Use of DEA to identify urban geographical zones with special difficulty for freight deliveries

摘要

The implementation of city logistics initiatives is typically linked to the determination of candidate zones in a city, where delivering freight is particularly difficult for carriers operating in the area. We present a procedure based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) to identify those candidate zones, using the density of deliveries received in each zone as the output and indicators related to street pattern, zone population or transportation accessibility as inputs. Using this data, DEA identifies which zones are saturated, and should therefore be the ones requiring more attention from the authorities in terms of improving freight deliveries in the urban area. This procedure thus provides a useful tool for determining priority locations for implementing city logistics measures, helping local authorities in the decision-making process. We have illustrated this methodology with an application to the city of Seville, in Spain, resulting in the identification of 15 zones out of 129 as saturated.