Optimal Number of Hierarchical Facilities with Failures

This article proposes a continuous approximation model for determining the number of hierarchical facilities when lower level facilities are subject to failures. The average distance from customers to the nearest open facility is derived for two types of customer behavior. The optimal number of facilities that minimizes the average distance is then obtained. The analytical expression for the optimal number of facilities demonstrates how the location of facilities, the failure probability, and the customer behavior affect the optimal hierarchy and the average distance. The result shows that introducing the hierarchy can reduce the average distance if the failure probability is small and the penalty for failing to use facilities is large. The model provides a fundamental understanding of the optimal hierarchy and is useful for designing hierarchical facility systems.     

On Covering Problems and the Central Facilities Location Problem

A number of variations of facilities location problems have appeared in the research literature in the past decade. Among these are problems involving the location of multiple new facilities in a discrete solution space, with the new facilities located relative to a set of existing facilities having known locations. In this paper a number of discrete solution space location problems are treated. Specifically, the covering problem and the central facilities location problem are shown to be related. The covering problem involves the location of the minimum number of new facilities among a finite number of sites such that all existing facilities (customers) are covered by at least one new facility. The central facilities location problem consists of the location of a given number of new facilities among a finite number of sites such that the sum of the weighted distances between existing facilities and new facilities is minimized. Computational experience in using the same heuristic solution procedure to solve both problems is provided and compared with other existing solution procedures.     

The Theory of Welfare Considerations in Public Facility Location Problems

The paper provides a general theoretical framework for analyzing the locational choice of public facilities from the point of view of social welfare. Spatial interactions of individuals and economies to scale in the public sector are taken into account, and that, in turn, adds another dimension to the set of alternatives facing the decision maker. His choice has to be made by considering size as well as space alternatives for the provision of the public service. The paper presents a theoretical structure for ranking those alternatives.     

Problems of Optimal Location of an Industrial Complex

Reverting to the problem of location of the next major iron and steel plant, based on ore from the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, the authors present the pro-Siberian view. They contend that advocates of a Central Russian location of such a steel plant ignore both the water and land costs in the construction of such a complex, which would tend to argue against a western location, and the effect of such a complex in promoting regional development, which would have a positive impact in the underdeveloped eastern regions. Cost calculations are presented to show that even if the Siberian plant is supplied by long-haul ore from the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, a Siberian location would be of greater benefit to the Soviet economy as a whole than a Central Russian location. The benefit would be even more marked if the design calculations involved not just the choice of site for one iron and steel plant, but the comparative costs of an iron and steel plant (an energy-intensive industry) in Siberia and a labor-intensive industry in Central Russia. For the pro-European view in the choice of a steel-plant site, see the Gladkevich article in Soviet Geography, November 1971.     

The Evaluation of Urban Public Facility Location: An Alternative to Benefit-Cost Analysis

This paper attempts to overcome some specific problems which exist with the use of benefit-cost analysis in evaluating the impact of public facilities. The concepts developed explicitly recognize the importance of the spatial distribution of impacts and the fact that tastes can differ substantially among people. By utilizing the concepts of the generalized environment and of place utility, a more general and valuable conceptual model can be developed which may be useful in preventing much current conflict over public investment decisions. The model has an explicit concern with the problem of equity and is thus only a small step in a growing field of inquiry within geography.     

Office and Plant Location With Transport Costs of Information

In this paper, under the framework of profit maximization office and plant locations are analyzed, taking into account the existing cost of transporting information between the market and the office, and between the office and the plant. The conclusion is that if the office and the plant are located separately, the value of the unit transmission cost of information on production significantly decreases.     

A Cost-Benefit Location-Allocation Model for Public Facilities: An Econometric Approach

This research develops and operationalizes a facility location-allocation model based on cost-benefit principles derived from welfare economics. Despite the theoretical advantages of cost-benefit location-allocation models, the difficulties associated with estimating household preferences for public facilities have heretofore prevented their application. This research demonstrates that the hedonic-pricing methodology can be effectively used to estimate preferences for public facilities. Specifically, household preferences for Baltimore public middle schools were estimated from the spatial variation in housing prices using the random bidding model. To provide an example of the methodology, the cost-benefit location-allocation objective function was maximized to simultaneously determine the optimal number, quality, and locations of Baltimore middle schools. The cost-benefit approach to facility location constitutes a major improvement over existing methods because it directly incorporates user preferences into the objective function and because the number and quality of facilities can be determined endogenously rather than being specified as a constraint a priori.     

