A Computational Method for Estimating the Demand of Retail Stores on a Street Network and its Implementation in GIS

This paper describes a computational method for estimating the demand of retail stores on a street network using GIS. First, the 'network Huff model' is formulated on a network with the shortest-path distance as an extension of the ordinary Huff model (which assumes a continuous plane with Euclidean distance). Second, using this model, a formula for estimating the demand is derived. This estimation formula is similar to that with the ordinary Huff model, but it has an advantage in that the formula exactly computes the demand on a network. Third, a practical method for computing the formula is developed. Finally, a method of implementing this computational method in a GIS environment is shown.