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The Tactical Decision Problem (TDP) associated with oil spill clean up operations prescribes the time-phased allocation of available components over the planning horizon so that the clean up requirement at each critical time point is met. The objective is to minimize response time to allow for the most effective clean up possible. In this paper, we formulate the TDP as a general integer program. We devise a method based on graph theory to efficiently generate response system types (RSTs), including constituent components, the locations from which each of the component types is obtained, and the staging area at which that RST is composed. We present several preprocessing methods and derive expressions for bounds on decision variables to facilitate solution. We then develop two heuristics to obtain approximate solutions to the TDP. The first heuristic is an LP-based method, while the second uses a combination of LP relaxation and branch and bound. The two heuristics are compared on problems that are based on realistic scenarios representing application in the Galveston Bay Area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Important decisions regarding governmental expenditures for the public welfare require accurate assessment of preferences of the citizenry as one input. Often, strong disagreement exists regarding relative merit of various projects competing for limited resources. This paper proposes a procedure for establishing a complete social preference ordering on the set of alternative projects when the group preference is fuzzy because of individual differences. An extension of current algorithms is developed and applied to a problem concerning public preferences for expenditures on civic projects in Houston, Texas. One thousand male and female heads-of-household were interviewed in depth to determine their preferences for investment among forty-one projects in the areas of social services, business and job development, public transportation, arts and leisure, and education. A complete preference order for group decision was obtained for a situation in which significant disagreement exists among group members and where funding is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]