MODELING THE INCREASED COMPLEXITY OF NEW-YORK-CITY REFUSE MARINE TRANSPORT-SYSTEM

The New York City Department of Sanitation operates the world's larges t refuse marine transport system. Waste trucks unload their cargo at l and-based transfer stations where refuse is placed in barges and then towed by tugboats to the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island. In the early 1980s, the city commissioned the development of a computer-base d model for use in fleet sizing and operations planning. As a result o f the complexities introduced by environmental regulation and technolo gical innovation, the marine transport system operations changed and t he existing model became obsolete. Based on the success achieved with the first model in 1993, the city commissioned the development of a ne u? model. In this paper, rye present a PC-based model developed to mee t the increased complexity of the system. Analysis performed for valid ation and calibration of the model demonstrates that it tracks well th e operations of the real system. We illustrate through a detailed desi gn exercise how to use the model to configure the system in a way that meets the requirements of the refuse marine transport system.