Continuing the (neo-)classical tradition of von Thünen, Launhardt, Weber, Palander, and Lösch this book offers a fresh approach to the location of industries and other economic activities, of market areas, spatial price distribution, locational specialization, urban and transportation systems, and spatial interaction in general. It uses elementary economic reasoning supported by simple mathematical models, some classical, some new. The mathematical methods are presented in numbered Mathematical Notes. The author has been active in this field since 1950.
This book, companion to Foundations of Location Analysis (Springer, 2011), highlights some of the applications of location analysis within the spheres of businesses, those that deal with public services and applications that deal with law enforcement and first responders. While the Foundations book reviewed the theory and first contributions, this book describes how different location techniques have been used to solve real problems. Since many real problems comprise multiple objectives, in this book there is more presence of tools from multicriteria decision making and multiple-objective optimization. The section on business applications looks at such problems as locating bank branches, the potential location of a logistics park, sustainable forest management and layout problems in a hospital, a much more difficult type of problem than mere location problems. The section on public services presents chapters on the design of habitats for wildlife, control of forest fires, the location of intelligent sensors along highways for timely emergency response, locating breast cancer screening centers, an economic analysis for the locations of post offices and school location. The final section of the book includes chapters on the well-known problem of locating fire stations, a model for the location of sensors for travel time information, the problem of police districting, locations of jails, location of Coast Guard vessels and finally, a survey of military applications of location analysis throughout different periods of recent history.
This second volume of the Handbook presents professional surveys of all the important topics in urban economics. The first section contains 6 surveys on locational analysis, the second, 5 surveys of specific urban markets, and the third part presents 5 surveys of government policy issues. The book brings together exhaustive research by distinguished scholars from many countries. It is the only complete survey volume of urban economics and should serve as a reference volume to scholars and graduate students for many years. For more information on the Handbooks in Economics series, please see our home page on http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/hes--
Location problems establish a set of facilities (resources) to minimize the cost of satisfying a set of demands (customers) with respect to a set of constraints. This book deals with location problems. It considers the relationship between location problems and other areas such as supply chains.
Location analysis has matured from an area of theoretical inquiry that was designed to explain observed phenomena to a vibrant field which can be and has been used to locate items as diverse as landfills, fast food outlets, gas stations, as well as politicians and products in issue and feature spaces. Modern location science is dealt with by a diverse group of researchers and practitioners in geography, economics, operations research, industrial engineering, and computer science. Given the tremendous advances location science has seen from its humble beginnings, it is time to look back. The contributions in this volume were written by eminent experts in the field, each surveying the original contributions that created the field, and then providing an up-to-date review of the latest contributions. Specific areas that are covered in this volume include: • The three main fields of inquiry: minisum and minimax problems and covering models • Nonstandard location models, including those with competitive components, models that locate undesirable facilities, models with probabilistic features, and problems that allow interactions between facilities • Descriptions and detailed examinations of exact techniques including the famed Weiszfeld method, and heuristic methods ranging from Lagrangean techniques to Greedy algorithms • A look at the spheres of influence that the facilities generate and that attract customers to them, a topic crucial in planning retail facilities • The theory of central places, which, other than in mathematical games, where location science was born
The concern of economists and location theorists for the problem of public facility location is growing rapidly. The present collection of essays aims to provide an overview of the problem both from the perspective of economic theory and operations research. A study of some basic ingredients of a public space theory and one on the main tools for spatial decision-making are offered. This is reflected in the content of the book, which is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the theory of local public goods and with public decision-making procedures in the spatial context. A survey of the current literature on local public goods is proposed and contributed papers follow which are devoted to particular aspects or to a critical discussion of the main approaches. Voting procedures in a spatial context are reviewed and extended. Then follows an application of planning theory to public goods in space. The second part is relative to the operational analysis of locational decisions in the public sector. The major models and methods are reviewed; their computational efficiency is reported on and some of their fundamental properties are discussed. Location-allocation models are analyzed and criticized from the welfare economics standpoint and some suggestions are made for future research. The book addresses a large audience, including economists, regional scientists, operations researchers and geographers interested in the theory of public space and spatial planning.
A wide-ranging survey of the theory and evidence on public goods, presenting the main literature on public goods, both theoretical and empirical, in a systematic manner. The breadth and depth of the book's coverage extends the existing literature in many ways.
