A review on discrete diversity and dispersion maximization from an OR perspective

Abstract The problem of maximizing diversity or dispersion deals with selecting a subset of elements from a given set in such a way that the distance among the selected elements is maximized. The definition of distance between elements is customized to specific applications, and the way that the overall diversity of the selected elements is computed results in different mathematical models. Maximizing diversity by means of combinatorial optimization models has gained prominence in Operations Research (OR) over the last two decades, and constitutes nowadays an important area. In this paper, we review the milestones in the development of this area, starting in the late eighties when the first…