Methodological issues in applying Location Models to Rural areas


Autoria(s): Carling, Kenneth; Han, Mengjie; Håkansson, Johan
Data(s)

2010

Resumo

Location Models are usedfor planning the location of multiple service centers in order to serve a geographicallydistributed population. A cornerstone of such models is the measure of distancebetween the service center and a set of demand points, viz, the location of thepopulation (customers, pupils, patients and so on). Theoretical as well asempirical evidence support the current practice of using the Euclidian distancein metropolitan areas. In this paper, we argue and provide empirical evidencethat such a measure is misleading once the Location Models are applied to ruralareas with heterogeneous transport networks. This paper stems from the problemof finding an optimal allocation of a pre-specified number of hospitals in alarge Swedish region with a low population density. We conclude that the Euclidianand the network distances based on a homogenous network (equal travel costs inthe whole network) give approximately the same optimums. However networkdistances calculated from a heterogeneous network (different travel costs indifferent parts of the network) give widely different optimums when the numberof hospitals increases.  In terms ofaccessibility we find that the recent closure of hospitals and the in-optimallocation of the remaining ones has increased the average travel distance by 75%for the population. Finally, aggregation the population misplaces the hospitalsby on average 10 km.

Formato

application/pdf

Identificador

http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-5131

Idioma(s)

eng

Publicador

Högskolan Dalarna, Statistik

Högskolan Dalarna, Statistik

Högskolan Dalarna, Kulturgeografi

Borlänge : Högskolan Dalarna

Relação

Working papers in transport, tourism and information technology, 1650-5581

Direitos

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Palavras-Chave #Multiple service centers #Optimal location #accessibility #network distances #Euclidian distances #spatial aggregation #P-center #Other Computer and Information Science #Annan data- och informationsvetenskap
Tipo

Report

info:eu-repo/semantics/report

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