A stochastic planning system for siting and closing public service facilities

In this report we describe a planning tool for siting (or closing) facilities. The approach is based on an optimizing framework - the objective is to provide and plan services as effectively as possible - in which the demands for future services are taken as stochastic parameters. The methodology is demonstrated through an example - the Queens Borough public library system in New York City. The system takes advantage of the problem's special structure as a network graph, thus allowing computational efficiencies. -from Authors