Distance decay and coverage in facility location planning

An important consideration in urban and regional planning is where to locate facilities providing services. Location models are typically used to support facility siting decisions. This paper develops general models that simultaneously addresses issues involving potential demand as a function of distance, coverage range, and partial regional service in facility siting. The developed models are general in that they can be utilized for siting both desirable and undesirable facilities. Application results are presented for a discrete linear model to locate park-and-ride facilities (desirable) and recycling facilities (undesirable) in Columbus, Ohio. The findings illustrate the flexibility and usefulness of the developed modeling approach for addressing a wide range of planning issues.