIZING 3D URBAN ENVIRONMENT VIA INTERNET FOR URBAN PLANNING AND MONITORING

Interconnections of Urban Green Spaces and Environmental Quality of Tehran

Accessibility effect on urban land values

Modeling street connectivity, pedestrian movement and land-use according to standard GIS street network representations: A Comparative Study

REMOTE SENSING IMAGE INTERPRETATION STUDY SERVING URBAN PLANNING BASED ON GIS

A GIS-based gradient analysis of urban landscape pattern of Shanghai metropolitan area, China

Land development, land use, and urban sprawl in Puerto Rico integrating remote sensing and population census data


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