Land Use For Planning: A Practical Application Of Mixed Integer Programming*

Abstract

AbstractThe Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources recently commissioned a research project aimed at developing a suitable planning method for the optimal allocation of crown land among various uses—eagriculture, timber, mining, urban development, and recreation.This paper describes, in detail, the pilot project that was started in the summer of 1972. An area of 1100 square miles to the north and east of the city of Sault Ste Marie was chosen and divided into 635 equal sections. Data from this area were used to develop and validate the model.Given the “capability” (i.e., the inherent capacity to produce output) of each “section” or “parcel” of land, the concentration of population, the communication patterns, prices for products, transportation costs, economies of scale, etc., the model develops an “optimal” allocation of the land “parcels” to various uses, by maximizing the “net benefit.The model involved the solution of a very large mathematical programming problem with a matrix size of 820 rows X 72,00...