Optimal Allocation of Public Service Centres in the Central Places of Functional Regions

Abstract

In the European Union, Member States and their regions are responsible for planning, funding and administration of public services, which should be based also on smart city tools. How smart is a city could be evaluated also by its ability to produce favorable conditions to get urban operators actively involved into spatial innovation dynamics, also to develop the innovative public logistics networks. The method presented supports local authorities and state government’s decision on optimal allocation of regionally based public services. The article is presenting the method for optimal coverage of the state territory with functional regions, where smart city is a center of the activities, and optimal allocation of services influence city growth. Sets of functional regions were modelled using the Intramax method. An optimal regionalization on number of functional regions is presented where the optimal number is chosen according to the cost of services. The case study for Slovenian regionalization for eldercare is presented.