Hanae EL GOUJ, Laboratoire ThéMA UMR UFC/CNRS 6049, France
Claire LAGESSE, Laboratoire ThéMA UMR UFC/CNRS 6049, France
Road networks result from a subtle balance between geographical coverage and rapid access to strategic points. An understanding of their structure is fundamental in evaluating and improving territorial accessibility. This study provides insight into the progressive structuring of territorial patterns by analyzing the evolution of road networks. Studying road network morphogenesis requires geohistorical data, provided here by historical maps from which earlier road networks can be digitized. A hypergraph is constructed from these networks by combining road segments into “ways.” Next, indicators are computed for these ways based on topological and geometrical features. The road patterns of three cities in the Burgundy Franche-Comte region of France (Dijon, Besançon, and Pontarlier) at three historical periods (the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries) are then analyzed. Comparing their topological features and centrality characteristics reveal information about the history of the networks and highlight some similar underlying structures in the three cities. Detecting stability or variation in indicators over time can help in identifying similar behavior, despite geographic and cultural distances, as well as evolution mechanisms linked to specificities of each city. The study of the road network morphogenesis can make a major contribution to understanding how road networks affect accessibility and mobility.
Mots clés : Geohistorical data|Road networks|Urban morphology|Network analysis|Graph theory
A104951HE