This comprehensive and clearly structured book presents essential information on modern Location Science. The book is divided into three parts: basic concepts, advanced concepts and applications. Written by the most respected specialists in the field and thoroughly reviewed by the editors, it first lays out the fundamental problems in Location Science and provides the reader with basic background information on location theory. Part II covers advanced models and concepts, broadening and expanding on the content presented in Part I. It provides the reader with important tools to help them understand and solve real-world location problems. Part III is dedicated to linking Location Science with other areas like GIS, telecommunications, healthcare, rapid transit networks, districting problems and disaster events, presenting a wide range of applications. This part enables the reader to understand the role of facility location in such areas, as well as to learn how to handle realistic location problems. The book is intended for researchers working on theory and applications involving location problems and models. It is also suitable as a textbook for graduate courses on facility location.

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

Location-based services (LBS) are a new concept integrating a user’s geographic location with the general notion of services, such as dialing an emergency number from a cell phone or using a navigation system in a car. Incorporating both mobile communication and spatial data, these applications represent a novel challenge both conceptually and technically. The purpose of this book is to describe, in an accessible fashion, the various concepts underlying mobile location-based services. These range from general application-related ideas to technical aspects. Each chapter starts with a high level of abstraction and drills down to the technical details. Contributors examine each application from all necessary perspectives, namely, requirements, services, data, and scalability. An illustrative example begins early in the book and runs throughout, serving as a reference. · This book defines the LBS field and identifies its capabilities, challenges, and technologies.· The contributors are recognized experts from academia and industry.· Coverage includes navigation systems, middleware, interoperability, standards, and mobile communications.· A sample application, the "find-friend" application, is used throughout the book to integrate the concepts discussed in each chapter.

This text covers the convergent use of GIS for location science analysis. The integrated approach enables analysts to look beyond theoretical location constructs to focus on the resolution of actual siting problems, producing better data and model representations, and developing better solution approaches.

This book provides a thoughtful and rigorous guide to coverage modeling, reviewing essential models, solution approaches, and related applications. Since the early developments of the Location Set Covering Problem and the Maximal Covering Location Problem, models based upon some form of coverage have been extended and applied in a number of areas, helping to improve services offered to citizens of large cities and regions. Examples include trauma care services, transit systems design, cell tower location, and many others. The book not only describes the strengths and weaknesses of currently available models, but also presents details on major developments, including solution procedures and applications, making it well suited both as a reference text and a textbook for graduate level courses.

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.

Praise for the First Edition This book is refreshing to read since it takes an important topic... and presents it in a clear and concise manner by using examples that include visual presentations of the problem, solution methods, and results along with an explanation of the mathematical and procedural steps required to model the problem and work through to a solution.” —Journal of Classification Thoroughly updated and revised, Network and Discrete Location: Models, Algorithms, and Applications, Second Edition remains the go-to guide on facility location modeling. The book offers a unique introduction to methodological tools for solving location models and provides insight into when each approach is useful and what information can be obtained. The Second Edition focuses on real-world extensions of the basic models used in locating facilities, including production and distribution systems, location-inventory models, and defender-interdictor problems. A unique taxonomy of location problems and models is also presented. Featuring examples using the author’s own software—SITATION, MOD-DIST, and MENU-OKF—as well as Microsoft Office® Excel®, the book provides: • A theoretical and applied perspective on location models and algorithms • An intuitive presentation of the uses and limits of modeling techniques • An introduction to integrated location-inventory modeling and defender-interdictor models for the design of reliable facility location systems • A full range of exercises to equip readers with an understanding of the basic facility location model types Network and Discrete Location: Models, Algorithms, and Applications, Second Edition is an essential resource for practitioners in applied and discrete mathematics, operations research, industrial engineering, and quantitative geography. The book is also a useful textbook for upper-level undergraduate, graduate, and MBA courses.