Method for Delivery Planning in Urban Areas with Environmental Aspects

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Path planning and distribution optimization can indeed be a component of environmental optimization and help to minimize the emission of harmful substances to a certain extent. In the field of transportation and logistics, optimizing distribution routes, reducing ineffective transportation, improving vehicle loading efficiency, and adopting more environmentally friendly transportation methods (such as electric vehicles or vehicles using clean energy) can effectively reduce fuel consumption, thereby reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. However, this is only one dimension. Environmental optimization and minimization of harmful substance emissions are comprehensive tasks that involve multiple fields and levels. Here are some questions and suggestions for modification:

        1. This planning deliveries in the urban network method aims to minimize harmful substances, so it may be effective for the selected case company and city, but is it applicable to cities in different regions? This sample size is relatively small.

2.     The existing urban planning determines the physical space and infrastructure that we can use. The impact of urban planning on environmental optimization will be demonstrated through the distribution of public transportation, green spaces, or other renewable energy facilities. When optimizing the urban environment, this is an important constraint factor.

3.     May I ask if the paper considered road congestion or peak hours in the morning and evening? The load conditions of the road network, specific congestion issues, and traffic planning all have an impact on environmental optimization. Road congestion may lead to increased air pollution, decreased energy efficiency, and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

 

4.     The traffic flow and population dynamics at different time periods have a significant impact on the urban environment. Specific time periods may lead to changes in traffic load, energy consumption, and environmental pollution. Therefore, adopting traffic management measures tailored to specific time periods (such as vehicle restrictions during peak hours or phased bus operations) may also have positive environmental effects.

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

See above.

Author Response

Dear Sir/Madam,

Authors would like to thank the reviewer for a profound and valuable review. We have found your comments insightful and helpful and they have surely contributed to enhancing the standard of our paper, as well as our future research in this area. Below you will find detailed responses to your comments and how we addressed them in the revised version of our paper.

We will first refer to the table containing the review:

• we have improved the description of research design, questions and method,
• we have verified that the cited references are relevant to the research,
• we have expanded the literature review,
• we have corrected discussion of findings,
• we have improved the description of the experimental research,
• we have corrected the order of references in the bibliography - currently the order is consistent with the moment the item appeared in the content of the article (this was not done in the mode of recording changes),
• we have corrected conclusions.

Now we will refer to the suggestions for modification.

1. This planning deliveries in the urban network method aims to minimize harmful substances, so it may be effective for the selected case company and city, but is it applicable to cities in different regions? This sample size is relatively small.

Thank you for the insight provided. While working on the article, it escaped us to detail among the advantages of the method its universality. We have added the relevant wording in section 4 of the article against each of the sub-criteria. While we agree that the example is relatively small, our aim was to verify the operation of a method that can be successfully applied to much larger examples.

2. The existing urban planning determines the physical space and infrastructure that we can use. The impact of urban planning on environmental optimization will be demonstrated through the distribution of public transportation, green spaces, or other renewable energy facilities. When optimizing the urban environment, this is an important constraint factor.

Thank you for the insight provided. When conducting the study, we did not take into account urban planning and land-use issues around traffic routes that can be used for freight transport. We only considered issues related to strictly transport-related problems. We have assumed that transport is carried out along a specific traffic route without going into the land-use around it. Thank you for drawing attention to this extremely important problem. We will try to take it into account when carrying out further studies related to this topic. We have added a relevant clause in point 4 of the article.

3. May I ask if the paper considered road congestion or peak hours in the morning and evening? The load conditions of the road network, specific congestion issues, and traffic planning all have an impact on environmental optimization. Road congestion may lead to increased air pollution, decreased energy efficiency, and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Thank you for the insight provided. During calculations using the VRP Spreadsheet solver, an analysis of the route during peak hours and load distribution during off-peak periods was performed. Based on the data obtained, the average daily time for handling a transport task was estimated.

4. The traffic flow and population dynamics at different time periods have a significant impact on the urban environment. Specific time periods may lead to changes in traffic load, energy consumption, and environmental pollution. Therefore, adopting traffic management measures tailored to specific time periods (such as vehicle restrictions during peak hours or phased bus operations) may also have positive environmental effects.

