172 Int. J. Operational Research, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2014 Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. A metaheuristic approach for location of gas stations in a metropolitan area Esra Aleisa, Mehmet Savsar*, Mohammed M. Al-Mashaan, Abrar Al-Jadi and Sarah A. Al-Sabah Industrial and Management Systems Engineering Department, College of Engineering and Petroleum, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat, 13060, Kuwait E-mail: aleisae@gmail.com E-mail: msavsar@gmail.com E-mail: eng.almash3an@gmail.com E-mail: ajadi@kockw.com E-mail: sarah.alsabah@hotmail.com *Corresponding author Abstract: The paper presents a metaheuristic model, which is developed to determine the location of gas stations in the state of Kuwait. The variables of this study cover requirements to high demand areas such as commercial areas, businesses as well as safety and environmental factors translated into minimum distances to sensitive entities and receptors. The developed methodology combines GIS with analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to weigh and overlay layers of interest on the base map of urban and suburban areas in Kuwait. The output on this process is a suitability map that contains feasible locations for future gas stations sites. Feasible locations are then fed into an optimisation routine to obtain the optimal sites. The methodology includes international and national standards and regulation including minimum allowable distance to existing gas stations, natural gas distributors, fire stations, educational institutions, governmental agencies and ministries, airport, residential areas, commercial areas, industrial areas, road network and others. 199 feasible locations were obtained in the State of Kuwait that abide with all regulation while satisfying demand of businesses and residents. The optimum was obtained from these feasible solutions by using an optimisation routine. Keywords: metaheuristics; facilities location; site selection; gas stations; geographic information system; GIS; spatial analysis, optimisation; analytic hierarchy process; AHP; obnoxious/ambivalent facilities; operational research. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Aleisa, E., Savsar, M., Al-Mashaan, M.M., Al-Jadi, A. and Al-Sabah, S.A. (2014) ‘A metaheuristic approach for location of gas stations in a metropolitan area’, Int. J. Operational Research, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp.172–200. Biographical notes: Esra Aleisa is an Assistant Professor of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering (IMSE) at Kuwait University. She received her Master and PhD in Industrial Engineering at the State University of New York in 2001 and 2005, respectively. Her research interests include systems simulations and life cycle assessment (LCA) for large-scale facilities and GIS. Her research applications have focused on residential wastewater and municipal solid waste treatment facilities. She is a member of Omega Rho, IEEE and IIE.