Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Church, R.L.

Titel

Spatial Optimization Models

Ist Teil von

• International Encyclopedia of Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001, Vol.22, p.14811-14818

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2001

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Human activities are often arranged into zones or groups. For example, a town may have a central business district, residential areas, schools, medical clinics, etc. Each activity or zone interacts with other zones, based upon a variety of factors. A person in a residential area may drive to work, go shopping, and pick up their child from school, and then return home. Activity patterns are determined in part by the basic layout. In contrast, a manufacturing plant is designed to have an assembly line or assembly areas, parts fabrication, inventory storage, etc. The layout of any facility helps determine the cost of manufacturing a product, just as the layout of a town helps determine the extent to which various people travel to accomplish daily tasks. The layout or location of all or a subset of such activities is called spatial optimization. This review paper describes a number of different spatial optimization problems. For one of these problems, a detailed mathematical formulation is given as well as a lengthy discussion on solution techniques. This review concludes with directions for future research.