A multi-scalar analysis of 'lonely places' in the EU

Patrizia Sulis
2021 Zenodo  
It is essential to understand territorial disparities across different domains and geographical scales, as in-depth comprehension of spatial inequalities, and the identification of marginalised places, is critical to producing policies that can actively contrast the current situation and improve the quality of life of citizens resident in these areas. This paper introduces a multi-perspective and multi-scalar analysis exploring a communal object of research, the 'lonely' places. This analysis
more » ... es beyond the dichotomy of rural-urban, involving multiple domains (agriculture, demography, migration, physical and digital infrastructure) and geographical scales, and presenting results at regional, municipal and grid levels. In this paper, two specific case studies are presented: the uneven spatial access to the high-speed broadband network and the spatial distribution of urban amenities in EU cities concerning the access to service at the local and neighbourhood level. The data sets employed in this work include traditional sources and new sources of data, including spatiotemporal records collected through apps. The spatial analysis is performed at different geographical scales and employs a wide range of analysis techniques, including Machine Learning. Results reveal the patterns of territorial disparities across Europe and identify disconnected and marginalised places with different domains. The localisation of spatial disparities of opportunities, as obtained with this analysis, is of high importance to understand the phenomena related to spatial inequality, as it provides geographical information for urban and territorial policy at high granularity to target the areas affected and the causes of disconnection.
doi:10.5281/zenodo.5227167 fatcat:2gj3auqgtzbibgsdxjfdh2w7ri