IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/oropre/v53y2005i1p61-76.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the Continuous Fermat-Weber Problem

Author

Listed:
  • Sándor P. Fekete

    (Institute for Mathematical Optimization, Braunschweig University of Technology, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany)

  • Joseph S. B. Mitchell

    (Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3600)

  • Karin Beurer

    (SAP AG, 69190 Walldorf, Germany)

Abstract

We give the first exact algorithmic study of facility location problems that deal with finding a median for a continuum of demand points. In particular, we consider versions of the “continuous k -median (Fermat-Weber) problem” where the goal is to select one or more center points that minimize the average distance to a set of points in a demand region . In such problems, the average is computed as an integral over the relevant region, versus the usual discrete sum of distances. The resulting facility location problems are inherently geometric, requiring analysis techniques of computational geometry. We provide polynomial-time algorithms for various versions of the L 1 1-median (Fermat-Weber) problem. We also consider the multiple-center version of the L 1 k -median problem, which we prove is NP-hard for large k .

Suggested Citation

  • Sándor P. Fekete & Joseph S. B. Mitchell & Karin Beurer, 2005. "On the Continuous Fermat-Weber Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 53(1), pages 61-76, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:53:y:2005:i:1:p:61-76
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.1040.0137
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.1040.0137
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/opre.1040.0137?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nimrod Megiddo, 1983. "The Weighted Euclidean 1-Center Problem," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 8(4), pages 498-504, November.
    2. G. O. Wesolowsky & R. F. Love, 1971. "Technical Note—The Optimal Location of New Facilities Using Rectangular Distances," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 124-130, February.
    3. Antoon Kolen, 1981. "Technical Note—Equivalence between the Direct Search Approach and the Cut Approach to the Rectilinear Distance Location Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 616-620, June.
    4. Arie Tamir, 1987. "On the Solution Value of the Continuous p -Center Location Problem on a Graph," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 340-349, May.
    5. G. O. Wesolowsky & R. F. Love, 1972. "A Nonlinear Approximation Method for Solving a Generalized Rectangular Distance Weber Problem," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(11), pages 656-663, July.
    6. Margaret L. Brandeau & Samuel S. Chiu, 1989. "An Overview of Representative Problems in Location Research," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(6), pages 645-674, June.
    7. Zvi Drezner, 1987. "On the rectangular p‐center problem," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(2), pages 229-234, April.
    8. Hanif D. Sherali & Frederick L. Nordai, 1988. "NP-Hard, Capacitated, Balanced p -Median Problems on a Chain Graph with a Continuum of Link Demands," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 13(1), pages 32-49, February.
    9. Y. P. Aneja & M. Parlar, 1994. "Technical Note—Algorithms for Weber Facility Location in the Presence of Forbidden Regions and/or Barriers to Travel," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(1), pages 70-76, February.
    10. Dorit S. Hochbaum & David B. Shmoys, 1985. "A Best Possible Heuristic for the k -Center Problem," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 10(2), pages 180-184, May.
    11. Rajan Batta & Anjan Ghose & Udatta S. Palekar, 1989. "Locating Facilities on the Manhattan Metric with Arbitrarily Shaped Barriers and Convex Forbidden Regions," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 26-36, February.
    12. A. J. Goldman, 1971. "Optimal Center Location in Simple Networks," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(2), pages 212-221, May.
    13. Richard C. Larson & Ghazala Sadiq, 1983. "Facility Locations with the Manhattan Metric in the Presence of Barriers to Travel," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 652-669, August.
    14. Roland Durier & Christian Michelot, 1994. "On the Set of Optimal Points to the Weber Problem: Further Results," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(2), pages 141-149, May.
    15. Carrizosa, E. & Munoz-Marquez, M. & Puerto, J., 1998. "The Weber problem with regional demand," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 358-365, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Igor Averbakh & Oded Berman & Jörg Kalcsics & Dmitry Krass, 2015. "Structural Properties of Voronoi Diagrams in Facility Location Problems with Continuous Demand," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(2), pages 394-411, April.
    2. John Gunnar Carlsson & Fan Jia & Ying Li, 2014. "An Approximation Algorithm for the Continuous k -Medians Problem in a Convex Polygon," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 26(2), pages 280-289, May.
    3. John Gunnar Carlsson & Raghuveer Devulapalli, 2013. "Dividing a Territory Among Several Facilities," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 25(4), pages 730-742, November.
    4. Daoqin Tong & Alan T. Murray, 2009. "Maximising coverage of spatial demand for service," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(1), pages 85-97, March.
    5. Jing Yao & Alan T. Murray, 2014. "Serving regional demand in facility location," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(3), pages 643-662, August.
