Defining Polycentric Urban Areas Through Commuting Cohesion in France - Methods for Multilevel Analysis and Visualisation of Geographical Networks - page 183

Chapter 12
Defining Polycentric Urban Areas Through
Commuting Cohesion in France

Patrice Tissandier, Trung Tien Phan Quang, and Daniel Archambault

12.1 Introduction

Recent urban processes show two principal ways in which cities are changing. First,
at an international and national level, economic assets and power are concentrating
in large cities, increasing their population. Second, at a local scale, population
and employment is being redistributed, moving away from the urban center and
towards the periphery. As a result, urban sprawl develops and polycentric structures
materialize. This movement away from the traditional urban structures leads to
difficulties in implementing urban management policies. Urban planning based on a
halo territory and the actual reticular development of the cities are conflicting goals.
Several studies of daily commuters, all focused on Europe and North America,
have been conducted based on methods introduced by Albert and Barrabási'
( Patuelli, Reggiani, Gorman, Nijkamp, & Bade , 2007 ). We can cite, for example,
case studies of the Netherlands ( Schwanen, Dieleman, & Dijst , 2001 , 2002 ),
Germany ( Patuelli et al. , 2007 ), France ( Aguilera & Mignot , 2004 ; Berroir, Math-
ian, & Saint-Julien , 2002 ; Berroir, Mathian, Saint-Julien, & Sanders , 2004 ), the
United States ( Cervero , 1996 ; Cervero & Wu , 1997 ; Giuliano & Small , 1991 ;