Presentation at the International Symposium on Locational Decisions XVI
Dr Cihan Butun presented his research based on the Green Yard Scheduler titled “Incorporating energy consumption into location decisions in container yards” at the International Symposium on Locational Decisions (ISOLDE) XVI, organized in Germany on June 25 – 30 June, 2023. ISOLDE, organized triennially, is the most important symposium on locational analysis and attracts location scientists from around the world.
The main focus of the presentation was the problem of allocating empty slots in a container yard to incoming import containers by considering productivity and sustainability goals. This problem is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem that minimizes the number of unproductive container movements and the total energy consumption of yard equipment. The proposed method, a Pareto Archived Evolutionary Strategy, provides a set of decision alternatives showing the trade-off between productivity and sustainability objectives. The analysis of a case study at Vigo Container Terminal in Spain validates the potential impact of the chosen approach, where the results demonstrate that the number of unproductive container movements can be reduced by 74% and energy consumption by 26% on average. The presentation was received with sound interest from the audience and was followed by a lively questions and answers session.
