Logistics Sprawl in North America: Methodological Issues and a Case Study in Toronto

This paper focuses on the spatial patterns of freight and logistics activities in North America. The recent interest in logistics and warehousing and its impact on the urban environment has prompted research investigating the ‘sprawling’ nature of these firms. Logistics sprawl, i.e. the spatial deconcentration of logistics facilities and distribution centers in metropolitan areas has been examined for several metropolitan areas (Dablanc and Ross, 2012, ; Dablanc 2014; Dablanc et al., 2014), yielding contrasting results: Atlanta and Los Angeles have experienced strong logistics sprawl between 1998 and 2008 while Seattle has not. The objective in this paper is two-fold. An additional case study (Toronto) is investigated to expand the current understanding of North American logistics sprawl and methodological issues, particularly related to facility identification and location data are discussed. An updated method for analyzing spatial patterns of logistics activity in North American cities is subsequently proposed. This updated method may then be used in the future to re-examine former case studies (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle) as well as to investigate new ones.