LIN Jianxin, LIN Mengting, WANG Wandong, ZHANG Zhixuan
Public infrastructure construction must be carefully coordinated with the construction of multi-center, multi-level, multi-node urban networks, especially transportation networks, to balance regional traffic demands. The hierarchical facility location problem (HFLP) optimizes facility locations so that the network provides efficient and economic services, which is a network design problem with various resources and limited services. This problem has attracted much attention because of the increased complexity of facility services and the diversified demands. This review of HFLP research over the past forty years, especially the past six years, shows that the main research trends involve traditional fields such as healthcare, transportation hubs, and supply chains. In order to balance multiple system planning requirements with the various characteristics and scales of various types of network facilities, and to solve problems related to the mismatch between the availability of system services and the actual needs, multi-objective nested models, dynamic and random constraints, the efficient optimization of heuristic algorithms with important issues like various search and stopping criteria have become the main research trends. Studies have also analyzed the supply chain reverse logistics system for product inspection and recycling, the design of waste storage facilities using the echelon classification processing model, and the optimization of transportation hub locations that serve passenger needs. With the improved service levels and efficiency requirements, the hierarchical concept can improve services for a broad range of applications in various areas such as the hierarchical location of urban agglomeration service facilities and the layouts of centralized electrical vehicle charging stations.
