Applying genetic algorithms to multi-objective land-use planning

This thesis explores the potential of applying genetic algorithms (GAs) to multi-objective land-use planning. Rural land managers, in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, are faced with an increasingly complex decision-making environment where a varied mix of goals have to be achieved. To address this problem, GA-based land-use planning tools have been developed that interface with a decision support system. The thesis first evaluates the options for representing the land-use planning problem within a GA framework. Two genotype representations are proposed: a genotype mapping land-use directly to land parcels (Land-Block), and a representation making allocations indirectly via a greedy algorithm (P&P). The P&P…