Seminars in Regional Science

Putting Some "e" into Regional Science

Mark Birkin: Chair, Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy Research Cluster
Director, Node | Department of Geography | University of Leeds

Recent years have seen the development of an exciting new paradigm in large scale computation. With the advent of hugely powerful Grid Computing, researchers now have the ability to combine datasets and implement analysis at scales never previously envisioned. These capabilities are commonly referred to as cyber-infrastructure in the United States, and in Europe as e-Science. In some respects, the marriage of regional science with cyber-infrastructure looks an unlikely one. Regional Science has a proud deductive tradition of mathematical and economic analysis in space which is often theoretically rich and generic rather than hugely empirical, data-driven and inductive in style. Nevertheless, I will argue that there are important applications for Cyber Regional Science. In particular, I will stress the impact on spatial decision support systems (SDSS) and approaches to urban & regional modelling and simulation. The talk will be illustrated with special reference to two demonstrator projects which have been undertaken within the domain of the UK’s National Centre for e-Social Science (NCeSS). Hydra has been described as a ‘first generation grid-enabled spatial decision support system’. It explores the way in which cyber-infrastructures could support location optimisation within a health care planning environment. Moses is an agent-based simulation of the UK population with applications in socio-demographic forecasting and spatial policy analysis.

Monday, May 1st, 2006 | 4:30-6 pm | Temple Buell Hall Room 19

Regional Input-Output With Endogenous Internal and External Network Flows

John Roy: ETUDES
Mallacoota, Australia

A major characteristic of dynamic regions or sets of dynamic regions is that external exports and imports are very significant in comparison with internally generated flows. Yet, it is precisely these flows of external exports and imports that are not evaluated in conventional regional input-output (I-O) analysis. The conventional approach merely determines internal flows of intermediate inputs.

However, the total observable flows also contain internally generated flows to final demand, as well as external export flows, and external import flows to supply both intermediate inputs and final demand, implying five component flows. In most past models, the latter sets of flows have not been identified, with merely their totals at each region being assumed known. Although in recent work by the first author, internally generated regional flows to final demand were determined, certain of the regional external import and export flows were assumed to be available exogenously.

This is quite an unrealistic expectation. In the following, all five sets of component flows are jointly determined, including transhipments of external exports and imports. In addition, rather than assuming just a single path between each set of regions, feasible multiple paths are assumed. A link/path transformation can then be made to obtain total link flows for each category, allowing a future consideration of congestion.

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006 | 5:30 pm | 219 Davenport Hall

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Parameter constrained models of spacetime migration structure

Stuart Sweeney: Associate Professor
Department of Geography | University of California at Santa Barbara

The study of human migration patterns has an enduring tradition in geography and regional science. Yet empirical analysis of migration systems has been limited by the availability of methodological approaches capable of identifying latent structures while retaining much of the complexity in the data. The fundamental conceptual elements of migration systems, cross-scale interactions and regionalization, are not adequately integrated into statistical models used to study interregional migration. This paper proposes a statistical framework, based on design matrix methods for generalized linear models, that provides a common mathematical basis for modeling migration, defining and evaluating migration regions, and visualizing migration regions and flows.

Friday, September 23rd, 2005 | Temple Buell Hall Room 225