Preliminary results of an analysis of areas of influence in Shanghai

The main deficiency of most current modeling approaches to transportation can be identified as neglect of the integration of existing geographical knowledge in regard to the ex ante transport/land use modeling approaches, with its focus on territorial dynamics and theory development. This paper addresses this aspect of the problem by introducing a theoretical and methodological framework for the analysis of the interrelationship between land uses. The analysis attempts to determine to what extent the functional land use in a city can be considered an ordered pattern. The order sought does not rely on purely spatial configurations, but on the correlation of transportation and land use. The first section of this paper focuses on theoretical considerations. It stresses the fact that conventional approaches do not apply in the present context. It then suggests an alternative based on areas of influence and measured in terms of level of attractance of land uses. The second describes a procedure based on this alternative following the remarkable contribution of Hanjoul, Beguin and Thill. An application of this procedure to the analysis of Shanghai is then examined. Finally, an evaluation of the strategies for optimizing the interrelationship between land uses is presented. The paper concludes with a possible research agenda.