Distance Decay

The recent decade has witnessed a new wave of development in the place-based accessibility theory, revolving around the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method. The 2SFCA method, initially serving to evaluate the spatial inequity of health care services, has been further applied to other urban planning and facility access issues. Among these applications, different distance decay functions have been incorporated in the thread of model development, but their applicability and limitations have not been thoroughly examined. To this end, the paper has employed a place-based accessibility framework to compare the performance of twenty-four 2SFCA models in a comprehensive manner. Two important conclusions are drawn from this analysis: on a small analysis scale (e.g., community level), the catchment size is the most critical model component; on a large analysis scale (e.g., statewide), the distance decay function is of elevated importance. In sum, this comparative analysis provides the theoretical support necessary to the choice of the catchment size and the distance decay function in the 2SFCA method. Justification of model parameters through empirical evidence (e.g., field surveys about local travel activities) and model validation through sensitivity analysis are needed in future 2SFCA applications for various urban planning, service delivery, and spatial equity scenarios.

Although previous studies have examined different factors that affect travel demand and destination choice, tourism research has not investigated changes in such factors over time. This paper presents the findings of a study that examines the robustness of motivations and travel distance over time based on the 10 most popular overseas destinations for pleasure travel and utilizing data collected in an annual survey of Hong Kong residents from 2001 to 2010. The empirical findings indicated that for in most destinations, motivations to travel to the destinations remained unchanged over time. Similarly, results found participants did not necessarily travel further as time progressed. In addition, the study found that independent travel is an increasingly popular mode of travel.

The need to account for spatial autocorrelation is well known in spatial analysis. Many spatial statistics and spatial econometric texts detail the way spatial autocorrelation can be identified and modelled in the case of object and field data. The literature on spatial autocorrelation is much less developed in the case of spatial interaction data. The focus of interest in this paper is on the problem of spatial autocorrelation in a spatial interaction context. The paper aims to illustrate that eigenfunction-based spatial filtering offers a powerful methodology that can efficiently account for spatial autocorrelation effects within a Poisson spatial interaction model context that serves the purpose to identify and measure spatial separation effects to interregional knowledge spillovers as captured by patent citations among high-technology-firms in Europe.

Aim  We investigated the biogeographical patterns of phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish in freshwater ecosystems. We tested whether spatial distance or environmental heterogeneity act as potential factors controlling community composition.Location  Northern and central Greece, eastern Mediterranean.Method  Data on 310 phytoplankton, 72 zooplankton and 37 fish species were collected from seven freshwater systems. Species occurrence data were used to generate similarity matrices describing community composition. We performed Mantel tests to compare spatial patterns in community composition of phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish. Next, we examined the correlation between geographical distance and the degree of similarity in community composition. The analysis was repeated for different taxonomic, trophic and size-based groups of the microorganisms studied. We assessed different environmental variables (topographic and limnological) as predictors of community composition.Results  Phytoplankton community composition showed a strong positive correlation with environmental heterogeneity but was not correlated with the geographical distance between systems. Zooplankton community composition was unrelated to geographical distance and was only weakly correlated with environmental variables. In contrast, fish community similarity decayed significantly with distance. We found no relationship along all pairwise comparisons of the compositional matrices of the three groups. The pairwise comparisons of the different taxonomic, trophic and size-based groups of the microorganism communities studied were in accordance with the results for the entire microorganism community.Main conclusions  Our results support the proposition that the biogeography of microorganisms does not demonstrate a distance–decay pattern and further suggest that, in reality, the drivers of distribution depend on the specific community examined. In contrast, the biogeography of macroorganisms was affected by geographical distance. These differences reflect the dispersal abilities of the different organisms. The microorganisms exhibit passive dispersal through the air, with local environmental conditions structuring their community composition. On the other hand, for macroorganisms such as fish, the terrestrial environment could pose barriers to their dispersal; with fish structuring distinctive communities over greater distances. Overall, we suggest that the biogeography of freshwater phytoplankton and zooplankton reflects contemporary environmental conditions, while the biogeographical patterns for fish inhabiting the same systems are related to factors affecting their dispersal ability.

This study examines the effects of distance decay (i.e., physical distance and cultural distance) on overall service satisfaction and evaluates individual service quality attributes across local-based airlines, public transportation, and government services in Hong Kong. Harnessing simple regression analysis on primary data collected via a SERVQUAL-based questionnaire, empirical results reveal that cultural distance negatively affects the overall service satisfaction level on public transportation as well as leisure and cultural services. Physical distance, on the other hand, is positively associated with overall tourist satisfaction toward local-based airline services, government services, and mass transit railway (MTR) services. Further findings from the paired sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and importance and performance analysis suggest that the three analyzed sectors suffer from negative disconfirmation, with the most problematic area in taxi drivers’ communication skills.

... Rosenberger a * , Alan R. Collins b & Julie B. Svetlik b pages 75-87. ... These complexities may require coordination among government regulatory agencies (Shortle et al. 200119. Shortle , JS , DG Abler , and M. Ribaudo . 2001 . Agriculture and water quality: The issues . ...

Los niveles de accesibilidad en el transporte público son un elemento crítico al evaluar y planificar el servicio. Aumentar el conocimiento de esta situación puede aportar mejoras sustanciales en las oportunidades de acceso por parte de los usuarios, especialmente a nivel local, algo que en los clásicos modelos agregados de planificación del transporte resulta dificultoso. En este sentido, se propone como alternativa centrar el análisis de la demanda de viajes en transporte público a nivel de paradas, combinando una importante tarea de campo para el relevamiento de datos y un fuerte apoyo en el uso de herramientas SIG para el cálculo de variables como la distancia recorrida, con el objeto conocer la demanda potencial. Por ello, el objetivo principal del trabajo es analizar el volumen de pasajeros que acceden en cada parada del transporte público en Resistencia y las distancias recorridas hasta ellas. Con esto se busca, reconstruir el comportamiento espacial de los pasajeros a nivel ...

There is a sizable literature about the factors shaping park visitation and use – especially for urban parks, including (i) geographic (e.g. proximity), (ii) socio-cultural (e.g. population characteristics) and to a lesser extent, (iii) individual psychometric factors (e.g. attitudes and values). Yet comparatively little is known about how factors related to distance may affect peri-urban national park use, particularly outside the United States. This paper reports on research investigating distance-related factors affecting use of a peri-urban national park in Brisbane, Australia. This study found that older visitors live closer to the park while younger visitors travel further to use it. Surprisingly, travel distance did not vary with the type of recreational activities that users were conducting in the park. These results have implications for park planning and management including user demand for different recreational activities in peri-urban national parks. Results are useful for scholars using distance decay models to explain travel behaviour, evidencing the empirical veracity of the model in different places and across different service types. The findings are especially important for geographers because they demonstrate that assumptions about uniform park catchments may be unsupported and need to be empirically validated.