Projecting military housing needs with decision support systems

In: Systems research, Band 9, Heft 2, S. 65-84

Abstract

AbstractThe Department of the Army must provide its personnel with acceptable housing within the vicinity of military installations. To achieve this housing goal, the Army must often enter into agreements for the construction of housing or for leasing of existing housing. Any housing construction or leasing request must be accompanied by a Segmented Housing Market Analysis (SHMA), a time‐consuming and costly forecasting process that requires many manual labor tasks. As described elsewhere, a Housing Analysis System (HANS) was developed to support these tasks on a micro computer with very user‐friendly computer programs. Recently, the original version of HANS has been modified and incorporated into a larger computer system now under development. At the heart of both the original and modified systems is a set of econometric and heuristic programming models that deliver the required analyses and evaluations. This paper describes these models, explains how they drive the modified HANS, and presents the results and benefits of the use of the modified computer system.Biographical Sketch — Guisseppi A. Forgionne is Professor of Information Systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Professor Forgionne holds a B.S. in Commerce and Finance, an M.A. in Econometrics, an M.B.A., and a Ph.D. in Management Science and Econometrics. He has published 16 books and approximately 70 research articles and consulted for a variety of public and private organizations on decision support systems theory and applications. Dr. Forgionne has also served as department chair at UMBC, Mount Vernon College, and Cal Poly Pomona. He has received several national and international awards for his work.