Facility location in cities : the optimal location of emergency units within cities

Over the past four decades, there has been an increasing interest in the problem of effective facility location in many societies. The question arises as to how many schools, hospitals, ambulances, warehouses, fire stations, emergency centers are needed and their respective locations to achieve a prescribed level of service. This book is concerned with the problem of locating emergency facilities efficiently and effectively in cities. We develop three new heuristic methods with the objective of increasing accessibility to these facilities and thus reducing their response time. This book details the development, implementation, and testing of the three new heuristics in addition to applying our best heuristic to the location of ambulance stations in the Perth metropolitan area in Western Australia. Furthermore, we also developed an effective method for locating new facilities among old facilities. This book is well suited for students, lecturers, researchers, and anyone who is interested in the location and operation of emergency facilities in some major cities such as New York, Austin, Los Angeles, Denver, Vancouver, Bangkok, Taipei, Santo Domingo and Belfast.