The Fuzziness of Travel-to-Work Areas Zhiqiang Feng To cite this version: Zhiqiang Feng. The Fuzziness of Travel-to-Work Areas. Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis (Rout- ledge), 2009, 43 (05), pp.707-720. 10.1080/00343400801922806. hal-00516195 HAL Id: hal-00516195 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00516195 Submitted on 9 Sep 2010 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Regional Studies For Peer Review Only The Fuzziness of Travel-to-Work Areas Journal: Regional Studies Manuscript ID: CRES-2006-0038.R2 Manuscript Type: Main Section R0 - General < R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics, R12 - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity < R1 - JEL codes: General Regional Economics < R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics Keywords: Travel to Work Areas, Fuzzy set theory, Representation, England http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cres Email: [email protected] Page 1 of 45 Regional Studies 1 2 3 4 Fuzziness of Travel-to-Work Areas 5 6 Journal: Regional Studies 7 8 Manuscript ID: CRES-2006-0038.R2 9 10 JEL codes: 11 12 13 R0 - General < R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics, R12 - 14 Size and SpatialFor Distributions Peer of Regional Review Economic Activity Only < R1 15 - General Regional Economics < R - Urban, Rural, and Regional 16 Economics 17 18 19 Keywords: Travel to Work Areas, Fuzzy set theory, England, Representation 20 21 Zhiqiang Feng 22 23 24 Geography and Geosciences 25 University of St Andrews 26 North Street St Andrews 27 KY16 9AL United Kingdom 28 Phone: 01334463951 29 30 [email protected] 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cres Email: [email protected] Regional Studies Page 2 of 45 1 2 3 4 5 6 The Fuzziness of Travel-to-Work Areas 7 8 9 10 ABSTRACT 11 12 13 14 For Peer Review Only 15 Keywords: Travel-to-Work Areas, Fuzzy set theory, Representation, England 16 17 18 19 20 Travel-to-Work Areas (TTWAs) have been used widely by governmental agencies and 21 22 academic institutions. However, they have been criticised because the boundaries 23 24 separating TTWAs are imperfect in the sense that there are always commuting trips 25 26 27 crossing them. This paper aims to investigate the fuzziness of Travel-to-Work Areas by 28 29 applying fuzzy set theory. The methodology of defining fuzzy Travel-to-Work Areas is 30 31 described. Indicators measuring size and overlap of fuzzy TTWAs are suggested. The 32 33 34 cartographic representation of fuzzy TTWAs is discussed. In the last section, the 35 36 advantages of fuzzy TTWAs and some potential applications are proposed. 37 38 CRES-2006-0038.R2 39 40 Flou en matière de zones d'emploi 41 Zhiqiang Feng 42 43 Codes JEL : 44 45 46 R0 - General < R – Economie urbaine, rurale et régionale, R12 - 47 Taille et répartition spatiale des activités économiques régionales < R1 48 - Economie régionale générale < R – Economie urbaine, rurale et régionale 49 50 51 52 Mot-clé : zones d'emploi, théorie des ensembles flous, Angleterre, représentation 53 54 Flou en matière de zones d'emploi 55 56 57 58 59 60 1 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cres Email: [email protected] Page 3 of 45 Regional Studies 1 2 3 RESUME 4 5 6 Les zones d'emploi (TTWA) ont été largement utilisées par les agences 7 8 gouvernementales et les institutions universitaires. En revanche, elles ont été critiquées 9 10 11 du fait que les limites qui séparent ces zones sont imparfaites en ce sens qu'elles sont 12 13 toujours traversées par des liaisons domicile-travail. L'objet de cet article est d'analyser le 14 For Peer Review Only 15 flou des zones d'emploi en appliquant la théorie des ensembles flous. Il décrit la 16 17 18 méthodologie utilisée pour définir les zones d'emploi floues et suggère des indicateurs 19 20 pour mesurer la taille et le chevauchement de ces zones. Les auteurs débattent de la 21 22 représentation cartographique des zones d'emploi floues. Dans la dernière section, ils 23 24 25 présentent les avantages des zones d'emploi floues et quelques applications potentielles. 