Accessibility-Based Location of International Multimodal Logistics Hubs: A Case in China

This paper presents an approach to address the problem of location of international multimodal logistics hubs (IMLHs) in the international multimodal network from the perspective of accessibility. The approach has three phases: constructing multiple accessibility indices, identifying the candidate IMLHs, and determining the optimal IMLHs. First, seven accessibility indices are constructed considering multiple transport segments and modes in the international transportation chain. Second, several candidate IMLHs are identified according to the integrated accessibility calculated by a modified GRA-TOPSIS (grey relational analysis technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution). Third, an accessibility-based gravity p-median model is established to determine optimal IMLHs. Finally, the approach is applied to IMLHs in China. The results show that the distribution of the identified 28 candidate IMLHs is reasonable, and the 15 optimal IMLHs can serve most of the cargo origins in China. The study provides support for decision-makers in the location of multimodal transportation hubs.