An analysis of the evolution of warehouses location from 2012 to 2019 in major U.S. Consolidated Statistical Areas (CSA): new insights of warehousing spatial patterns.

Keywords: Warehouse, logistics sprawl, urban logistics, cities, United States
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 71

Abstract

The objective of this research is to conduct a comparative analysis of the phenomenon of logistics sprawl in U.S. metropolitan areas that have been selected based on three criteria: the 10 largest logistics hubs in terms of the number of warehouses; cities with a very high rate of growth in the number of warehouses (above 30%); and intermediate-sized cities that complete the top of the U.S. urban hierarchy. This research therefore seeks to complement the numerous scientific studies on logistics sprawl conducted previously (Bowen, 2008; Dablanc, Ogilvie, Goodchild, 2014) with a comparative approach between metropolitan areas and a dynamic approach over time using several time steps, with very recent years taken into account. To conduct this research, we used the federal County Business Patterns database available in open access. We took as reference the years 2008, 2012, 2018 and then we integrated the year 2019 whose data was published at the end of April of this year. We extracted the data at the state level and at the zip code level for warehouses from the NAICS code (code 493 corresponds to warehouses). Following the mapping, a comparative geographic analysis was conducted to identify the spatial structures of the warehouse sector and to serve as a basis for developing a typology to identify trajectories by group of metropolitan areas. Finally, to represent logistics sprawl, a centrographic analysis and a calculation of the barycenters were performed.