New Directions in Locational Analysis, Environmental Modelling and Humanitarian Logistics

第一部分：区位分析的新方向 第一部分：位置和位置的持续需求--可靠性模型 在大多数的地理信息系统/全球定位系统应用中，用户需求被表示为连续分布在某个地理区域上。然而，大多数设施选址模型假设需求来自一组离散的点，这可能会导致较大的聚合误差。除了对连续分布的需求建模的实际重要性之外，这项研究还有可能为最优解决方案的特征提供见解：在不同条件下，最优设施配置是什么样子？当一些基本系统参数(例如，设施的可靠性)发生变化时，预计会发生什么变化？这样的洞察力通常不可能在离散的地点环境中提供。 第二部分：多市场营销--分销模式 将一种新产品或服务推向市场的公司必须制定一种协调的营销-分销战略，其中“营销”部分指的是新产品将获得的营销支持，而“分销”部分则与如何将产品推向市场有关。直到最近，这两组问题一直由两种不同的文献来解决：营销和设施选址。我们的目标是开发整合的多市场多渠道营销选址模型，提供重要的管理见解和实用的决策支持工具。我们还将研究信息交换在系统中不同参与者之间的作用。 第二部分：环境建模和技术选择 可持续经营的关键问题之一是如何创建一套适当的激励措施，以激励企业做出“绿色”技术选择，特别是通过使用环境税和相关工具。我们研究了一个由两层组成的模型：制定税收政策的“监管者”和几家利润最大化的企业通过选择生产技术、生产水平和价格来响应税收政策，充当跟随者。我们的结果强调了在制定环境政策时考虑可操作方面的重要性，并为进一步的研究开辟了许多进一步的方向。 第三部分：人道主义物流 人道主义救援的一个关键且研究不足的方面与设施选址有关，其中的“设施”可能包括用于预先定位、储存或准备救援物资、设备或人员的仓库、仓库和配送中心。相关问题是确定达到合理保护水平所需的资源数量，以及在特定救济情况下应如何以最佳方式部署这些资源。我们的目标是创建一种有效的决策支持工具，使规划者能够对资源做出决策，并构建详细的运营计划。

Part I: New Directions in Locational Analysis Part I.1: Continuous Demand in Location and Location-Reliability Models In most GIS/GPS applications consumer demand is represented as continuously distributed over a certain geographical region. Yet, most facility location models assume the demand originates from a discrete set of points, leading to potentially large aggregation errors. In addition to the practical importance of modeling continuously distributed demand, this research has the potential to provide insights into characteristics of optimal solutions: What do optimal facility configurations look like under different conditions? What changes can be expected when some fundamental system parameters (e.g., reliability of facilities) changes? Such insights are often impossible to provide in discrete location settings. Part I.2 Multi-Market Marketing-Distribution Models A firm introducing a new product or service to the market must develop a coordinated marketing-distribution strategy, where the “marketing” part refers to the marketing support the new product will receive and “distribution” has to do with how the product will be made available to the market. These two sets of issues have, until recently been addressed by two different bodies of literature: marketing and facility location. Our objective is the development of integrated multi-market multi-channel marketing-location models, providing important managerial insights and practical decision support tools. We will also study the role of information interchange between different players in the system. Part II: Environmental Modelling and Technology Choice One of the key questions in sustainable operations is how to create the proper set of incentives to motivate firms to make “green” technology choices, particularly through the use of environmental taxation and related tools. We study a model consisting of two layers: the “regulator” setting the tax policy, and several profit-maximizing firms responding to that policy by selecting production technologies, production levels and prices, acting as a followers. Our results underscore the importance of taking operational aspects into account when setting environmental policy, and open many further directions for additional research. Part III: Humanitarian Logistics One crucial and under-studied aspect of HL is related to facility location, where “facilities” may include depots, warehouses and distributing centers that are used for pre-positioning, storage, or staging of relief supplies, equipment or personnel. Related issue is the determination of the required amount resources to achieve reasonable protection levels and how this resources should be optimally deployed in a given relief scenario. Our goal is to create an efficient decision-support tool enabling planners to make decisions on resources and to construct detailed operational plans.