Location, Location, Location: Spatial Management in the Competition between Commercial Centers

Abstract

This text on commercial geography presents the design and application of an interactive, user-friendly system that supports the decisions on locations made by commercial units wishing to set up business in large urban areas. The system, known as Sadelcom (Automated System for Supporting the Design of Location Strategies for Commercial Units) is based on a spatial interaction model that enables various commercial planning scenarios to be generated. It accepts several kinds of electronic archives as input, including those produced by INEGI. It is transparently integrated into a system of geographic information, which facilitates the calculation of various inputs and the multiplicity of its tabular, graphic and cartographic results. It is extremely quick to use and produces rapid results. Sadelcom was tested in the context of the Toluca Metropolitan Area and to illustrate its potential, three highly complex planning scenarios were generated. The results of the tests have been extremely encouraging, as shown in the body of the article, as well as generating countless questions and complex research tasks, as noted in the agenda included at the end of the article.