Network Planning Method for Capacitated Metro‐Based Underground Logistics System

Abstract

Underground logistics system (ULS) tends to alleviate traffic congestion, increase city logistics efficiency, mitigate the negative effects of traditional logistics processes, and improve the sustainability of urban areas. However, the relatively high cost and risk of underground construction are serious obstacles to implementing ULS. Integrating ULS into modern metro system (M-ULS) is considered to be feasible and efficient to solve this problem. is paper aims at developing a metro system-based ULS network planning method. First, an evaluation model of underground freight volume was proposed considering service capacity, freight flow, and regional accessibility. Second, a set of mixed integer programming model was developed to solve the problem of optimal nodes' location-allocation (LAP) in the network. en, a hybrid algorithm was designed with a combination of E-TOPSIS, exact algorithm, and heuristic algorithm. Finally, two lines of Nanjing Metro were selected as a case to validate the proposed planning method. e results showed that the new system can significantly reduce the construction costs of ULS and alleviate traffic congestion. Moreover, the potential of metro stations and underground tunnels can be fully exploited to achieve higher logistics benefits.

A Systematic Literature Review of Green and Sustainable Logistics: Bibliometric Analysis, Research Trend and Knowledge Taxonomy

“…These were followed by papers by Lai and Wong [41] and Ubeda et al [42], which focused on using the scenario-based approaches, such as the questionnaire and case study, to evaluate the environmental performance of green logistics practices. The main topics of other highlighted documents involve: (i) management insights from industrial practices [43,44]; (ii) multi-criteria evaluation system for green logistics (e.g., policy [45], environment [46], and transportation planning [47]); (iii) network facilities design and optimization [48,49]; (iv) reverse logistics [50,51]; and (v) enterprise responsibility and third-party logistics [52]. The top 15 most cited papers are presented in Table 3, showing their publication year, title, TLS, citation counts and topics.…”

“…For this reason, the collaborative strategy of retrofitting existing urban rail transit systems, such as trams, light rail or subways, to achieve mixed passenger-and-freight transport has received higher recognition and was successfully stepped into engineering practice in some European cities [115]. Compared with ULS, the collaborative modes are easier to implement, since the dual use of transportation infrastructures would moderate the system cost to an acceptable level [49,116].…”

The Impact of Underground Logistics System on Urban Sustainable Development: A System Dynamics Approach

“…Mathematical models are also applied to ULS network design, such as the AHP-Fuzzy evaluation [23], and plant growth simulation algorithm [24]. In order to reduce the cost, the implementation of ULS based on urban subway system has also been widely discussed in recent years [10]. However, the models were still based on cost and freight efficiency, rather than the tradeoff between freight performance and freight transport externalities.…”

“…Days are also considered for the model. PM from vehicle exhaust is considered the unhealthiest pollutant in metropolitan areas, such as PM 2.5 and PM 10 . Trucks are the main potential source of PM pollution, and the PM emissions can be calculated by the vehicle kilometers travelled (VKT) [50].…”

“…As a new type of transportation infrastructure, ULS has close interaction with urban development. On the one hand, network scale and density determine the transport capacity of ULS, and thus affect its social-economic benefits [10]. The implementation of ULS with high transport capacity can obviously greatly improve the efficiency of urban logistics.…”