Télécharger les résumés - ThéMA - Université de Franche-Comté

SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE RETAIL CENTERS
IN THE TEL AVIV METROPOLIS
Lucien BENGUIGUI : Solid State Institute and Department of Physics, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
ssgilles@techunix.technion.ac.il
D. CZAMANSKI : The Klutznick Center For Urban and Regional Research, Technion - Israel Institute of
Technology
ardaniel@tx.technion.ac.il
M. MARINOV : The Klutznick Center For Urban and Regional Research, Technion - Israel Institute of
Technology
marinov@physics.technion.ac.il
RESUME. Complex and dynamic behavior of urban systems has been recognized for decades. Many of the latest efforts were
aimed at learning about complexity and the manifestations of order or organization. The limited understanding of
regularities observed in urban systems and the inability to predict development trends and abrupt changes urged researchers
to seek new approaches and methods of analysis. Some of the approaches originating in natural sciences were applied in this
work.
In this study we focus on the evolution of the Israeli retail within the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, while incorporating new
methods of detecting, quantifying and explaining presence (or lack) of order in this complex system. The distribution of retail
facilities in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area was analysed in terms of their sizes and spatial structure over a period of 15
years. Surprisingly, the empirical findings did not reveal any evidence of the expected regularities dictated by the classical
theories of retail structure, such as central place theory or Zipf's law. In search of organization or order, different methods
are applied in parallel, each enhancing a different range of sizes as measured by Gross Leasable Area (GLA). The
distribution of sizes is well described by an exponential function, which holds across time and scale. Consequently, a
hierarchical structure or even a presence of clear-cut size groups is not detected. However, the consistent exponential
distribution may be interpreted as a type of organization, which also displays self-similarity. These observed characteristics
may be associated with the rapidly developing new types of modern retailers in a competitive market suffering from lack of
open spaces available for development.
Spatial distribution of retailers proved to be much more challenging, as it did not reveal any clear type of regularity. The
distribution of modern retailers was analysed by a combination of methods, some conventional and others - newly
introduced. However, the retail facilities appear to be located more or less randomly within the metropolitan area, with a
slight tendency to form clusters, which weakens in the later years. The retail locations do not display a clear affinity to the
spatial distribution of built area or population densities, although a certain degree of correlation is observed and the
presence of clusters may be attributed to the influence of these factors. Differentiation by type of location reveals that in
more recent years the more intensive growth is occurring in locations on the edge of the built up metropolitan area, rather
than in the center. The lack of spatial hierarchy may again be attributed to the increasing pressure to develop the quickly
disappearing open spaces and the lack of long-term strategic planning for the retailing sector in Israel.
7 èmes Rencontres de Théo Quant, janvier 2005