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Divide and Conquer: A Location-Allocation Approach to Sectorization

Author

Listed:
  • Cristina Lopes

    (CEOS.PP, ISCAP, Polytechnic of Porto, 4465-004 Porto, Portugal)

  • Ana Maria Rodrigues

    (CEOS.PP, ISCAP, Polytechnic of Porto, 4465-004 Porto, Portugal
    INESC TEC, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal)

  • Valeria Romanciuc

    (Millennium BCP, 1050-059 Lisbon, Portugal)

  • José Soeiro Ferreira

    (INESC TEC, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
    FEUP—Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal)

  • Elif Göksu Öztürk

    (INESC TEC, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal)

  • Cristina Oliveira

    (CEOS.PP, ISCAP, Polytechnic of Porto, 4465-004 Porto, Portugal)

Abstract

Sectorization is concerned with dividing a large territory into smaller areas, also known as sectors. This process usually simplifies a complex problem, leading to easier solution approaches to solving the resulting subproblems. Sectors are built with several criteria in mind, such as equilibrium, compactness, contiguity, and desirability, which vary with the applications. Sectorization appears in different contexts: sales territory design, political districting, healthcare logistics, and vehicle routing problems (agrifood distribution, winter road maintenance, parcel delivery). Environmental problems can also be tackled with a sectorization approach; for example, in municipal waste collection, water distribution networks, and even in finding more sustainable transportation routes. This work focuses on sectorization concerning the location of the area’s centers and allocating basic units to each sector. Integer programming models address the location-allocation problems, and various formulations implementing different criteria are compared. Methods to deal with multiobjective optimization problems, such as the ϵ -constraint, the lexicographic, and the weighted sum methods, are applied and compared. Computational results obtained for a set of benchmarking instances of sectorization problems are also presented.

Suggested Citation

  • Cristina Lopes & Ana Maria Rodrigues & Valeria Romanciuc & José Soeiro Ferreira & Elif Göksu Öztürk & Cristina Oliveira, 2023. "Divide and Conquer: A Location-Allocation Approach to Sectorization," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:11:y:2023:i:11:p:2553-:d:1162343
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    References listed on IDEAS

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