Models, algorithms and applications for location problems

Locational analysis focuses on the development of models and methods to identify the best locations for a set of facilities within a given region in order to optimize a specific objective function. In this context, a wide variety of applications can be defined in both private industry and the public sector. Over the last several decades academics and practitioners have been proposing approaches that can represent the basis for support systems which can help decision makers in estimating the impact of decisions, combining various factors that affect the problems such as demand, location space, efficiencies, accessibility, and service level. In an attempt to provide useful and updated insights, the triennial conference ISOLDE (International Symposium On Locational DEcision) represents the main event which gathers researchers and practitioners from all over the world with the goal of integrating different approaches from the fields of operations research, mathematics, management science, geography, economics and engineering. This special issue of Optimization Letters is mainly dedicated (but not exclusively) to the 13th Edition of the ISOLDE Conference, hosted by the University of Naples Federico II,which tookplace 16–20 June2014, inNaples andCapri (Italy). Participants from twenty different countries discussed about one hundred papers covering many of the most popular and innovative theoretical topics and applications. For this special issue, we received 24 manuscripts, which were carefully reviewed through a rigorous refereeing process. Of themanuscripts submitted, 12were accepted for inclusion in this special issue. A brief overview of each paper is given below; they are listed in alphabetical order by first author.