Introduction to Location Science - Location Science - page 9

trailer-parking places is one of the relevant decisions to make), and transportation
(see, e.g., Nickel et al. 2001 , for a location problem in the context of public
transportation systems). The application of location theory in these areas partially
explains why discrete facility location problems have progressively acquired a major
relevance when compared with the early developments in Location Science.
Nowadays, Location Science is a very active and well-established research area
with its own identity and research community. In addition to the fundamental prob-
lems, we observe different research branches being intensively investigated such has
multi-criteria facility location, multi-period facility location, facility location under
uncertainty, location-routing and competitive location, just to mention a few.

1.4 Purpose and Structure of This Topic

As highlighted above, many location problems have applications in other disci-
plines. Researchers working in these disciplines often encounter location decisions
as part of broader problems. From the point of view of researchers coming
from the location community, the recent decades have shown that several very
successful applications of the knowledge gathered in Location Science require a
deep understanding of these disciplines.
In this topic, readers will find a full coverage of basic aspects, fundamental
problems and properties defining the field of Location Science, as well as advanced
models and concepts that are crucial to the solution of many real-life complex
problems. The topic also presents applications of location problems to several fields.
It is intended for researchers working on theory and applications involving location
problems and models. It is also suitable as a textbook for graduate courses in
facility location. This topic is neither a typical textbook with worked examples
and exercises, nor a collection of extensive surveys. It is more a topic on “what
you should know” about various aspects of Location Science; it provides the basic
knowledge and structures the field. It is divided into three parts: basic concepts,
advanced concepts and applications.

I. Basic concepts
This part is devoted to the fundamental problems in Location Science, which
include:

￿ Chapter 2 : p-median problems;

￿ Chapter 3 : Fixed-charge facility location problems;

￿ Chapter 4 : p-center problems;

￿ Chapter 5 : Covering location problems;

￿ Chapter 6 : Anti-covering location problems.

The goal of this part is to provide the reader with the basic background of
location theory. The problems described in Part I serve as a basis for much of
the content of Parts II and III .