Applying Genetic Algorithms to Land Use Planning

1 Land Use Science Group, Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Aberdeen, [email protected] 2 School of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, [email protected] [email protected] 3 School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, [email protected] Abstract. This paper explores the potential of applying Genetic Algorithms to land use planning, a spatial allocation problem. Two genotype representations are proposed: a fixed-length genotype composed of genes that map directly to a land parcel's use, and a variable-length, order-dependent representation making allocations indirectly via a greedy algorithm. The fixed-length genotype is used within a standard genetic algorithm framework but the variable-length genotype requires novel breeding operators to be defined and post-processing of the genotype structure to identify and remove duplicate genotypes. The two approaches are compared on a real land use planning problem and the strengths and weaknesses of each approach are identified.