Solving the anti-covering location problem using Lagrangian relaxation

The Anti-Covering Location Problem (ACLP) is a member of an important class of spatial optimization problems. The ACLP involves locating a maximally weighted set of facilities so that no two located facilities are within a specified time or distance measure of each other. This papar examines alternative constraint structures for imposing spatial restrictions within the ACLP. A Lagrangian relaxation solution approach is developed to solve the ACLP based upon the use of these new constraint structures. Computational results from a number of geographical problems demonstrate the effectiveness of the Lagrangian heuristic and concomitantly, the new constraint representations.