CASA Working Paper 63

Network Geography: Relations, Interactions, Scaling and Spatial Processes in GIS

This chapter argues that the representational basis of GIS largely avoids even the most rudimentary distortions of Euclidean space as reflected, for example, in the notion of the network. Processes acting on networks which involve both short and longer term dynamics are often absent from GI science. However a sea change is taking place in the way we view the geography of natural and man-made systems. This is emphasising their dynamics and the way they evolve from the bottom up, with networks an essential constituent of this decentralized paradigm.

Here we will sketch these developments, showing how ideas about graphs in terms of the way they evolve as connected, self-organised structures reflected in their scaling, are generating new and important views of geographical space. We argue that GI science must respond to such developments and needs to find new forms of representation which enable both theory and applications through software to be extended to embrace this new science of networks.

This working paper is available as a PDF. The file size is 2.76MB.

Authors: Michael Batty

Publication Date: 1/7/2003

Download working paper No. 63.