Location-Allocation

Some of the first GIS analyses done were for village locations using a location-allocation approach. We often consider location to be the most important factor in a successful organization. Given that villages provide a set of demand points for the need for transportation (of agricultural goods), farm inputs, processing, etc., the goal of using a method of analyses to determine best allocation is to locate new facilities that can supply the demand points. In this case, demand points being villages. ArcGIS provides a tool “location-allocation” that simultaneously addresses the two-fold problem of locating facilities and allocating demand points (villages) to those facilities.

Maximize coverage places facilities so that as many demand points as possible are allocated to solution facilities within the impedance cutoff. In this case an impedance cutoff of 10 km was used.

Minimize facilities was used so that as many demand points as possible were allocated to solution facilities within the 10 km. In addition, the number of facilities required to cover the village points is minimized. Finally, maximize attendance shows a solution such that as much demand weight as possible is allocated to facilities.