Spatial Search

This book offers a wide ranging review of the problems associated with the search for the best location for public facilities. Typical examples of public facilities include roads and railways, pipelines and transmission wires, airports, power stations, community clinics, universities and schools. In an attempt to provide a general structure for tackling location problems in the public sector this book offers an approach based upon the notion of spatial search. This book reviews the state of the art of formal procedures in language and style which is comprehensible to the non-specialist, and places the formal procedures into the broader context of planning. The author discusses problems of measurement, and has also reviewed literature on collective decision-making, public participation, efficiency and Etopia. Case studies are included to clarify the general principles.

Of interest to students and teachers of planning/urban studies, geography, environmental studies, management and architecture.