2014 · 11 citations · 0 references
Social SciencesUrban PlanningUrban EconomicsUrban Spatial Structure
The implementation of urban distribution centers nearto city centers to allow freight consolidation is a widelyextended initiative worldwide, seeking to improve trafficcongestion and quality of life in downtown, among others.This paper considers the problem of locating urbandistribution centers and proposes an exact method, basedon integer linear programming for strategic, tactical andoperational decision-making. The aim is to solve, in aninteger manner, location, sizing and operation (vehiclerouting) problems in these logistics platforms. The modelis validated using real-data taken from the city of SaintÉtienne,France. Computational experiments are alsocarried out in order to compare the proposed model withexisting procedures from the literature. Results show theefficiency and effectiveness of the proposed model and itsapplicability in real decision-making for medium sizeddata sets.