MODELLING TECHNIQUE FOR LOCATIONAL ANALYSIS OF TRAFFIC GENERATORS - A RATIONAL APPROACH TO NETWORK PLANNING

Location modelling can be used to allocate a variety of facilities. For example, covering models locate facilities so that each consumer lives within a critical distance of his nearest facility, and the p-median method specifies facility locations to minimise the average distance between productive and attractive potentials. Location/allocation models allow different producers and consumer behaviour patterns to be considered. In this paper, the p-median method is applied to optimise the locations of shopping centres in the 103km area of Serilingampally Municipality in India. The study aimed to: (1) identify land use activities and develop a spatial road network; (2) acquire data about land use, network, population, and socio-economic characteristics; (3) identify multiple shopping centre locations, using the p-median method; (4) estimate accessibility index values from consumer centres to producer centres; and (5) identify an ideal road network for different transport modes at village and zonal levels. The mathematical median problem and the algorithm for finding medians are outlined. Numerical tables of village and zonal demand weights, and of distance and demand matrix values at both levels, are given for the municipality.