Pollution Research Paper

SPATIAL LINEAR PROGRAMMING MODEL TO REDUCE A POLLUTION EMISSIONS OF SUGARCANE TRANSPORTATION IN NORTHEASTERN THAILAND

PATIWAT LITTIDEJ

Abstract

Currently, the sugarcane transportation management in Thailand relies only on arbitrary and unsystematic decisions. The increase of truck trip for sugarcane transportation in Northeast, Thailand is proportionate to the increase of emission level and has caused traffic congestion and delay in transportation. This can lead to low efficiency and great loss in transportation cost unnecessary. The purpose of the study is to apply Network Analysis (NA) and Spatial Linear Programming (SLP) to perform transportation management of sugarcane produced in the northeast region of Thailand. The sugarcane cropping area in this region of Thailand is the biggest compared to others. The sugarcane areas distribute in 228 districts out of 321. There are 16 sugar factories to serve the region out of total 47 nationwide. The purpose of the study was to apply Network Analysis and Linear Programming to perform transportation management of sugarcane produced in the Northeast region of Thailand. The main objective of the study was minimizing the total emission by proper allotting sugarcane from plots to certain sets of factories. To deal with a very large number of plots in the region, the methodology comprised 2 steps. The first step was to allot total sugarcane product from districts to certain sets of factories. The second step used the results from the first step as input to allot sugarcane from each plot to a certain set of factories specific for each district. As a result for the first objective of the study, the minimum total emission level in district and plot levels were 1,466,641,682.33 units and 1,551,454,082.19 units, respectively. The results from both steps of both objectives were consistent with the research hypotheses.