Abstract
As a new mode of transportation, the underground logistics system (ULS) has become one of the solutions to the problems of environmental pollution and traffic congestion. Considering the environmental and economic factors in urban logistics, this paper conducts comprehensive design and optimization research on the network nodes and passages of urban underground logistics and proposes a relatively complete framework for a sustainable underground logistics network. A hybrid method is proposed, which includes the set cover model used to perform the first location of urban underground logistics nodes, the fuzzy clustering method applied to classify the located logistics nodes into the first-level and second-level nodes considering the congestion in different urban areas of the city and a mixed integer programming model proposed to optimize and design the underground logistics passage to find optimal passage parameters at every underground logistics node. Based on the above hybrid method, a sustainable underground logistics network framework including all-levels logistics nodes and passages is formed, with a subdistrict of Nanjing as a case study. The discussion of results shows that this underground logistics network framework proposal is very effective in reducing logistics time cost, exhaust emission and congestion cost. It provides support for decisions in the design and development of urban sustainable underground logistics networks.
Highlights
With the increasingly severe threat of climate change and resource depletion faced by human society, the demand for sustainable development is increasingly urgent [1,2]
The comprehensive design and optimization methods for the sustainable urban underground logistics network proposed by this paper are shown in Figure 3, which contains three parts: the logistics nodes location, nodes classification and logistics passage design
In order to solve the problem of environmental pollution and transportation cost increase caused by urban traffic congestion, the underground logistics transportation system has been widely studied and discussed by scholars
Summary
With the increasingly severe threat of climate change and resource depletion faced by human society, the demand for sustainable development is increasingly urgent [1,2]. With the growth of urban population and the explosive growth of vehicle flow in urban logistics systems, climate change has become a huge burden on the urban healthy operation. The development of urban logistics systems is facing difficulties in the economic, environmental and social aspects. As the intersection control began, all vehicles were required to go through the procedures of temperature measurement by queuing at each highway entrance/exit before they could pass, which resulted in a congestion-caused long queue and, what is more, a huge inconvenience to the passage of freight vehicles. The hindering in Sustainability 2020, 12, 9147; doi:10.3390/su12219147 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
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