A Spatial Planning Model for Obnoxious Facilities with Spatially Informed Constraints

This research aims to develop a novel spatial optimization model for locating obnoxious facilities. While various obnoxious facility location problems (OFLP) have been introduced, the optimal spatial arrangements in existing models may not adequately reflect the real-world conditions, such as the distribution of population and locational restrictions across areas in a region, often offering extreme peripheral or clustered recommendations that ignore such conditions. To address this gap, this research introduces an alternative location model named the Spatially Informed Obnoxious Location (SI-OBNOX) model. The SI-OBNOX model was developed to address the extreme spatial arrangements produced by existing models by incorporating a unique set of constraints derived from the spatial characteristics of a planning region. The constraints integrate spatial–statistical measures into the model formulation to restrict extreme facility location behaviors, resulting in more reasonably distributed obnoxious facility sites while avoiding residential areas for them. The findings demonstrate that the spatial arrangements generated by the SI-OBNOX model outperform those of existing OFLPs in terms of three planning-related indices, namely separation, externality, and proximity, based on a case study of the East Tennessee region. The SI-OBNOX model can be adapted to other planning contexts where it is necessary to locate undesirable yet essential facilities for public welfare.