Workflow Narrative

Market Access and Site Planning

Who It Is For

Retail chains evaluating expansion locations based on demand accessibility and competitive saturation.
Healthcare networks rating candidate clinic/hospital sites for market coverage and competitive positioning.
Franchise developers assessing new territory opportunities via catchment analysis.

Primary User

Commercial real estate, retail operations, healthcare network planning, franchise development.

What It Does

Evaluates candidate site locations for commercial expansion (retail, healthcare, franchise).
Computes drive-time catchment areas for each candidate.
Measures demand coverage and competitive overlap positioning.
Ranks candidates by composite score: 50% demand coverage + 25% accessibility + 25% low competitive overlap.
Outputs ranked candidates, competitive analysis, and executive summary with decision metrics.
Adds opportunity bands and optional market action queue output for expansion triage.

How It Works

For each candidate site:
Compute demand coverage (% of demand points within max ring cost).
Compute average distance to demand points (accessibility proxy).
Compute competitive overlap vs existing/competitor sites (% within catchment radius).
Existing-site baseline coverage is computed from the existing site layer, not from candidate seed sites.
Accessibility score is normalized across the evaluated candidate set.
Composite rank score = 0.50 × coverage + 0.25 × accessibility + 0.25 × (100 - overlap).
**Scope boundary:** Market Access and Site Planning evaluates candidate commercial sites for expansion using drive-time access, demand coverage, and competitive positioning — it is the service-area tool for commercial decisions. Service Area Planning and Coverage Optimization (6.2) addresses public infrastructure coverage diagnostics. Emergency Accessibility Scenario Planning (6.6) simulates disrupted-network scenarios for resilience analysis. Choose this tool for commercial expansion, 6.2 for infrastructure planning, and 6.6 for emergency response planning.
Rank candidates by composite score; classify each site as `expand_now`, `pilot`, `monitor`, or `saturated`; emit top candidates + decision gate (coverage > 70% AND overlap < 50%).

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`network`	LineVector path	Required	Street/transit network for routing
`sites_existing`	PointVector path	Required	Existing own or benchmark competitive sites
`sites_candidates`	PointVector path	Required	Candidate expansion site locations
`demand_surface`	PointVector path	Required	Demand locations (customers, population centroids)
`competition_sites`	PointVector path	Optional	Competitor locations (separate from own/benchmark)
`ring_costs`	array[float]	Required	Drive-time costs for catchments (e.g., [5, 10, 15])
`catchments_output`	vector path	Required	Output drive-time catchment polygons
`overlap_analysis_output`	vector path	Required	Output competitive overlap analysis layer
`candidate_rank_csv`	path	Required	Output CSV: ranked candidates with KPIs
`executive_summary_json`	path	Required	Output JSON: market metrics and decision gate
`market_action_queue_csv`	path	Optional	Optional prioritized expansion action queue CSV

Important input roles: `sites_existing` is the incumbent baseline used for existing coverage and coverage-gain calculations. `competition_sites` is an optional separate competitor layer used for overlap pressure. If `competition_sites` is omitted, overlap falls back to `sites_existing`.

Outputs

Output	Type	Contents
`catchments_output`	Vector	Drive-time catchment polygons per candidate
`overlap_analysis_output`	Vector/GeoJSON	Candidate-level overlap visualization with coverage gain and opportunity band
`candidate_rank_csv`	CSV	rank, site_id, x, y, demand_coverage_pct, coverage_gain_pct, avg_distance_to_demand, competitive_overlap_pct, accessibility_score, composite_rank_score, opportunity_band
`executive_summary_json`	JSON	total_candidates, market_metrics, top_candidates, recommendation, decision_gate, decision_rationale
`market_action_queue_csv`	CSV	Prioritized expansion actions by candidate/opportunity band

Map interpretation: `catchments_output` contains one candidate-level polygon per candidate (not separate ring-band polygons). Catchments are convex-hull trade areas of covered demand plus candidate location; if a hull cannot be formed, a small fallback square polygon may be written. `overlap_analysis_output` is a point layer, and square symbols there are usually marker style.

Python Example

env = WbEnvironment(license_tier="pro")

result = env.run_tool("market_access_and_site_intelligence_workflow",
    network="city_network.gpkg",
    sites_existing="existing_retail.gpkg",
    sites_candidates="candidate_expansion_sites.gpkg",
    demand_surface="customer_demand_points.gpkg",
    competition_sites="competitor_locations.gpkg",
    ring_costs=[5, 10, 15],
    catchments_output="output/candidate_catchments.gpkg",
    overlap_analysis_output="output/competitive_overlap.gpkg",
    candidate_rank_csv="output/candidate_ranking.csv",
    executive_summary_json="output/market_summary.json",
    market_action_queue_csv="output/market_action_queue.csv",
)

print(result)

License Notice

Use of this function requires a license for Whitebox Workflows Professional (WbW-Pro). Please visit www.whiteboxgeo.com to purchase a license.

Project Links

WbW Homepage User Manual Learn More