MAPPEMONDE 3/96

Without summaries


Denis ECKERT. From regions to districts in Russia : new analytical scales of the territory (7 fig.)

Geographers working on Russia as a whole have, in priority, used until now a statistical cartography of the 89regions. The districts (regions) inferior administrative level offers renewed possibilities of analysis and cartography. This enables more rigour as well as more accuracy in the analysis of the country spatial structures.


Jean VARLET. Structures and dynamics of space in Limousin (5 fig.)

As a research tool, chorematization allowed us to underline and characterize the great principles of spatial organization in the Limousin area. At the same time, it displays geographical figures and the map on which these figures are reported. Then the model and/or the map representing the basic structures of spatial organization suggests some elements of reflection for a regional planning.


Hervé PIÉGAY. Representation of fluvial biodynamics: the case of the alluvial forest of the Ardèche river middle course (5 fig.)

The spatial and temporal dynamics of plant cover is being studied in the modern plain of the middle course of the Ardèche River. Several infocartographical approaches demonstrate that the alluvial forest is a recent entity in the Bas-Vivarais area which has known an active development since 1945. Today, this forest appears as a mosaic characterized by a great number of vegetal units or specific processes -- such as logjam dynamics which are very original and mainly due to forest development (e.g. transit and deadwood settlement). This corridor attracts economic interest but is nevertheless loosing its biological diversity particularly in the sectors most occupied by human activities.


Laurence-Marie SABATIER. Interurban selection through business services (3 fig.)

The diffusion of business services is a very selective phenomenon. Since 1960, a growing concentration of this type of services in the bigger cities and in cities that were already characterized by an important service sector has been observed. This process had thus contributed to a reinforcement of the hierarchical interurban organization. The regional variations associated with specific territorial models also had an influence as regards the spatial progression of business services.


Laurent CHAPELON. A multi-scale modelizing process of transport networks: towards a better accuracy of accessibility (8 fig.)

A multi-scale modelizing process has been devised within the NOD application program to study the spatial impact of a transport planning project. This process enables to do things : on the one hand, a thorough description of the full range of travelling means including final distances, inter-modal connections, public transport timetables, etc. On the other hand, such a process makes it possible to determine the existing interaction between local, departmental, regional, national and international levels of organizations.


Alain L’HOSTIS. Transport and territorial planning: cartography using computer graphics of a network metric system (2 fig.)

A 3-D representation of space time is built using a comparison of a distance rate between several means of transport as a starting point. On this 3-dimensional complex surface, space distortions due to fast transport networks can be seen.


Stop press Jean-Paul Cheylan, Cécile Gaudin

Book reviews Catherine Bousquet-Bressolier, Robert Ferras, Pierre Usselmann


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Last modified: October 22, 1996