The Modeling Process in Geography
In a book published in 2007, Lena Sanders [SAN 07] revealed the great variety of choices made by geographers in the field of spatial analysis modeling. Our aim is not to produce a new inventory, but to propose general reflections about the realizations and perspectives of modeling research, both in the field of theoretical geography and in the field of applied geography in town and country planning. The tools are widely available, and are continuously improving, for spatial analysis as well as for geographic information systems. The MTG research group (models and graphic processing in geography) was created in 1986, with the ambitious target of keeping “close control of the new technical tools, with a permanent link to social demand, and to discover all the opportunities of interface between science and technology”. These 20 years of collective research have now given us an opportunity to propose this “reflection”. The chapters below are the work of researchers currently working in the laboratory, as well as former members of the initial team, who are now working in other universities.
The first two chapters situate our research program: what does a modeling process mean, and what is the specificity of this process in the field of human and social sciences? The path covered since the early realizations of spatial analysis is a basis from which new research has developed, mainly in terms of simulation techniques, thanks to recent computing developments.
In Chapters 3 to 8, we see how these models are confronted with the reality of what geographers are being asked to do in the field of land planning and management: cultural policy, territorial forecasting, socio-spatial segregation, inequity of regional dynamics, polarization, enclosing. Geography is, by definition, engaged in a process of understanding the relationship between society and space, but these confrontations with material work must not occlude the importance of a permanent evolving theory.
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