Thank you for the insight provided. When conducting the study, we did not consider the issue of calculating emissions of harmful compounds on an hourly basis. We used the 24-hour average values of the indicators. We agree that research results divided by hour would be more accurate and would better represent the environmental impact. Thank you for this advice. We will endeavour to take it into account at a later stage of the study. We have added a relevant clause in point 4 of the article.

 

Thank you for taking the time to review our article.

Research Team

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This article is nothing more than incorporating environmental externalities into a travel salesman problem and makes no novel contribution to the literature.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

See enclosed.

Author Response

Dear Sir/Madam,

Authors would like to thank the reviewer for a profound and valuable review. We have found your comments insightful and helpful and they have surely contributed to enhancing the standard of our paper, as well as our future research in this area. Below you will find detailed responses to your comments and how we addressed them in the revised version of our paper.

We will first refer to the table containing the review:

• we have improved the description of research design, questions and method,
• we have verified that the cited references are relevant to the research,
• we have expanded the literature review,
• we have corrected discussion of findings,
• we have improved the description of the experimental research,
• we have corrected the order of references in the bibliography - currently the order is consistent with the moment the item appeared in the content of the article (this was not done in the mode of recording changes),
• we have corrected conclusions.

Now we will refer to the suggestions for modification.

This article is nothing more than incorporating environmental externalities into a travel salesman problem and makes no novel contribution to the literature.

Thank you for this comment. We understand that it would be possible to look at our approach to the analyzed research problem in this simple way. However, please note that in the method we propose, the environmental analysis is treated in a multi-criteria approach (three criteria: the cost of exposure of the ecosystem to harmful substances, time of exposure of the ecosystem to harmful substances, and the amount of exposure of the ecosystem to harmful substances). In addition, the last criterion includes three sub-criteria related to the emissions of various harmful substances: CO2, NOx, and PM. This creates a complex methodological structure, which we presented in Figure 6.

peer-review-34537066.v1.pdf

Line 23-31: Thank you for your comment. The article abstract has been changed. Lines 23-31 summarize everything in one key statement.

Line 36-79: Thank you for your comments. The introduction has been changed to take into account your comments on lines 53, 57 and 79.

Line 104: Thank you for your comment. The four articles are described separately, their summary and conclusions are presented.

Line 108: Thank you for your comment. The mind has been changed. And examples of articles on safety and risk in the topic of urban logistics are described in the following sentences.

Line 113-115: Thank you for your comment. The main findings of the cited article are explained.

Line 135: Thank you for your comment. The authors agree with the posted comment. Electric vehicles are quieter than combustion vehicles, which has a positive impact not only on the quality of life in cities, but also on areas affected by road infrastructure.

Line 145: Thank you for your comment. Of course we mean "economical".

Line 182: Thank you for your attention. First, the full name was defined and then the abbreviation was entered.

Line 202-203: Thank you for your comment. We did not include external costs in our method (our research). We only focused our attention on emissions of harmful compounds. We agree that external costs would do more to represent the environmental problem.

Line 206-207: Thank you for your comment. The value of this parameter was established on the basis of consultations with experts in the field of road transport and city logistics employed at the institutions represented by the authors (Warsaw and Silesian University of Technology (Poland)). Therefore, it was established using the expert method. We have added a relevant clause in point 4 of the article.

Line 211: The variant depends on the type of route, type of vehicle, type of fuel and type of service to the area. We have added a relevant clause in point 4 of the article.

Line 239-240: Thank you for the advice. We agree that the parameter should be dependent on the type of day. As we have taken into account the mid-day emissions, we have also used the average value here. We will take this into account in further studies.

Line 251: We used 2025 because of the availability of data in HBEFA 4.2. Data was only available for 2020 and 2025. For this reason, we chose 2025. In 2020 in the Europe, electromobility was not yet at a developed level. We have added a relevant clause in point 4 of the article.

