Location–Allocation Planning

Abstract

Abstract The development of location–allocation models began in the 1960s. Different disciplines such as regional sciences, mathematics, and operational research as well as geography contributed to the foundation of location–allocation studies, and with this there was increased interest by health geographers. Location–allocation planning can be seen as planning support for new facilities or for optimizing existing facilities and is applied in different areas such as regional planning, retail, and public health care. The location of a facility is highly important, as it is a crucial factor in people accessing a service. Longer travel distances result in higher travel costs, and hence when the costs of travel (or time) reach a certain critical threshold people are less likely to use the service, emphasizing the importance of geography or distance–decay effects. Demand, supply, and accessibility are necessary to implement location–allocation models. Demand is defined as point locations, often referring to population (sub)groups; supply is defined as locations of facilities; and accessibility is either defined as Euclidean (straight line) distance or based on the road network between supply and demand. An advantage is that models can be customized to a particular application to meet specific objectives.