ACCURATE ESTIMATION OF EXPECTED COVERAGE - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY

The accurate estimation of expected coverage is an important issue in the application of set covering approaches to emergency medical servic e (EMS) location problems. The first article to define and utilize exp ected coverage was published by Daskin in 1982. Batta et al. recognize d the inaccuracy of solutions obtained via Daskin's model and proposed an adjustment to improve the expected coverage predicted by it. Recen tly, Bernardo and Repede presented a modified model that reportedly es timates expected coverage more accurately relative to the previous mod els. In this study, each of these models was applied to a wide range o f simulated EMS system scenarios. Our findings suggest that none of th e expected covering models is consistently more accurate than the othe rs. Additionally, our results support Batta et al.'s recommendation th at a hypercube-based model should be used for post-optimality analysis .