October 3rd, 2014: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM, Ketter Hall room 140, University at Buffalo North Campus

Shuai Tang.

Shuai Tang: Ph.D. student, Transportation Systems Program in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, University at Buffalo

The Geography of Warehousing in Megaregions:Spatial Analysis and Findings of Transportation Warehouses and Distribution Centers in the New York Metropolitan Region

The new trends in supply chain and logistics have led to a new geography of warehousing in mega cities. This study is among the first to systematically and empirically explore the geography of warehousing, using the New York metropolitan region, one of the largest mega cities and the busiest freight hubs in the world, as the study area. Various spatial analyses were conducted to explore the spatial distribution patterns exhibited by the address-level establishment location data. The empirical results show three major characteristics of the geography, including: (1) clustered warehouses to take advantage of the economies of scale; (2) concentration of warehousing establishment in the main market of freight activities and end customers; and (3) proximity to transportation networks being a significant factor in affecting location decisions. Several policy implications were also suggested for warehousing and logistics oriented planning and decision making.