Business Decision-Making with QGIS? Developing an Open-Source Location Analytics Toolkit

Smart decision-making in many private, public, and non-profit sector organizations involves knowing where their customers and service users are. To make this geographic research more accessible to smaller businesses, under-funded government units, and charities, we are developing an open-source location analytics toolkit for QGIS. At present, modules for distance calculation, spatial interaction modeling, and multi-criteria analysis exist in beta versions. The presentation focuses on the Huff model, which estimates the probability that consumers at a set of origin locations (e.g. Census tracts) use different service sites within the study area. The Huff model is widely used for trade area delineation in retail geography. It provides an evidence-based, nuanced estimation of sales potential or service usage. The perceived utility of each site is represented by the quotient of an attractiveness metric divided by the distance to be traveled by consumers. In addition, the use of multi-criteria analysis ensures that composite attractiveness metrics are properly calculated. With this presentation, we would like to encourage the use and further development of the QGIS location analytics toolkit.