Health-care managers decide where to locate new
clinics and hospitals.
● Online shopping companies decide the routes and
schedules of their vehicles, often on a daily basis.
● Transportation authorities select routes for new
highways and anticipate their impacts.
● Retailers assess the performance of their outlets
and recommend how to expand or rationalize
store networks.
● Forestry companies determine how best to man age forests, where to cut trees, where to locate
roads, and where to plant new trees.
● National park authorities schedule recreational
path creation, maintenance, and improvement
(Figure 1.1).
● Governments decide how to allocate funds for
building sea defenses.
● Travelers and tourists give and receive driving
directions, select hotels in unfamiliar cities, and
fi nd their way around theme parks (Figure 1.2).
● Farmers employ new GI technology to make better
decisions about the amounts of fertilizer and pesti cides to apply to different parts of their fi elds