Line 256 – HC: Data for sulphur dioxide was not available in HBEFA 4.2.

Line 256 – PM: We considered both PM fractions summed up. We have added a relevant clause in point 4 of the article.

Line 289-290: Thank you for pointing out the grammatical error. It has been corrected.

Line 447-448: We have added a relevant clause in point 7 of the article.

 

Thank you for taking the time to review our article.

Research Team

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The research goal of this article is to develop a methodology that will hypothetically analyse the cost, time, and amount of ecosystem exposure to hazardous compounds to provide a multi-criteria urban supply planning approach.

1.The novelty of the paper should be described in the introduction. 

2.In the introduction, it is clear that the authors do not have enough information on the existing studies and suggest that the authors should look into more studies by others. See for example “VAR-tree model based spatio-temporal characterization and prediction of O3 concentration in China” and "Multi-objective optimal dispatch strategy for power systems with Spatio-temporal distribution of air pollutants"

3.Why not take some decision-making methods to solve, the specific solution process is not shown. Such as TOPSIS and VIKOR methods, etc.

4.Can the authors compare the emission reduction effects of the proposed programmes on hazardous compounds also in the form of regional situational maps.

5.The authors are missing a detailed description of the data section and suggest adding this section.

Author Response

Dear Sir/Madam,

Authors would like to thank the reviewer for a profound and valuable review. We have found your comments insightful and helpful and they have surely contributed to enhancing the standard of our paper, as well as our future research in this area. Below you will find detailed responses to your comments and how we addressed them in the revised version of our paper.

We will first refer to the table containing the review:

• we have improved the description of research design, questions and method,
• we have verified that the cited references are relevant to the research,
• we have expanded the literature review,
• we have corrected discussion of findings,
• we have improved the description of the experimental research,
• we have corrected the order of references in the bibliography - currently the order is consistent with the moment the item appeared in the content of the article (this was not done in the mode of recording changes),
• we have corrected conclusions.

Now we will refer to the suggestions for modification.

1. The novelty of the paper should be described in the introduction.

Thank you for this valuable comment. Environmental analysis treated in a multi-criteria approach is novel in the method we propose. We took into account three criteria: the cost of exposure of the ecosystem to harmful substances, time of exposure of the ecosystem to harmful substances, and the amount of exposure of the ecosystem to harmful substances. Additionally, the last criterion includes three sub-criteria related to the emission of various harmful substances: CO2, NOx and PM. This creates a complex methodological structure. We have included an appropriate comment in the article.

2. In the introduction, it is clear that the authors do not have enough information on the existing studies and suggest that the authors should look into more studies by others. See for example “VAR-tree model based spatio-temporal characterization and prediction of O3 concentration in China” and "Multi-objective optimal dispatch strategy for power systems with Spatio-temporal distribution of air pollutants"

Thank you very much for providing sample publications. After carefully reviewing their content, the authors of the article concluded that they are a valuable source of knowledge, important in the context of the topic discussed. These publications provide insightful information about existing research, which allows for a deeper understanding and analysis of the issue and increases the substantive level of the article.

3. Why not take some decision-making methods to solve, the specific solution process is not shown. Such as TOPSIS and VIKOR methods, etc.

Thank you for this comment. The approach we propose, presented in Figure 2, enables the use of various multi-criteria decision support methods (including VIKOR or TOPSIS methods). Therefore, in the figure we wrote generally "Multi-criteria analysis of variants". In our case study, due to the complex structure of the criteria and the multi-stage analysis process, we decided to build a multi-criteria ranking using an approach combining the zero-unitarization method and the estimation of criteria weights based on the Saaty scale. These are methods commonly used in multi-criteria analyzes so far. However, your comment is very important to us because it indicates a possible direction for our further research, which is to check whether using other multi-criteria evaluation methods we would obtain the same ranking of variants. We will address this issue in subsequent publications.

4. Can the authors compare the emission reduction effects of the proposed programmes on hazardous compounds also in the form of regional situational maps.

