ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a number of related optimisation problems which have been used in a variety of contexts by geographers and planners. The foregoing is an example of the assignment problem. In general, it comprises assigning n objects to n facilities such that the total ‘cost’ of the assignment is minimised. The usual context in which the assignment problem has been is each to be assigned to a place in one of three schools which, between them, can supply 100 places. A final point to be made concerning the assignment problem – concerns the relationship between it and the least cost maximum flow problem. A rather different application of the transportation problem is that of Wheeler who considers intra-city work trip patterns in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A criticism which can be levelled at the northwest corner rule for generating the initial solution to a transportation problem is that this solution is arrived at in an arbitrary manner.
