Efficient location and allocation strategies for undesirable facilities considering their fundamental properties

Abstract

The phrase "not in my backyard" (NIMBY) refers to the well-known social phenomena in which residents oppose the construction or location of undesirable facilities near their homes. Examples of such facilities include electric transmission lines, recycling centers and crematoria. Due to the opposition typically encountered in constructing an undesirable facility, the facility planner should understand the nature of the NIMBY phenomena and consider it as a key factor in determining facility location. We examine the characteristics of NIMBY phenomena and suggest two alternative mathematical optimization models with the objective of minimizing the total degree of NIMBY sentiments. Genetic algorithms are proposed to solve our linear and nonlinear integer programs. The results obtained via genetic algorithms for our linear integer programs are compared with those of CPLEX to evaluate their performance. The nonlinear programs are tested with various allocation policies. Sensitivity analysis is conducted about several system parameters. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.