Reference no: EM133182775

The NWS has commissioned the creation of a number of storage warehouses in North Central Oklahoma to store research equipment that trained weather spotters can use to assist in severe weather research. Such equipment includes mobile radars, specific weather balloon technology, Helen Hunt's phone number, etc.

The 11-county region is shown below. It does not include Canadian, Oklahoma, Okfuskee counties.

There has been some work done in identifying potential locations within each county. One combined value has been calculated that represents a measure of cost/accessibility for each county. Small is better. This information is shown below.

County	Cost	County	Cost	County	Cost
Grant	8	Kay	12	Osage	9
Garfield	14	Noble	18	Pawnee	10
Kingfisher	5	Payne	13	Creek	17
Logan	7	Lincoln	6

Find the least-cost way to locate NWS storage warehouses that covers all counties; each of the 11 counties should have a warehouse either in it or in a contiguous county.

Assume that the four square counties in the northwest corner are all contiguous to each other. Also, assume that Creek and Osage counties are contiguous. All other relationships should be visually obvious. It is permissible to have overlap, meaning multiple warehouses can be next to a particular county.

Note:  Further geospatial research has shown that Creek and Osage county are NOT contiguous (by a matter of feet it seems).  No matter, we will continue to assume they are.  Cartographers, I apologize for this inaccuracy.