Late horizon regional efficiency in the northeastern basin of Mexico: A location-allocation perspective

Operations research approaches play an important role in the analysis of regional patterns of settlement and resource use, but with few exceptions are confined to the study of modern settings. In this paper we develop one type of operations research model-specifically a multiobjective, maximal covering model-and apply it to the Late Horizon (Aztec) settlement pattern in the Temascalapa-Teotihuacan portion of the Basin of Mexico. Within this analytical framework, objective functions are employed to evaluate the efficiency of this hierarchically organized settlement system for purposes of processing information and energy. Applications of the model suggest that the region of interest was arranged below peak efficiency with respect to these key variables. We examine this apparent inefficiency both in terms of its possible causes and in terms of our general understanding of Late Horizon cultural ecology.