26 27 CRES-2006-0038.R2 28 Fuzziness of Travel-to-Work Areas 29 Zhiqiang Feng 30 31 32 JEL codes: 33 34 R0 - General < R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics, R12 - 35 Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity < R1 36 37 - General Regional Economics < R - Urban, Rural, and Regional 38 Economics 39 40 Keywords: 41 Arbeitsmarktregionen 42 Fuzzymengen-Theorie 43 44 England 45 Darstellung 46 47 Die Unschärfe von Arbeitsmarktregionen 48 49 50 ABSTRACT 51 Arbeitsmarktregionen werden von Regierungsbehörden und akademischen 52 Institutionen in großem Umfang genutzt. Diese Methode ist jedoch kritisiert 53 worden, weil die Grenzen zur Trennung von Arbeitsmarktregionen insofern 54 Mängel aufweisen, als dass stets auch Pendler diese Grenzen überschreiten. In 55 diesem Beitrag wird die Unschärfe der Arbeitsmarktregionen durch Anwendung 56 57 der Fuzzymengen-Theorie untersucht. Die Methodologie zur Definition 58 59 60 2 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cres Email: [email protected] Regional Studies Page 4 of 45 1 2 3 unscharfer Arbeitsmarktregionen wird beschrieben. Es werden Indikatoren zur 4 5 Messung der Größe und Überlappung von unscharfen Arbeitsmarktregionen 6 vorgeschlagen. Die kartografische Darstellung unscharfer Arbeitsmarktregionen 7 wird erörtert. Im letzten Abschnitt werden die Vorteile unscharfer 8 Arbeitsmarktregionen behandelt und einige potenzielle Anwendungen 9 vorgeschlagen. 10 11 12 13 CRES-2006-0038.R2 14 AmbigüedadFor de las cuencas Peer de empleo Review Only 15 Zhiqiang Feng 16 17 18 ABSTRACT 19 Las cuencas de empleo han sido utilizadas con profusión por agencias gubernamentales e 20 instituciones académicas. Sin embargo, se ha criticado que las fronteras que separan estas 21 cuencas de empleo son imperfectas porque siempre hay viajantes que las cruzan. En este 22 artículo investigamos la ambigüedad de las cuencas de empleo aplicando la teoría de 23 24 conjuntos difusos. Describimos la metodología para definir las cuencas de empleo 25 difusas. Sugerimos indicadores para medir el tamaño y el solapamiento de las cuencas de 26 empleo difusas. También analizamos una representación cartográfica de las cuencas de 27 empleo difusas. En la última sección, proponemos las ventajas de las cuencas de empleo 28 difusas y algunas posibles aplicaciones. 29 30 31 Keywords: 32 Cuencas de empleo 33 Teoría de conjuntos difusos 34 Inglaterra 35 Representación 36 37 38 39 R0 - General < R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics, R12 - 40 Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity < R1 41 - General Regional Economics < R - Urban, Rural, and Regional 42 Economics 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 3 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cres Email: [email protected] Page 5 of 45 Regional Studies 1 2 3 4 5 The Fuzziness of Travel-to-Work Areas 6 7 8 9 10 INTRODUCTION 11 12 13 Labour market areas, conceptually, identify the areas within which there is a close 14 For Peer Review Only 15 16 relationship between labour supply and demand. Conventionally, administrative areas are 17 18 often used as a surrogate for local labour market areas (LLMAs) for statistical, analytical 19 20 and policy-making purposes. However, this practice has long been criticised because 21 22 23 administrative areas seldom partition the territory in a way that reflects functional reality 24 25 (SMART, 1974; BALL, 1980). Labour market policies targeting administratively defined 26 27 areas may be less effective than policies targeting functionally delimited regions 28 29 30 (COOMBES et al., 1986). In addition, comparison of labour market statistics across 31 32 administrative areas may not be so meaningful because they do not reflect labour markets 33 34 (COOMBES, 2002). As a consequence, there has been a call to define labour market 35 36 37 areas in a consistent and formal way for statistical purposes (COOMBES et al., 1986; 38 39 CATTAN, 2001). 40 41 42 43 In the UK the practice of defining local labour market areas can be traced back to the 44 45 1950s (BALL 1980; COOMBES and OPENSHAW, 1982). Initially influenced by the 46 47 American concept of metropolitan areas, proponents argued that journey to work 48 49 50 behaviour was the most appropriate indicator of local labour market areas (GERARD, 51 52 1958; VANCE, 1960). The method implemented was to aggregate local authority areas 53 54 55 subject to close journey to work relationship between these areas. SMART (1974) was 56 57 perhaps the first to systematically formalise the procedure of Travel-to-Work Area 58 59 60 4 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cres Email: [email protected] Regional Studies Page 6 of 45 1 2 3 (TTWA) construction. In the 1980s the algorithm developed by COOMBES et al (1986) 4 5 6 was accepted by the Department of Employment, to produce Travel-to-Work Areas 7 8 across the UK based on 1981 census data. The TTWA system was later updated based on 9 10 11 the 1991 census.