distance

Articles

• Spatiality
  6 August 2004, by D. P.

  Spatiality combines all conditions and practices of individual and social life that are linked to relative position of individuals and groups with regard to one another. One fundamental postulate of geography is that those relative positions (or geographical situations) determine, probably or partly, form and intensity of social interactions. These in turn build back, while distorting them in an incremental way, the main structures of geographical space. Spatiality is one of the two main (...)

• Spatial diffusion
  15 December 2004, by Th. St.-J.

  Diffusion is as well the action as the result of action to spread, or to transmit and propagate in a uniform way. It is thus expressed by all moves which, whatever their driving force, are trying to spread something in a system in an homogeneous way, thus tending to bring it from one equilibrium state to another equilibrium state when, under certain conditions, the system is saturated because its absorbing potential is exhausted. The notion of diffusion, considered from the action (...)

• Spatial interaction
  3 December 2004, by Cl. G.

  Although the notion of spatial interaction plays a central role in the definition of contemporary geography, it is extremely difficult to define, so various are the definitions that have been proposed for it. An attempt may however be made to make a rough classification of these definitions in order to distinguish between what constitutes the heart of the notion, and what points to extensions of it and the theoretical issues it raises.
  1. The spatial interaction and gravity model.A (...)

• Accessibility
  13 October 2004, by L. C.

  In Geography, accessibility of a place is generally defined as the more or less great ease with which this place can be reached from one or several other places, by one or several individuals able to travel by means of all or part of existing transport modes.
  Thus, accessibility does not only refer to the sole possibility of reaching or not a given place, it also expresses the hardness of travel, the difficulty to establish the relation, most of the time estimated by measuring space and (...)

• Theories of spatial analysis
  12 January 2005, by D. P.

  The general theoretical position of spatial analysis consists in proposing a partial explanation as well as prediction possibilities about the state and probable evolution of geographical objects / entities, on basis of knowledge of their situation with respect to other geographical objects.
  There exists not yet any general theory of geographical space that could be a theory of concentrations, of spacing, of spatial structures and of evolution of spatial systems, relying on knowledge of (...)

• Theories of spatial analysis
  3 December 2004, by D. P.

  The general theoretical position of spatial analysis consists in proposing a partial explanation as well as prediction possibilities about the state and probable evolution of geographical objects / entities, on basis of knowledge of their situation with respect to other geographical objects.
  There exists not yet any general theory of geographical space that could be a theory of concentrations, of spacing, of spatial structures and of evolution of spatial systems, relying on knowledge of (...)

• Place
  22 December 2008, by P. C.

  In their writings, "classical" geographers and a certain number of contemporary authors refer to what common meaning defines as places, that is to say determined and singular portions of space to which toponyms are attached. In French the word is "lieu" ("place", from which the English "place" is derived, having more specialised meanings). It was not used for a long time in such writings, "contrée" or "pays" being often used instead (much as "country" and "land" were used in English (...)

• Location
  6 August 2004, by D. P.

  The term designates in the first place the position of an object on the earth surface by means of an explicit reference system, which is often the system of geographical coordinates. Those coordinates, essential for locating the object, represent the geometrical part of the G.I.S. It will sometimes be said that they are used to define absolute location of an object, even though any measure defining this location necessarily refers to a conventionally defined marker. The measure of absolute (...)

• Centre/Periphery
  13 October 2004, by C.G.

  The geometrical metaphor of centre and periphery is often used to describe opposition between the two basic types of places in a spatial system : the one which is commanding and benefitting it, the centre, and those which are subjected to it, in a peripheral position. This conceptual pair goes back at least to the time of Werner Sombart (Der moderne Kapitalismus, 1902), if not of Marx (city/countryside relations), and was used by the imperialism theoreticians (Rosa Luxemburg, Boukharine) (...)

• Gravity model
  6 October 2004, by D. P.

  The gravity model is aimed at formalising, studying and predicting geography of flows or interactions. The distribution of interactions in a set of places depends on their configuration, i.e. the force of attraction of each one and the difficulty of communication between them. The model has first been formulated in analogy with Newton’s law of universal gravitation: two objects attract each other in direct proportion of their masses and in inverse proportion of the distance separating (...)

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