Supporting Locational Decision Making: regionalization of Service Delivery systems

In this paper we describe a case study of our attempt to provide decision support to a public agency, the Greek Ministry of Education, that is currently reorganizing the geo¬graphical configuration of its system. We treat the problem of determining the optimal number of catch¬ment areas, the school locations and the allocations of school children, as an interactive location-allocation problem. In our approach and during the problem-solving procedure, we deal with a set of predefined future scenarios, emphasizing on the uncertainty principles emerging from the notion of a popula¬tion being subject to elements of change. The scenarios are generated from an initial dataset, through the implementation of certain demographic assumptions, concerning fertility, mortality and migration rates. By linking demographic and locational models, and using the graphic capabilities of mapping software, we provide the basis for an integrated locational planning support system and thus a more pragmatic planning process. Furthermore, we assist the decision making process through the utilization of two solution - perform¬ance criteria. Namely, the expected loss and the minimax loss criterion of the optimal solution of each future scenario configur¬ation which is gener¬ated during the problem solving procedure.