Integration of Information and Optimization Models for Routing in City Logistics

​As urban congestion continues to be an ever increasing problem, routing in these settings has become an important area of operations research. This monograph provides cutting-edge research, utilizing the recent advances in technology, to quantify the value of dynamic, time-dependent information for advanced vehicle routing in city logistics. The methodology of traffic data collection is enhanced by GPS based data collection, resulting in a comprehensive number of travel time records. Data Mining is also applied to derive dynamic information models as required by time-dependent optimization. Finally, well-known approaches of vehicle routing are adapted in order to handle dynamic information models.

This book interweaves the usually distinct areas of traffic data collection, information retrieval and time-dependent optimization by an integrated methodological approach, which refers to synergies of Data Mining and Operations Research techniques by example of city logistics applications. These procedures will help improve the reliability of logistics services in congested urban areas.​

Jan Fabian Ehmke has been committed to optimization of urban transportation since his days as a high school student. He majored in Decision Support, Information Systems, and Urban Traffic Management at Technical University of Braunschweig. Besides his university obligations, he worked in consulting engineer’s office, and in 2007 he joined Dr. Dirk Christian Mattfeld’s group as a research assistant. Since then he has been involved in a variety of traffic and transportation projects ranging from industry collaborations to purely academic contexts. Having a background in management science, he has focused on interweaving the commonly distinct areas of information systems, operations research, and traffic engineering. Ehmke has continuously published and presented his work, receiving particular attention from the aforementioned scientific communities. His recently finished PhD thesis involves a comprehensive treatment of the distinct areas’ contributions to dynamic routing of city logistics services. He is currently preparing for a PostDoc visit at the University of Iowa.