Apr 1, 2016

Call for Papers: Districting Problems in Business and Public Organizations

Session Districting Problems in Business and Public Organizations at the International Conference on Operations Research of the German Operations Research Society, Hamburg (Germany), Aug 30 – Sept 2, 2016

Session Outline
Districting is the problem of grouping small spatial (geographic) areas, such as ZIP code areas or traffic analysis zones, into larger spatial districts. According to the motivating application, such as sales territory design, land acquisition, and political districting, the districts must satisfy certain properties. Important properties are balance, contiguity, and compactness. Balance demands the districts to be of equal size (sales potential, f.e.). A district is contiguous if it is possible to travel between all parts (ZIP code areas, f.e.) of the district without leaving the district. Compact districts are generally circle-shaped.

In the literature there exist several approaches to measure and guarantee such properties. In particular, the importance and measurement as well as the effectivity and efficiency of these properties are related to the motivating application.

This session aims to bring together researchers and practitioners from various disciplines who are working on districting problems. Applications include, but are not limited to

Sales territory design
School districting
Political districting
Service territory design
Tariff zone design
Land acquisition


Submission deadline: April 30, 2016
Submission deadline: May 9, 2016
Abstract submission session code 2b91b78f