Bi‐objective Model for Optimal Number and Size of Circular Facilities

This article presents a bi‐objective model for determining the number and size of finite size facilities. The objectives are to minimize both the average closest distance to facilities and the probability that a random line intersects facilities. The former represents the accessibility of customers, whereas the latter represents the interference to travelers. The average closest distance and the probability of intersecting facilities are derived for circular facilities randomly distributed in a circular city. The analytical expressions for the average closest distance and the probability of intersecting facilities demonstrate how the number and size of facilities affect the accessibility of customers and the interference to travelers. The model focuses on the tradeoff between the accessibility and interference, and the tradeoff curve provides planners with alternatives for the number and size of facilities.     

Demand and Supply of Public School Quality in Metropolitan Areas: The Role of Private Schools

In this paper I investigate the role of private schools in the housing market and in the supply and demand for public schooling. I estimate public school-quality supply simultaneously with demand, which provides greater confidence in calculated demand elasticities than in single-equation studies. The price of public schools, private schools, and taxes all appear in the demand estimation and have elasticities of @ndash;0.19, 0.11, and –0.49, respectively. Public school–quality supply is responsive to private-school competition but not to competition from other public schools. The percentage of school-aged children attending private schools depresses house values holding public-schooling outcomes constant.     

Coping With Competition: The impact of Charter Schooling on Public School Outreach in Arizona

Advocates of market-based education reform hypothesize that competition will cause traditional public schools to increase outreach efforts as they seek to market themselves. Advocates hope such efforts will result in more information on school activities and performance and thereby enhance accountability. We examine the effect of charter school competition on outreach efforts by a sample of 98 Arizona district schools, finding that charter competition is associated with a short-term increase in outreach. Organizational structure influenced school response, with more decentralized district schools responding more readily to charter competition. Competition modestly increased information regarding schooling in the short run, although long-term implications are less clear.     

Transport Rate Uncertainty and the Optimal Location of the Firm: Some New Conclusions

This paper presents standard microeconomic models that are designed to be used in the cost-benefit analysis of local land use decisions. The models connect these allocation decisions to outcomes in the urban land and labor markets so that costs and benefits can be measured. Benefits to the local jurisdiction of allocating land to industrial use exist if unemployed workers are employed, land values increase, or local tax revenues increase beyond the amount needed to provide the additional public services required.     

Analysis of Errors Due to Demand Data Aggregation in the Set Covering and Maximal Covering Location Problems

In this paper, we extend the concepts of demand data aggregation error to location problems involving coverage. These errors, which arise from losses in locational information, may lead to suboptimal location patterns. They are potentially more significant in covering problems than in p-median problems because the distance metric is binary in covering problems. We examine the Hillsman and Rhoda (1978) Source A, B, and C errors, identify their coverage counterparts, and relate them to the cost and optimality errors that may result. Three rules are then presented which, when applied during data aggregation, will reduce these errors. The third rule will, in fact, eliminate all loss of locational information, but may also limit the amount of aggregation possible. Results of computational tests on a large-scale problem are presented to demonstrate the performance of rule 3.     

Linking Public Agencies With Community-Based Watershed Organizations: Lessons From California

Watershed organizations routinely seek to influence public agencies and sometimes also depend on them for financial and technical assistance. For some agencies this relationship is strained and problematic. Watershed organizations tend to develop closer working relationships with decentralized and locally responsive agencies, like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Centralized and unresponsive agencies, like the Forest Service, tend to be unreliable partners. Ironically, the same characteristics that once led to accusations that the BLM was captured by local stakeholders such as ranchers have allowed BLM officials to reorient themselves in the 1990s to become responsive to watershed organizations, which currently are favored by grass-roots environmentalists. This paper examines these relationships through a case study from California, where state and federal agencies designed and partially implemented a public/private strategy to preserve biodiversity. The strategy was a curious hybrid of top-down planning and bottom-up implementation. Although orchestrated primarily by the BLM, the strategy was implemented initially in a region of the state where the Forest Service predominated. The case study, therefore, highlights some of the fundamental tensions underlying the relationship between watershed organizations and public agencies.