Geography of Transport

and Development
GeES-3024

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 Unit One

Course Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Definition and concepts of transport geography
1.2. Transportation and geography
1.3. Transportation and space
1.4. Historical geography of transport
1.5. The notion of accessibility
1.6. Route selection
1.7. Geographic Information Systems for Transportation

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 Unit One
1. Introduction
1.1. Definition and concepts of transport geography
 The Geography of Transport and Development also called
Transportation Geography is a Sub-discipline of
geography concerned with the study of the mobility of
people, freight and information from place of origin to
place of consumption.
 The Geography of Transport emerged as a leading sub-
discipline in the 1960s and 1970s when it was at the
forefront of the quantitative- theoretical revolution in
human Geography.
 It is believed to have spilt from Economic Geography in the
1970s.
 Means of transport and communication are today called
Transport Geography.
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 1.2. Transportation and geography
 Transportation, stated life lines of an economy. Why?
 it refers to the movements of people, goods and
information from place of origin to place of destination.
 Sometimes communication sector is also considered as
part of transportation at w/c incorporated the movement of
ideas and information from place to place.
• Geography is a discipline that is primarily concerned
with the study of the spatio-temopral distribution of
physical and human phenomena as well as their mutual
interdependences, while Transport geography investigates
movements and distribution.
• Transport facilitates mobility which is a fundamental
human activity and need.
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 1.3. Transportation and space
 One of the most basic relationships of transportation
involves how much space can be overcome within a
given amount of time.
 The faster the mode of transport, the longer the distance
covered within short period of time.
 spatial structure refers to the arrangement and
organization of phenomena on Earth’s surface resulting
from the operation of physical and/or human processes.
 All locations are relative to one another.
 However, locations are not constant due to the fact that
transportation developments have changed levels of
accessibility, and thus the relations between locations are
relative.
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 Cont…

 The level of development of a location reflects the

cumulative effect among:
a) Transport infrastructure,
b) Economic activities and
c) The built-up environment.

 The following are important factors in shaping the spatial

structure of transportation networks:
Costs
Accessibility, and
Agglomeration
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 Cont…
A. Costs: is related to factors of distance friction. Location decisions are
taken in an attempt to minimize costs that is often related to distance
travelled and often related to transportation.

B. Accessibility: All places have different levels of accessibility. Thus,

because of transportation, some locations are observed as more valuable
than others.

C. Agglomeration: There is a tendency for activities to concentrate at a

certain points to take advantage of the value of specific locations. The
more valuable a location, the more likely agglomeration will take place.
Such agglomerations remarkably influence the structure (lay out) of
transportation networks.
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 1.4. Historical geography of transport

 With technological and economic development transportation

service has also registered a considerable progress.

 Thus, the historical evolution of transportation is very complex as

it is related to the spatial evolution of economic systems.

 It is possible to summarize evolution of transportation industry in

five major stages, each linked with specific technological innovations
in the sector.

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 A. Transportation in the pre-industrial Era (pre-1800s)
 The principal features of the pre-industrial era transportation are:
 non- existent motorized mode of transportation even in western
countries.
 mainly limited to using animal labor for land and to wind energy for
maritime transport.
 The quantity of commodities and the speed at which people and freight
were moving from place to place was very small.
 Waterways were the most efficient mode of transport systems available
 cities nearer to rivers were able to trade over longer distances and
maintained political, economic and cultural integration with distant states.
 agriculture and trade based civilizations were emerged along river systems
(e.g. Tigris–Euphrates, Nile, Indus, Ganges, and Huang He).
 the efficiency of the land transport system of this era was poor &
majority of trade was local in scope
 the provision of perishable agricultural commodities to cities was limited
to a radius of about 50 KMs. The size of cities also remained constant in
time.
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 B. The Industrial Revolution period (1800–70)
 during the Industrial Revolution period two modifications were
made to transportations in two phases.

 The modifications focused on the development of :

a) canal systems; and b) the railway system.

 The development of the steam engine that converted thermal

energy into mechanical energy allowed important territorial
expansion through maritime and railway transport systems.

 Much of the credit of developing the first efficient steam

engine in 1765 is attributed to the British engineer Watt.
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 Why a big attention was given to canals and railways
development in Europe during the industrial revolutions?
 Attention of countries shifted to railway and water way development due to the
fact that during the early IR period, inland transportation system was not able to host
the rapidly growing transportation of raw materials coming to manufacturing
industries and finished goods transported from manufacturing industries.

 Roads were commonly unpaved that could not be used to effectively carry out
heavy loads.

 In 1760s a freight shipping canals were slowly built in emerging industrial cores
such as England (e.g. Bridgewater Canal, 1761) and the United States (e.g. Erie
Canal, 1825).The canal era was, however, short-lived as a new mode and steam
railway technology initially appeared in 1814 to haul coal.

 It was found that using a steam engine on smooth rails required less power and
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could handle heavier loads.
C. Emergence of modern transportation systems (1870–1920)
 By the end of the 19th C, international transportation undertook a new growth
phase. It made a gradual shift from the use of coal to oil in the 1870s.
 The beginning of the utilization of oil in place of coal reduced the energy
consumption of ships by a factor of 90 relative to coal, the main source of energy for
steam engines prior to this innovation.

 Equal size oil could transport more freight than a coal-powered ship, reducing
operation costs considerably and extending distance. (1869) and the Panama (1914)
canals, were constructed.
 With the Suez Canal, Asia and Australia became more accessible.
 The Panama Canal considerably shortened the maritime distances between the
American East and West coasts by a factor of 13,000 km.
 It brought a new era of European influence to Pacific Asia by reducing the
journey from Asia to Europe by about 6,000 km.

