ABSTRACT
The main statement of this book is that modern logistics is shaping urban development and urban land use as a consequence of new supply chain organization and network design. Thus structural changes are creating new geographies of distribution, as an outcome of supply chain management and logistics network design and in response to a changing macro-economic framework. This transformation of urban places includes, first, the re-development of warehousing districts, inner-city rail yards and freight consolidation facilities, in favour of more valuable and competitive land uses, such as housing, retail or business services; this also applies to the increasingly popular conversion of city ports into urban waterfronts. As a consequence, second, facilities that host logistics services, e.g. the storage, consolidation and distribution of consignments, are going to be re-located toward strategic places within and increasingly beyond the limits of urbanized areas.
