A GIS approach to shopping mall location selection

Taking the advantage of information technology, geographic information systems (GIS) enable the handling of both spatial and non-spatial data for constructing thematic maps depicting a variety of demographic information relating to population, housing, and economic activities. Its application on the technical area in the construction industry is evident, while its usefulness to the non-technical area (e.g., business, economics) is being explored. In view of the potentiality of the GIS, this paper presents its utility for shopping mall location selection, which is one of the core business activities of developers for long-term capital investment. A GIS-based system uses electronic mapping technology in producing interactive multi-layer maps so that queries are set to find optimal solutions for problems. It combines spatial and non-spatial data to construct visualized information that can be easily analyzed by decision makers and that cannot be achieved in table or list forms. In the current paper, a project is demonstrated to create features associated with household incomes, demand points, etc. Queries are then created for finding solutions for four location problems: (1) minimum distance, (2) maximum demands coverage, (3) maximum incomes coverage, and (4) optimal center. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.