Grouping genetic operators for the delineation of functional areas based on spatial interaction
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/10045/33748
Title: | Grouping genetic operators for the delineation of functional areas based on spatial interaction |
---|---|
Authors: | Martínez Bernabeu, Lucas | Flórez-Revuelta, Francisco | Casado-Díaz, José M. |
Research Group/s: | Informática Industrial y Redes de Computadores | Territorio y Movilidad. Mercados de Trabajo y Vivienda |
Center, Department or Service: | Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Tecnología Informática y Computación | Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Análisis Económico Aplicado |
Keywords: | Functional areas | Local market | Evolutionary algorithm | Grouping problem | Regionalisation | Combinatorial optimisation |
Knowledge Area: | Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadores | Economía Aplicada |
Issue Date: | 15-Jun-2012 |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Citation: | Expert Systems with Applications. 2012, 39(8): 6754-6766. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2011.12.026 |
Abstract: | The delineation of functional economic areas, or market areas, is a problem of high practical relevance, since the delineation of functional sets such as economic areas in the US, Travel-to-Work Areas in the United Kingdom, and their counterparts in other OECD countries are the basis of many statistical operations and policy making decisions at local level. This is a combinatorial optimisation problem defined as the partition of a given set of indivisible spatial units (covering a territory) into regions characterised by being (a) self-contained and (b) cohesive, in terms of spatial interaction data (flows, relationships). Usually, each region must reach a minimum size and self-containment level, and must be continuous. Although these optimisation problems have been typically solved through greedy methods, a recent strand of the literature in this field has been concerned with the use of evolutionary algorithms with ad hoc operators. Although these algorithms have proved to be successful in improving the results of some of the more widely applied official procedures, they are so time consuming that cannot be applied directly to solve real-world problems. In this paper we propose a new set of group-based mutation operators, featuring general operations over disjoint groups, tailored to ensure that all the constraints are respected during the operation to improve efficiency. A comparative analysis of our results with those from previous approaches shows that the proposed algorithm systematically improves them in terms of both quality and processing time, something of crucial relevance since it allows dealing with most large, real-world problems in reasonable time. |
Sponsor: | This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Projects SEJ2007-67767-C04-02 and CSO2011-29943-C03-02. |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10045/33748 |
ISSN: | 0957-4174 (Print) | 1873-6793 (Online) |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.eswa.2011.12.026 |
Language: | eng |
Type: | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
Peer Review: | si |
Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2011.12.026 |
Appears in Collections: | INV - I2RC - Artículos de Revistas INV - TEYMO - Artículos de Revistas / Journal Articles INV - AmI4AHA - Artículos de Revistas |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|---|
2012_Martinez-Bernabeu_etal_ESA-pre.pdf | Preprint (acceso abierto) | 688,29 kB | Adobe PDF | Open Preview |
2012_Martinez-Bernabeu_etal_ESA.pdf | Versión final (acceso restringido) | 567,65 kB | Adobe PDF | Open Request a copy |
Items in RUA are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.