A SIMPLE SEARCH HEURISTIC FOR THE MCLP - APPLICATION TO THE LOCATION OF AMBULANCE BASES IN A RURAL REGION

In the location of ambulance bases for medical assistance, an adequate time of response must be guaranteed for each area in the region cover ed, incurring the minimum operating costs. Several linear models (such as the maximal covering location problem, MCLP) have been developed f or designing these emergency systems which guarantee a certain cover w hilst minimising determined costs. The computational difficulty involv ed in resolving large scale problems occasionally means trying to offe r solutions using metaheuristics. This article presents the solution t o the problem of locating ambulance bases in the province of Leon (Spa in), using the tabu search metaheuristic, which in its simplest versio n already offers good results, and which makes it a tool to be kept ve ry much in mind when a rapid solution is needed to such problems. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.