Siting noxious facilities under uncertainty

In this paper we address the stochastic capacitated hazardous materials facility location problem in which demands and variable production and transportation costs are uncertain. We introduce a robust optimization model for the siting of noxious facilities under uncertainty. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear program. Plans developed in the model will be both solution robust and model robust. In other words, the optimal solution from the model is 'close' to being optimal for any realization of the model scenarios, and the optimal solution has 'close' to no error with respect to uncertain parameters. In order to show that the model works in a real world application, we used our model to plan facility siting decisions for the Albany, New York region. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.