ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces linear programming (LP), an important optimization technique in socioeconomic analysis and planning. LP seeks to maximize or minimize an objective function, subject to a set of constraints. Both the objective and the constraints are expressed in linear functions. It would certainly take more than one chapter to cover all issues in LP, and many graduate programs in planning, engineering, or other fields use a whole course or more to teach LP. This chapter discusses the basic concepts of LP, and illustrates how LP problems are solved in ArcGIS and other popular software (R or SAS).