Thank you for the insight provided. We used the VRP Spreadsheet Solver (Vehicle Routing Problem Spreadsheet Solver) to determine the optimal delivery method in an urban area. The locations of the points belonging to the distribution network are entered into this spreadsheet in the form of geographical coordinates. Using Bing Maps (Microsoft), the algorithm then searches for an optimal solution taking into account the road network, but does not indicate a solution for vehicle routing. It is therefore difficult for us to indicate which specific traffic routes have been affected by the load flow in order to show the emissivity on them.

5. The authors are missing a detailed description of the data section and suggest adding this section.

Thank you for your comment. Information on the destinations of shipment deliveries, including the number of individual parcels for each delivery point, the total weight of the shipment, the time of loading operations and the time of document handling, was collected on the basis of an interview with a friendly transport company. It specializes in deliveries and carries out regular transport of goods for a selected drugstore chain. These data were estimated based on a detailed interview with representatives of the transport company, which allowed us to obtain accurate information regarding logistics and delivery schedule. Based on the exact locations of parcel collection points, the exact route length and handling time of the transport task were estimated. The route length and the exact travel time were estimated using the VRP Spreadsheet solver, which, thanks to connection with "Bing" maps, allows you to determine the exact route and travel time taking into account the current road situation.

 

Thank you for taking the time to review our article.

Research Team

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Please read the attached file.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Sir/Madam,

Authors would like to thank the reviewer for a profound and valuable review. We have found your comments insightful and helpful and they have surely contributed to enhancing the standard of our paper, as well as our future research in this area. Below you will find detailed responses to your comments and how we addressed them in the revised version of our paper.

We will first refer to the table containing the review:

• we have improved the description of research design, questions and method,
• we have verified that the cited references are relevant to the research,
• we have expanded the literature review,
• we have corrected discussion of findings,
• we have improved the description of the experimental research,
• we have corrected the order of references in the bibliography - currently the order is consistent with the moment the item appeared in the content of the article (this was not done in the mode of recording changes),
• we have corrected conclusions.

Now we will refer to the suggestions for modification.

Ad 1. Thank you for the advice. We have corrected the title to: Method for planning delivery in urban areas with environ-mental aspect.

Ad 2. Thank you for the advice. We have corrected the keywords to: city logistics; decision support, VRP, emission of harmful compounds, multi-criteria method, mathematical modelling, electric vehicles

Ad 3. We have corrected the order of references in the bibliography - currently the order is consistent with the moment the item appeared in the content of the article (this was not done in the mode of recording changes).

Ad 4. We have improved the description of the methodology.

Ad 5. We have improved the annotation of figures, tables and equations in the text.

Ad 6. Thank you for your comment. The literature items you pointed out are very valuable and have been included in the article.

Ad 7. The discussion of solutions was completed.

Ad 8. We have completed the conclusion.

Ad 9. We have added Figure 6 in section 6, which includes scheme for building a ranking for multi-criteria evaluation of variants.

Ad 10. We have completed the discussion of findings.

Ad 11. We have corrected according to editorial requirements.

 

Thank you for taking the time to review our article.

Research Team

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Authors,

Thank you for your efforts in making this comprehensive and informative research paper. However, there are several areas that could further enhance the accuracy and overall quality of your study.

1. Consideration of existing road networks: The study seems to focus heavily on the methodology without adequately incorporating the existing physical road characteristics into the analysis. It would be beneficial if the study could discuss the current road networks, their limitations, and implications for optimizing the urban environment.

2. Implementation of real-life constraints: Your study would be more impactful if it better reflects reality. Therefore, it's suggested to incorporate more real-life constraints such as rush hour traffic, regulations on freight transport, and recognising the role of urban planning in deciding transport routes.

 

Author Response

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for appreciating the willingness to improve our article.

Below is a reference to the comments made in this review.

1. Consideration of existing road networks: The study seems to focus heavily on the methodology without adequately incorporating the existing physical road characteristics into the analysis. It would be beneficial if the study could discuss the current road networks, their limitations, and implications for optimizing the urban environment.

