Metrics to Compare Arc-based and Node-based Districting Models

The outbreak of the coronavirus has impacted retailers and the food industry after they were forced to switch to delivery services due to social distancing measures. During these times, online sales and local deliveries started to see an increase in their demand - making these methods the new way of staying in business. For this reason, this research seeks to identify strategies that could be implemented by delivery service companies to improve their operations by comparing two types of p-median models (node-based and edge-based). To simulate demand, geographical data will be analyzed for the cities of San Diego and Paris. The usage of districting models will allow the determination on how balance and compact the service regions are within the districts. After analyzing the variability of each demand simulation run, conclusions will be made on whether one model is better than the other.