    6. Valentin Hartmann & Dominic Schuhmacher, 2020. "Semi-discrete optimal transport: a solution procedure for the unsquared Euclidean distance case," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 92(1), pages 133-163, August.
    7. Gérard P. Cachon, 2014. "Retail Store Density and the Cost of Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(8), pages 1907-1925, August.
    8. Thomas Byrne & Sándor P. Fekete & Jörg Kalcsics & Linda Kleist, 2023. "Competitive location problems: balanced facility location and the One-Round Manhattan Voronoi Game," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 321(1), pages 79-101, February.
    9. Thomas Byrne & S'andor P. Fekete & Jorg Kalcsics & Linda Kleist, 2020. "Competitive Location Problems: Balanced Facility Location and the One-Round Manhattan Voronoi Game," Papers 2011.13275, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2022.
    10. Blanco, Víctor & Gázquez, Ricardo & Ponce, Diego & Puerto, Justo, 2023. "A branch-and-price approach for the continuous multifacility monotone ordered median problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 306(1), pages 105-126.
    11. Byrne, Thomas & Kalcsics, Jörg, 2022. "Conditional facility location problems with continuous demand and a polygonal barrier," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 296(1), pages 22-43.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. H. W. Hamacher & S. Nickel, 1995. "Restricted planar location problems and applications," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(6), pages 967-992, September.
    2. Kathrin Klamroth & Margaret M. Wiecek, 2002. "A Bi-Objective Median Location Problem With a Line Barrier," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 50(4), pages 670-679, August.
    3. P.M. Dearing & H.W. Hamacher & K. Klamroth, 2002. "Dominating sets for rectilinear center location problems with polyhedral barriers," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(7), pages 647-665, October.
    4. Selçuk Savaş & Rajan Batta & Rakesh Nagi, 2002. "Finite-Size Facility Placement in the Presence of Barriers to Rectilinear Travel," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 50(6), pages 1018-1031, December.
    5. Masashi Miyagawa, 2012. "Rectilinear distance to a facility in the presence of a square barrier," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 196(1), pages 443-458, July.
    6. Amiri-Aref, Mehdi & Farahani, Reza Zanjirani & Hewitt, Mike & Klibi, Walid, 2019. "Equitable location of facilities in a region with probabilistic barriers to travel," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 66-85.
    7. Masashi Miyagawa, 2017. "Continuous location model of a rectangular barrier facility," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 25(1), pages 95-110, April.
    8. Butt, Steven E. & Cavalier, Tom M., 1997. "Facility location in the presence of congested regions with the rectilinear distance metric," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 103-113, June.
    9. Malgorzata Miklas-Kalczynska & Pawel Kalczynski, 2024. "Multiple obnoxious facility location: the case of protected areas," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-21, June.
    10. G Babich, 1978. "An Efficient Algorithm for Solving the Rectilinear Location-Allocation Problem," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 10(12), pages 1387-1395, December.
    11. Sarkar, Avijit & Batta, Rajan & Nagi, Rakesh, 2004. "Commentary on facility location in the presence of congested regions with the rectilinear distance metric," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 291-306, December.
    12. Klamroth, K., 2004. "Algebraic properties of location problems with one circular barrier," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(1), pages 20-35, April.
    13. Avella, P. & Benati, S. & Canovas Martinez, L. & Dalby, K. & Di Girolamo, D. & Dimitrijevic, B. & Ghiani, G. & Giannikos, I. & Guttmann, N. & Hultberg, T. H. & Fliege, J. & Marin, A. & Munoz Marquez, , 1998. "Some personal views on the current state and the future of locational analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 269-287, January.
    14. Jing Yao & Alan T. Murray, 2014. "Serving regional demand in facility location," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(3), pages 643-662, August.
    15. Canbolat, Mustafa S. & Wesolowsky, George O., 2010. "The rectilinear distance Weber problem in the presence of a probabilistic line barrier," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(1), pages 114-121, April.
    16. Blanco, Víctor & Gázquez, Ricardo & Ponce, Diego & Puerto, Justo, 2023. "A branch-and-price approach for the continuous multifacility monotone ordered median problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 306(1), pages 105-126.
    17. Andrea Maier & Horst W. Hamacher, 2019. "Complexity results on planar multifacility location problems with forbidden regions," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 89(3), pages 433-484, June.
    18. Stefan Nickel, 1997. "Bicriteria and restricted 2-Facility Weber Problems," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 45(2), pages 167-195, June.
    19. S. Nobakhtian & A. Raeisi Dehkordi, 2018. "A fast algorithm for the rectilinear distance location problem," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 88(1), pages 81-98, August.
    20. Ting Zeng & James Ward, 2005. "The Stochastic Location-Assignment Problem on a Tree," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 81-97, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:53:y:2005:i:1:p:61-76. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.