• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.11-22
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• 2007

This paper is to discuss analytical techniques to estimate demand sizes and volumes that determine optimal locations for multiple facilities for a given services. While demand size estimation is a core part of location modeling to enhance solution quality and practical applicability, the estimation method has been used in limited and restrict parts such as a single population centroid in a given larger census boundary area or small theoretical application experiments(e.s. census track and enumeration district). Therefore, this paper strives to develop an analytical estimation method of demand size that converts area based demand data to point based population weighted centroids. This method is free to spatial boundary units and more robust to estimate accurate demand volumes regardless of geographic boundaries. To improve the estimation accuracy, this paper uses house weighted value to the population centroid calculation process. Then the population weighted centroids are converted to individual demand points on a grid formated surface area. In turn, the population weighted centroids, demand points and network distance measures are operated into location-allocation models to examine their roles to enhance solution quality and applicability of GIS location models. Finally, this paper demonstrates the robustness of the weighted estimation method with the application of location-allocation models.