Optimal location of routes for vehicles transporting hazardous materials

This paper deals with the selection of optimal routes for the transportation of hazardous materials in a realistic environment. The routes are selected to minimize the expected damage effects on the population in case of an accident. The model proposed generalizes the existing one in the following aspects: (1) the dispersion of pollutants is determined by the meteorological conditions; (2) the population can be distributed arbitrarily and anywhere on the plane. A branch-and-bound algorithm is developed for the location of optimal routes, and numerical experience with it is reported.