An application of bilevel optimisation to the waste collection centres location problem

Abstract

In this paper, we show an application of bilevel programming to the problem of locating waste collection centres inside a municipal area. In our study, the latter problem possesses a hierarchical structure, i.e., there are two decision makers, one of which acts as a leader and the other behaves as a follower. Therefore, we exhibit a bilevel optimisation program able to capture this hierarchy and propose an iterative algorithm to solve the problem. This solution proposal is then tested on data derived from a real scenario. Experimental results reveal that the approach is effective in this kind of decision problems.