MULTIPLE SUBREGION ALLOCATION MODELS

The land-allocation problem is one of selecting, from a finite number of candidate parcels, that set of parcels that best meets the needs of a specific land-use objective. This research extends land-allocation modeling methodologies to address problems requiring allocation of parcels to multiple areas with different shapes. The approach relies on the use of shape constraints within the context of discrete multiobjective programming models set on a regular, or uniform grid structure. Several model formulations are presented including a nonlinear discrete optimization model that addresses an explicit districting problem. A heuristic algorithm is developed to generate a solution for this problem, and computational performance of this algorithm is presented and discussed.