Multi-objective optimization of cordon sanitaire considering operation cost and queueing equity

ABSTRACT

This paper aims topropose a method to determine the optimal deployment of cordon sanitaire for epidemic control. A bi-level multi-objective programming model is proposed where the lower level is transportation system equilibrium with queueing time to predict link traffic flow, and the upper level is queueing network design, which is a multi-objective integer nonlinear programming model. The primary objective is to minimize the total operation cost of servers with a predetermined waiting time constraint, and the secondary objective is to reach queueing equity. A heuristic algorithm is designed where the method of successive averages is adopted for the lower-level model, and a genetic algorithm is designed for the upper-level model. The computational results show that the methods can find a good heuristic optimal solution. These methods are useful for planners to determine the optimal deployment of cordon sanitaire for disease control and prevention purposes.

KEYWORDS:

• Cordon sanitaire
• queueing equity
• bi-level programming
• genetic algorithm
• queueing theory

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions, which are very useful in revising this paper. This work is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China [No. 21BGL233].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China [21BGL233].