Editing Transport network analysis (section)

===Location analysis===
{{main|Facility location problem (disambiguation){{!}}Facility location problem|Location-allocation}}

This class of problems aims to find the optimal location for one or more facilities along the network, with ''optimal'' defined as minimizing the aggregate or mean travel cost to (or from) another set of points in the network. A common example is determining the location of a warehouse to minimize shipping costs to a set of retail outlets, or the location of a retail outlet to minimize the travel time from the residences of its potential customers. In unconstrained (cartesian coordinate) space, this is an NP-hard problem requiring heuristic solutions such as [[Lloyd's algorithm]], but in a network space it can be solved deterministically.<ref>{{cite book |last1=deSmith |first1=Michael J. |last2=Goodchild |first2=Michael F. |last3=Longley |first3=Paul A. |title=Geospatial Analysis: A Comprehensive Guide to Principles, Techniques, and Software Tools |date=2021 |edition=6th revised |chapter=7.4.2 Larger p-median and p-center problems | chapter-url=https://www.spatialanalysisonline.com/HTML/index.html?larger_p-median_and_p-center_p.htm}}</ref>

Particular applications often add further constraints to the problem, such as the location of pre-existing or competing facilities, facility capacities, or maximum cost.