Prescriptive Tools for Analysis

Abstract

This chapter will follow our discussion on the two methods of analysis identified in our taxonomy, focusing now on prescriptive instead of descriptive techniques. By way of a definition, prescriptive technique is generally used in system design, where a stated goal or objective is to be achieved. In the context of this book, the function of a prescriptive model then, is to configure a facility location or land use plan to achieve this goal or objective. For example, if one is to stimulate residential development in an area, the model, after it has been set up, will prescribe a land use plan that will provide all the utilities, transportation, and zoning that will best facilitate such a development. To the extent that we often wish to provide the best design, optimization procedures are an integral part of the prescriptive tool kit. Here in this chapter, we will introduce the basic building blocks of prescriptive analysis (including optimization concepts), deferring most of the implementation and computational details to subject focused chapters throughout this book and the appropriate book appendices. Included in the latter category are such appendices as “Optimization Schemes” (Appendix 4) and “Control, Dynamics, and System Stability” (Appendix 1).

“The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry and limitation, and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.”

Aristotle