Challenges and Proposed Architecture of Municipal Solid Waste in Context of Hilly Terrain Shimla City, India

Shimla hilly city dubbed as ‘Queen of Hills’ and is the most populated city in the State of Himachal Pradesh, lies in the Indian Himalayan region. It is a prominent hill station and tourist destination in India with an elevation of 2397.59 meters above mean sea level. Although Shimla has ranked first among 62 cities with a population under a million in the 2020 Ease of Living Index. However, Unplanned and short-term developmental plans increase urbanization and have led to tons of solid waste, due this solid waste has become a challengeable issue. The rising generation trend of garbage can create acute health problems and a very unpleasant living environment that could ruin the beauty of Hill Queen. The waste generation/collection per capita is 350g/day in Shimla city. The waste problems in hilly and plain cities differ due to the different topography of hilly terrain, which is described by steep mountains, steep terrain, deep valleys, traffic congestion, and narrow roads. This paper begins with a brief status of municipal solid waste (MSW) in the context of India and Shimla city. The main components of solid waste as well as the challenges of Shimla city are elaborated. Further, a technology-driven state-of-the-art architecture for end-to-end smart waste management has been proposed. This proposed architecture for the Shimla smart city with the deployment of a citywide array of IoT sensors aims to overcome the limitations of the traditional waste management system. Finally, the paper is concluded with some future suggestions.