Maximum population coverage Vs Maximum locations coverage

[rajesvariparasa]

Hi,
The problem I am looking at is, I have about 300 slum locations with varying population numbers for each, and about 150 health facilities spread across a city. Now for selecting new facilities for maximum coverage, is it possible by the model, to account for covering maximum slum population and NOT maximum number of slum locations? i.e. Is there a way to prioritize coverage of some locations over the others using population as weights to the location? How can I implement this?

Thank you!

[jGaboardi]

@rajesvariparasa Thanks for starting this discussion here. It seems like the Maximal Covering Location Problem would suit your needs. With the MCLP you can set the desired number of facilities p as a parameter, which the model will then use determined maximum weighted coverage (population in your case. I provide an example of this here in the spaghetti tutorials where I use randomly-generated points for the facilities (Little Free libraries) and clients (synthetic households) along with a weight parameter (artificial population), which is described here.

• Richard L. Church and C.S. ReVelle. The Maximal Covering Location Problem. Papers in Regional Science Association, 32:101–118, 1974. doi:doi.org/10.1111/j.1435-5597.1974.tb00902.x.