Ad 1. In our research, we took into account the existing road network with all its constraints when routing the vehicle. We did this using Bing Maps, which is provided by Microsoft. Using this tool, we considered the following characteristics of the road network when routing:

• road directionality,
• number of lanes in one direction,
• maximum speed on individual road sections,
• road capacity,
• prohibitions on particular types of traffic,
• traffic volume at particular times of the day,
• existence of traffic slowing devices.

Routing issues were handled by the algorithm implemented in Bing Maps, taking into account the aforementioned constraints imposed on the road network.

We have supplemented the article with the relevant provisions in relation to the characteristics of the road sections.

2. Implementation of real-life constraints: Your study would be more impactful if it better reflects reality. Therefore, it's suggested to incorporate more real-life constraints such as rush hour traffic, regulations on freight transport, and recognising the role of urban planning in deciding transport routes.

Ad 2. Thank you for indicating the possibility of extending the article to include the very important aspect of real-time constraints. We are planning to prepare another article in the near future, in which we will take into account the research directions indicated. We will certainly include a division on peak hours and inter-peak periods.

 

Best regards,

Research Team

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Make sure that every comment is duly responded and rectified, addressing those that have been crossed out as well (see the annotations herein).

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Check enclosed.

Author Response

Dear Sir / Madam,

Thank you for your comments. The submitted review is very factual in nature, thanks to which our article has significantly raised its level of content. The authors have included references to your comments below.

Line 41: Thank you for your comment. It has been included.

Line 42: Thank you for your comment. It has been included.

Line 45-48: Thank you for your comment. Unnecessary details have been removed from the abstract.

Line 87: Thank you for your comment. It has been included.

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Line 156-157: Thank you for your comment. Your comments were followed. The sentence uses fewer nouns

Line 158: Thank you for your comment. It has been included.

Line 177-179: Thank you for your comment. The context of the sentence has been changed.

Line 211-215: Thank you for your comment. It has been included.

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Line 360-361: Thank you for your comment. It has been included.

Line 386-388: Thank you for your comment. It has been included - material has been moved to an optimal location.

Line 414-416: Thank you for your comment. It has been included - material has been moved to an optimal location.

Line 453-456: Thank you for your comment. It has been included.

Line 459-465: Thank you for your comment. It has been included - material has been moved to an optimal location.

Line 528: Thank you for your comment. It has been included - The software version of the VRP Spreadsheet solver v3.8 was used for the study.

Line 528: Thank you for your comment. It has been included - The software version of the “Bing” maps v3.8 was used for the study.

Line 534: Thank you for your comment. It has been included.

Line 535: Thank you for your comment. It has been included.

Line 665-667: Thank you for your comment. It has been included.

Line 668-670: Thank you for your comment. It has been included.

Line 679: Thank you for your comment. The authors have in mind the rising cost of tolls, rising fuel costs, fuel tax, parking costs.

Line 679-680: Thank you for your comment. It has been included - New paragraph added on parking for electric vehicles.

Line 680: Thank you for your comment. The mentioned topic of restricting parking spaces for internal combustion vehicles is a very good solution to reduce the number of vehicles of this type and encourage the purchase of electric vehicles. We will take the comment you cited into account when developing our next article on electric vehicles. 

Line 682-684: Thank you for your comment. It has been included. The authors aimed only to outline a direction for further research.

Line 685: Thank you for your comment. Cargo distribution using drones is a very interesting topic. The authors will certainly attempt to do research in this area.

Lines 686-688: Thank you for your comment. In writing this proposal, the authors aimed to suggest a direction for further work.

Line 689: Thank you for your comment. It has been included.

 

Best regards,

Research Team

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The author has made the requested changes recommended acceptance.

Author Response

Dear Sir / Madam,

Thank you for accepting our changes to improve the article.

 

Best regards,

Research Team

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 3

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Rather than repeating "this issue will also be considered in the research group's future work" twice in lines 696 and 700, why not saying "these issues will also be considered in the research group's future work" once and for all?

Comments on the Quality of English Language

.

Author Response

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your advice. We have corrected.

 

Best regards,

Research Team

Author Response File: Author Response.docx