Smart Landscaping Services

Landscaping services industry is estimated to be about $100 billion in the US. These services tend to be labor-intensive and are varied in scales ranging from single-family homes to large hospitality and leisure enterprises such as resorts and golf courses. From a management perspective the three main objectives of landscaping services are maintaining aesthetics, pest control, and lowering cost. Some of the major activities in landscaping include mowing lawns, pruning shrubs, clearing leaves, trimming hedges, and mulching. Operating cost depends on staffing level, frequency of activities, and associated fuel consumption, which have been investigated in several studies. The focus of this paper is to make landscaping services smarter by using decision-support models for managing them. Specifically, this paper proposes a two-stage optimization model for lawn mowing. The first-stage model assigns appropriate pieces of equipment and staff to various areas to minimize both operating costs and labor costs. The second-stage model optimizes the schedule of activities based on the desired due times for various areas. A numerical study is used for demonstrating the application of the decision-support model. Future direction for smart landscaping through better decision-making based on data from IoT sensors for monitoring growth, soil conditions, and weather data is also proposed.