Antoni, Jean-Philippe

Lagesse, Claire

SAADE, Georges

Archive Ouverte en Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication

5-9 SEPTEMBER 2019 • MONDORF-LES-BAINS, LUXEMBOURG
176 #ECTQG2019
VIII General Session: Transport (1/2)
Is sustainable transportation limited by urban form? An international GIS-
based approach
Georges Saade1, Claire Lagesse1, Jean-Philippe Antoni1
1Laboratoire ThéMA - UMR 6049 CNRS UBFC, France
Context & Objectives
Climate change and energy shortage are the new impose for geographical research about techniques, 
methods and policies reducing energy consumption and its effects on urban environment (Demirtas, 
2013). Several researches focused on more sustainable technologies (gas BRT, electric vehicles, 
hydrogen, etc.) that could be used in cities to reduce atmospheric pollution (Hidalgo, and Gutiérrez, 
2013). Even if the link between urban form and transportation is now obvious for stakeholders, few 
works stressed on the importance of buildings and networks configurations to concretely plan these 
renewed transportation modes (Wang et al., 2017). Moreover in numerous historical city districts, 
patrimony preservation is sometimes more important than operating changes for more ecological 
transportation modes. Unlike technologies that can be adapted in the future, urban form is a heritage 
that cannot sometimes be changed in a short term (i.e., few decades). In this context, our work 
assumptions are:
• (H1) The diagram of the Land Use Transport loop from Wegener and Fürst (1999) shows a well-
known system of interactions between urban form and transportation. However, this loop does 
not quantify these interactions. Our assumption is that these correlations can be measured 
using spatial analysis and GIS techniques.
• (H2) According to their historical heritage, all cities in the world are not equal in terms of 
sustainable transportation system development. To clarify, every city is constraint by the heritage 
of its urban form. Our assumption is that quantifying the correlations between urban transport 
and urban patterns allows to determine the parts of the city where the transportation system is 
clearly determined by the urban form.
Study areas and data
In order to investigate these assumptions six different cities, showing different urban models, are 
compared. They can be categorized into three groups:
1. Cities in a recent developed country (USA): New York City, Los Angeles.
2. Cities in a historically rich developed country (France): Paris, Dijon, Strasbourg.
3. City in a historically rich underdevelopment country (Lebanon): Beirut.
Data collection for investigating H1 and H2 involves different sources. Depending on the field of study, 
data are provided by governmental agencies (IGN-Institut national de l'information géographique et 
forestière) or available on official governmental websites (like Data.gouv.fr or data.gov). When data 
is unavailable from those sources, open source data are used (for example open street maps-OSM).
Methodology
Collected data are standardized using a Cellular Geographical approach (Tobler 1979). Then, 
different types of graph theory indicators are applied (Kansky, 1963), where residential densities 
and land uses categorizations are investigated. Graph theory implements methods that focus on 
the properties of the road graphs (Lagesse, 2015). Whereas, cellular geography allows comparison 
and quantification of urban patterns within regular cells. The application of this methodology permits 
MONDAY | 09:00 | Symphonie
EUROPEAN COLLOQUIUM ON THEORETICAL AND QUANTITATIVE GEOGRAPHY
177#ECTQG2019
to create a database with a geographical dimension to compare the different forms of cities at an 
international level.
Results
First, data are mapped in the form of grids containing both the elements of urban form and 
transportation. Second, it allows statistical analysis as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) 
and Hierarchical Ascending Classification (HCA). Those analyses show groups of cells that are 
characterized with same urban morphology and transportation services. Those groups with common 
characteristics are shown in all of the six case studies. Thus, the cells integrate specific buildings 
and network configurations along with specific - green or not - transportation modes. As we can 
conclude and dissipate, the heritage of every city strongly determines the development of future 
green transportation, and demands to be further integrated into urban planning and transportation 
policies.
REFERENCES
S. Wang, X. Liu, C. Zhou, J. Hu, and J. Ou, 2017, “Examining the impacts of socioeconomic factors, 
urban form, and transportation networks on CO2 emissions in China’s megacities,”Applied Energy, 
vol. 185, pp. 189–200.
Darío Hidalgo H., Gutiérrez L., 2013, «BRT and BHLS around the world: Explosive growth, large 
positive impacts and many issues outstanding», Research in Transportation Economics, 9, 8-13.
Demirtas O., 2013, «Evaluating the Best Renewable Energy Technology for Sustainable Energy 
Planning», International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, 3, 23-33.
Lagesse C, 2015, Lire les Lignes de la Ville : Méthodologie de caractérisation des graphes spatiaux., 
PhD Thesis, Université Paris Diderot-Paris VII.
Lagesse, C., Bordin, P., & Douady, S. (2015). A spatial multi-scale object to analyze road networks. 
Network Science, 3(1), 156-181.
Kanski K.J., 1963, Structure of Transportation Networks, University of Chicago Press.
Tobler W.R., 1979, «Cellular Geography». In: Gale S., Olsson G. (eds) Philosophy in Geography. Theory 
and Decision Library (An International Series in the Philosophy and Methodology of the Social and 
Behavioral Sciences), vol 20, Springer, Dordrecht.
KEYWORDS
Urban Form / Transport Modeling / Cellular geography / Graph Theory


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Is sustainable transportation limited by urban form? An international GIS-based approach

Saade, Georges

HAL - Université de Franche-Comté

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https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02282642/file/ECTQG2019_Saade.pdf

Is sustainable transportation limited by urban form? An international GIS-based approach

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