ABSTRACT
With customers arrayed across a geographic extent, placement of service centers is contemplated with the aim of optimally serving the customers. How best to do this? Location analysis is concerned with just such questions. The need for location analysis arises in very many forms. Customers are typically people, but not necessarily; they may be other forms of life and they may be any form of non-living thing in need of servicing. Service centers may be police stations, fire stations, ambulance depots, counseling centers, retail stores, warehouses, product designs, political positions, and much else besides. The geographic extent may be conventionally spatial and two-dimensional, or it may have fewer or more dimensions. Travel times may conform to Euclidean metrics, or not. Relevant factors for optimization may include travel times or travel costs in many forms (total, maximal, minimal, average, etc.). Any number of other factors may be deemed relevant and important, including fairness, balance, and performance on ensemble attributes.
