A two-step approach to planning new facilities towards equal accessibility

Xiang Li, Fahui Wang and Hong Yi

Environment and Planning B, 2017, vol. 44, issue 6, 994-1011

Abstract: A recent advancement in location-allocation modeling proposes a new objective of minimizing inequality of accessibility. Existing work considers the planning problem as either selecting new sites or adjusting facility capacities, separately. This paper develops a two-step hybrid approach to the problem by optimizing both locations and capacities of facilities towards equal accessibility. A genetic algorithm is first employed to find the best locations to site new facilities, and then a quadratic programming method is used to determine the best capacity of each facility within a pre-defined range. The sequence is consistent with many decision-making practices. Results of a series of experiments demonstrate that location optimization reduces inequality in accessibility more significantly than capacity optimization. The two-step optimization method can be applied for sequential allocation decision-makings towards maximum equal accessibility.

Keywords: Location-allocation models; equal accessibility; two-step optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirb:v:44:y:2017:i:6:p:994-1011

DOI: 10.1177/0265813516657083

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