Research Summary


Project: Geographic representation in location coverage modeling
Support: National Science Foundation (10/1/05 - 9/30/07)
Principal Investigator: A.T. Murray

Summary

This project investigates modeling approaches for service provision planning using geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analytical methods. The focus is on intended performance using location coverage models. The intent of such models is to ensure suitable service is provided to an entire geographic area, yet abstraction and representation of space may prohibit this from occurring. This suggests the existence of the modifiable areal unit problem in current coverage modeling approaches. To address this issue, spatial optimization approaches are proposed for regional coverage that can be characterized as frame independent. As such, these new approaches will not be significantly influenced by the abstraction and representation of geographic space, which is the case with current modeling approaches. Novel exact and heuristic approaches for solving proposed models will be pursued. The substantive context for regional coverage models is broad, ranging from service/personnel scheduling to emergency management to environmental sustainability. Thus, the project will make contributions through its intent to address issues associated with emergency service provision, and warning siren siting in particular. This project will explore quantitative approaches for supporting geographical siting decisions associated with emergency services, such as warning sirens, radar, and police/fire stations. This research will refine how this particular spatial problem domain is abstracted and modeled, and doing so in the context of expanding geographic information science theory.

object coverage

regional coverage

Student Collaborators

Daoqin Tong - Ph.D. student, Department of Geography, OSU

Hu Wei - Ph.D. student, Department of Geography, OSU

Collaborators

Tim Matisziw (OSU)
Morton O'Kelly (OSU)
Richard Church (UCSB)
Ningchuan Xiao (OSU)

Produced Publications

  1. “Geography in coverage modeling: exploiting spatial structure to address complementary partial service of areas,”A.T. Murray , Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 95, 761-772, 2005.
  2. "Solving the continuous space p-center problem: planning application issues," H. Wei, A.T. Murray and N. Xiao, IMA Journal of Management Mathematics, 17, 413-425, 2006.
  3. “Regional service coverage modeling”, A.T. Murray, M.E. O’Kelly and R.L. Church, Computers and Operations Research, to appear.
  4. "Coverage optimization in continuous space facility siting," A.T. Murray and D. Tong, International Journal of Geographical Information Sciences, to appear.

Presentations

  1. “Coverage modeling of geographic areas”, A.T. Murray. Centennial Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, March 14-19, 2004.
  2. “Modeling continuous location and demand in the coverage of non-convex regions”, T.C. Matisziw and A.T. Murray, 51th North American Meeting of the Regional Science Association International, Seattle, Washington, USA, November 11-13, 2004.
  3. “Solving the continuous space p-center problem: planning application issues”, H. Wei, A.T. Murray and N. Xiao. 101st Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Denver, Colorado, USA, April 5-9, 2005.
  4. "Threshold coverage optimization," A.T. Murray and D. Tong, ISOLDE X, Spain (Sevilla and Islantilla), June 2-9, 2005.
  5. "Coverage in continuous space facility siting," A.T. Murray and D. Tong, 52nd North American Meeting of the Regional Science Association International, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, November 10-12, 2005.
  6. "Analyzing structure fires in Massachusetts: regional science and the media," A.T. Murray and D. Tong, 45th Annual Meeting of the Western Regional Science Association, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, February 22-26, 2006.
  7. "Partial coverage in continuous space facility siting," D. Tong and A.T. Murray, 102nd Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, Illinois, USA, March 7-11, 2006
  8. "Geographical information science to enhance location coverage modeling," D. Tong and A.T. Murray, UCGIS Summer Assembly 2006, Vancouver, Washington, USA, June 28 - July 1, 2006.
  9. <>"Maximizing regional coverage using spatial objects," D. Tong and A.T. Murray<>, 53rd North American Meeting of the Regional Science Association International, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, November 16-18, 2006.

Related Publications

  1. “Assessing representation error in point-based coverage modeling”, A.T. Murray and M.E. O’Kelly, Journal of Geographical Systems 4, 171-191, 2002.
  2. “A lattice covering model for evaluating existing service facilities”, M.E. O’Kelly and A.T. Murray, Papers in Regional Science 83, 565-580, 2004.
Last updated : 1/11/07