Upcoming talks

• April 29th 2026, 2:00 p.m. Room 221 Centro Didattico Morgagni,  Britt van Veggel (PhD student at University of Amsterdam)

Title: Heatmaps for maximum coverage facility location optimization

Abstract: We propose an efficient method to generate so-called heatmaps for the maximum coverage facility location problem. Heatmaps are geospatial representations in which each region is colored according to the expected value or distribution of a given variable, assuming a facility were to be placed within this region. We discuss three applications of this methodology. The first application is that such a heatmap gives the user insight in other (almost) optimal locations for the facility for both (almost) highest coverage and mean traveling distance. Secondly, the heatmaps can be used as a post-processing improvement method for solutions found using a coordinate-based input. Lastly, the heatmaps can be used as a pre-processing method to improve the initial discrete set of potential facility locations, and with that the quality of the solution. 

We develop two variants of the method: one can be used in case the distances are Euclidean, and one for the case that the distance is calculated via the roads. The methodology is tested on a case that aims to find optimal locations for water wells in West Darfur.

The numerical results show that the pre-processing stage allows the user to reach full coverage with 15% less facilities (7707 rather than 9098).