 The introduction of public urban transportation was another significant

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technological change of that era,
 D. Transportation in the Fordist era (1920–70)
 The internal combustion engine by Daimler (1889), which was a
modified version of the Diesel engine (1885), and the pneumatic tire
(1885) by Dunlop made road vehicle operations faster and more
comfortable.

 Compared with steam engines, internal combustion engines are of

higher efficiency and use a lighter fuel, petrol.

 The internal combustion engine permitted an extended flexibility of

movements with fast, inexpensive and ubiquitous (door to door)
transport modes such as automobiles, buses and trucks.
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 E. A New Contexts for Transportation: the post-
Fordist Era (since 1970)
 The major developments which were attained in the field of
international transportation since after 1970s
 the massive development of telecommunications, especially for the financial
and service sectors,
 the globalization of trade,
 more efficient distribution systems and the considerable development of air
transportation.
 Air and rail transportation experienced remarkable
improvements in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
 The first commercial flight of a Boeing 747 between New York and
London in 1969 marked an important landmark for international
transportation (mainly for passengers, but freight became a significant
function in the 1980s).
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 1.5. The notion of accessibility
 Accessibility is a key element to Transport Geography in
particular, and to Geography in general.
 Well-developed and efficient transportation systems offer
high levels of accessibility (if the impacts of congestion are
excluded), while the less-developed ones have lower levels of
accessibility.
What do we mean by accessibility?
 Accessibility is defined as the measure of the capacity of a
location to be reached by, or to reach different locations.
 Therefore, the capacity and the structure of transport
infrastructure are key elements in the determination of
accessibility.
 All places are not equal because some are more accessible than
others.
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 The notion of accessibility consequently relies
on two core concepts:
a)Location: locations nearer to transport infrastructure offer better
opportunities to support movements than distant places.
b)Distance: It is derived from the connectivity between locations. It
expresses the friction of space (or deterrence) and the location
which has the least friction relative to others is likely to be the
most accessible.

Commonly, distance is expressed in units such as in kilometers or in

time, but variables such as cost or energy spent can also be used.
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 There are two spatial categories applicable to accessibility
problems, which are interdependent:

i. The first type is known as topological accessibility and is related to

measuring accessibility in a system of nodes and paths (a
transportation network). It is assumed that accessibility is a
measurable attribute of specific elements of a transportation system,
such as terminals (airports, ports or subway stations).
ii.The second type is known as contiguous accessibility and involves
measuring accessibility over a surface. Under such conditions,
accessibility is a measurable attribute of every location, as space is
considered in a contiguous manner.
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 1.6. Route selection
 Route selection is consequently a compromise between the cost of a
transport service and its efficiency.
 The physical attributes of space, such as the topography, influence
the route selection process since they impose a variable friction on
movements.
 Consequently, a route between two locations (1 and 3, but also using
the intermediate location 2) may use a path that is not necessarily the
most direct.
 The detour index (direct distance divided by the transport distance)
illustrates the importance of physical constraints on route selection.
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 Cont…
 Route selection has two major dimensions:
Construction: Involves activities related to the setting of
transport networks such as road and rail construction
where a physical path has to be traced.
Among the basic considerations are factors such as distance
and topography.
Operation: Concerns the management of flows in a
network.
This is the most common route selection activity since it
considers routes as fixed entities and seeks an optimal path
considering existing constraints.
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 Cont..

Direct
Transport
Route Distance (1- Detour Index
Distance
2-3)
a 20 km 20 km 1.0
b 20 km 25 km 0.8
c 20 km 30 km 0.666
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 Cont…
 Route (a) is shortest in terms of distance, but not necessarily the
least expensive in terms of construction and operating costs.
 Route (b) represents an attempt to reduce costs and this at the
expense of a direct path.
 From a rational viewpoint, route (c) will be the one used to link
locations 1 and 3. It offers a compromise between the lost distance
(a higher detour) and the supplementary construction costs
imposed by higher elevations.

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 1.7. Geographic Information Systems for
Transportation (GIS-T)
 GIS is an information system specializing in the input,
management, analysis, and reporting of geographical (spatially
related) information.
 They have transformed and expanded geography by their ability to
store large amounts of data, analyze it and particularly by depicting
customized cartographic outputs.
 Among the wide range of potential applications GIS can be used for,
transportation issues have received a lot of attention since they are at
the same time highly dependent on visualization and analytical
methods.
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A specific branch of GIS applied to transportation issues,
commonly labeled as GIS-T, is one of the pioneer GIS
application areas.

Geographic Information Systems and Transportation

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 Cont…

 In general, topics related to GIS-T studies can be grouped into

three categories:
i. Data representations. How various components of transport
systems are represented as a database, which involves the
network and as well as technical and operational characteristics
(capacity, speed).
ii. Analysis and modeling. How transport methodologies can be used to
represent real-world transportation activities.
iii. Applications. What types of applications are particularly suitable for
the data and analytical capabilities of GIS-T.
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 GIS-T applications
 Many GIS-T applications have been implemented at various
transportation agencies and private firms. They cover much of the
broad scope of transportation and logistics:
a) Infrastructure planning and management g) Fleet management.
b) Transportation safety analysis. h) Economic and environmental impacts assessment.
c)Travel demand analysis. i) Vehicle tracking and dispatching.
d)Traffic monitoring and control. j) Site selection and service area analysis.
e) Public transit planning and operations. k) Supply chain management.
f) Routing and scheduling.
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 THIS IS THE END OF UNIT 1

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