A multiobjective land development optimization model: the case of New Castle County, Delaware

Abstract

This paper develops a multiobjective optimization model to consider transportation impacts of the future development of land. The output of the model is the best location and type of land use that has minimal negative transportation effects and uses the maximum available public transportation infrastructure. It provides tools for both planners and transportation engineers and enables them to consider different scenarios of possible policies and land development. Since multiple objectives and their nonlinear structures are considered, the model is solved using mixed integer nonlinear programming. The final results are shown in both tabular and graphical format. The effectiveness of the model is applied to the northern part of New Castle County, Delaware. The results show that the model successfully finds the best locations for both residential and commercial land uses in order to meet several criteria discussed in the paper.

Keywords:

• multiobjective optimization model
• land use
• nonlinear programming
• application

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to express their gratitude for the technical support provided by the Delaware Center for Transportation and the University of Delaware, and for data and technical expertise provided by the Delaware Department of Transportation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.