Retail Geography and Intelligent Network Planning demonstrates the importance of geographical thinking in a wide variety of situations. The book exemplifies the importance of sophisticated and intelligent spatial analysis techniques in dealing with the range of location, distribution and channel management issues which now face retail and service businesses. This technology is especially crucial in an age when traditional channels of physical distribution such as bank branches and shops are increasingly complemented by electronic and virtual channels.

Building on the success of Intelligent GIS (1996), which set out the principles and applications of GIS and spatial modelling for strategic planning, this new title concentrates on the concept of retail intelligence applied to retail planning by presenting examples relating to a wide range of business problems.

Retail Geography and Intelligent Network Planning is an innovative book in several ways:

• Explores some of the key retail trends impacting on retail location and store location studies by drawing on research undertaken in grocery and supermarket retailing, financial services, travel and leisure in Europe, North America and Australasia

• Examines the role of e-commerce and its growth, and argues that geography will still be crucial to its success in the retail sector

• Presents readers with various spatial analysis methods and their usefulness for addressing retail growth strategies such as branch optimization.

• Draws examples from the authors' own expertise over the past fifteen years in retail consultancy

On 20 April 2010, an explosion of fire occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. This resulted in eleven worker fatalities, a massive oil release and a national response effort in the Gulf of Mexico region by the federal and state governments. This book explores the issues that have arisen from this crisis, as well as how the spill affects the national energy policy, and the trade-offs between energy needs, risks of deepwater drilling and protection of natural resources and amenities