A fuzzy location problem based upon georeferenced data

Abstract

Locating theory seeks to exploit geographic information in order to identify the best suited areas to place new facilities. This chapter tackles an optimization problem aimed at finding suitable locations for a new infrastructure in Spain by considering sustainability criteria and from a fuzzy perspective. In order to solve this problem, open georeferenced data provided through a Geographic Information System are used. Several fuzzy membership functions are proposed to represent the level of possible membership to the desired locations defined by the problem criteria. The resulting locations are appropriately combined under different choices of a given decision maker. In addition, the approach can be easily adapted to tackle similar location problems.