1. Spatial Interaction and Spatial Behavior
Chapter 3
Spatial Interaction and Spatial Behavior
The Movement of people, ideas, and commodities within and between areas

2. Questions Factors influence human’s decision on interacting with space
How does distance affect the decisions?
Space activities and exchange of commodities
Migration decisions

3. Bases for Interaction
Unevenly distributed resources in the world – make commodities flow
Summarizing Model – proposed by Edward Ullman: 3 factors controlling the space interactions:
Complementarity: two place to interact, one must have what another wants and can secure.
Transferability: mobility of a commodity
Intervening opportunities

4. Complementarity
Supply of items in one place and effective demand from the other with purchasing power
Effective supply and demand are important considerations – fig 3.2 and exchange of raw materials and industrial commodities between less developed and developed countries.

5. Transferability
Consideration of time and cost, once the complementarity exists.
An expression of the mobility of a commodity and a function of three interrelated conditions a) characteristics and values of the products b) the distance, measured in time and money and c) the ability of the commodity to bear the cost of movement.
Mobility is not just a physical but an economic matter.
Transferability is not a constant condition. Highway, seaway opening, transportation means change.

6. Intervening Opportunity
Reduce supply/demand interaction that otherwise might develop between distant complementary areas.
Jobs available in midway between home and destination.
Opportunities closer at hand reduces the pull of opportunities offered by a distant destination (fig 3.3)

7. Measuring Interaction
Distance Decay- the decline of an activity or function with increasing distance from its point of origin
Inverse square relationship
Friction of distance is reduced by lowered cost or increased ease of flow. Cellular phones usage, expressway extend commuting travel
Gravity Model – the expected interaction (I) between two places A and B can be expressed as:
I = (Pa * Pb)/Dab and
Exchange between these two places
Iab = (Pa*Pb)/(Dab)2 and the breaking point (BP) is
BP = Dab / [1 + sqrt(Pa / Pb)] (fig 3.5)

8. Interaction Potential
More than 2 places interact in real world.
The more specialized the goods produced in each separate center, the greater their collective complemetarity and the more likely is it that such multiple interactions will occur.
Summarize the size and distance relationship between all points of potential interaction within an area.
Movement Bias – direction bias (fig 3.6)certain places have a greater attraction than do others. East-West flow bias in N America.

9. Mobility
Circulation – daily from dorm (house) to campus, spring breaks, summer and winter breaks, or temporary trips to work (fig 3.7)
Migration – long-term commitment related to decisions to permanently leave the home territory and find residence in a new location.

10. Activity Space
Concept of territoriality – the emotional attachment to and the defense of home ground.
Activity space – variables affect extent of activity space
a) specific age stage in life course
b) mobility or ability to travel. Income, availability of transportation, cost of fuel…
c) personal assessment of opportunities. Awareness space – knowledge of opportunity locations beyond normal activity space will be limited is w/o stores, schools, factories….

11. Space-Time Prism
Figure 3.10 : (a) – deforested developing country (b) walking to work/school c) automobile available.
Space, Time and Women (page 75)
Figure 3.11 – typical space-time path for a college student.
Critical Distance(fig 3.12) – determined by life of course stage, mobility, opportunities and individual’s interest. Knowledge (accumulated) acquired about activity space is affected and then help justify movements decisions.
Fig 3.13 and 3.14 – patterns in shopping and work/non-work trip length
Fig 3.15 – social interaction as a function of distance: visits with relatives with longer distance.

12. Information Flows
Individual and mass communication and subdivided into formal and informal interchange . Formal interchange from newspaper, radio, phone) and non required in informal.
Personal communication field, links between sets (fig 3.18)
Mass communication – one-way info flow. NO inherent restrictions on the dissemination of printed materials.
Flows between points and over area are influenced by distance decay and partially explained by gravity and potential models.

13. Perception of Environment
Place perception – feelings and understanding about the natural and cultural characteristics of an area and its opportunity structure – important in making action decision in space.
Most effectively transmitted information seems to come from word-of-mouth reports.
Distance decay is one of the physical barriers. However, crowded places like in NYC not necessarily transmit more information from personal contact since the psychological barriers around themselves.
Barriers to information flow give rise to what we called “direction bias”. In US N and S tend to be less well informed about each other’s areas than about the western part of the country. Traditional communication line follow E-W
Fig Residential preferences of Canadians. Climate is, after work and family proximity, the most often reported reason for interstate moves by adults in US.

15. Perception of Natural Hazards
Why do people choose to settle in areas of high-consequence hazard in spite of the potential threat to their lives and property? Only one-tenth of 1% of respondents to a federal survey gave “natural disaster” as the reason for their interstate residential move.
Common Responses to the Uncertainty of Natural Hazards (Table 3.1)
Eliminate the Hazards:
Denyy it’s existence: We have no floods only high water
Deny it’s recurrence: Lightning never strikes twice
Eliminate the Uncertainty
Make it determinate/knowable: floods comes every five years.
Transfer uncertainty to a higher power: It’s in the hands of God.

16. Migration
There is no greater sorrow on earth than the loss of one’s native land Euripides, 431 B.C.
Migration, since the retreat of glaciers 11,000 years ago, has been the resultant pressures of numbers, need for food, changes in climate, and

17. Conditions are better, safer, easier ……..
Why Move?
Conditions are better, safer, easier ……..

18. Refugee (www.unhcr.ch) and (www.refugees.org)

19. Types of Refugees Characteristics of Refugees
International refugees - who have crossed one or more international borders during their move.
Intranational refugees - who have abandoned their homes but not their countries
permanent refugees - Palestinians in Jordan
temporary refugees - Palestinians in Lebanon
Characteristics of Refugees
Most refugees move without any more tangible property than they can carry or transport with them
Most refugees make their first “step” on foot, by bicycle, wagon, or open boat.
Refugees move without the official documents that accompany channeled migration

20. External and Internal Migration
Migration - Emigration and Immigration
US has more immigrants than emigrants vs. European countries
Early in the 20th century, black family moved from south to the industrializing cities (rust-belt)
During 80s and 90s, people moved from East to West, North to South.

21. Reasons for the departure
Economic Conditions - crossing the border to look for a better opportunity
Political Circumstances - boat people fled Vietnam, Cubans and most recently, East Timor..
Armed Conflict and Civil War, more than 2 mil. Left home in Rwanda.
Environmental Conditions: Potato crisis in Ireland in 1840s. Earthquake and volcanic eruptions.
Culture and Traditions - Jewish left Russia in early 1990s
Technological Advances - air conditioning in Sunbelt
Flow of Information - new info highway spread the info faster than ever.

22. Migration theory - Ernst Ravenstein
Most move short distance (minimize friction of distance)
Big-city destinations if moved longer distances
Step movement (Step Migration)
Most move from rural to urban
Each migration flow produces a counterflow (fig 3.30) (return migration in US accounts for 20% of migration)
Most are adults, families are less likely move
Most international migrants are young males (earlier days and now from Mexico and central America Survival strategy forces young girls from large/landless families emigrate.
On average, emigrants tend to be relatively well-educated.
Border Fence link1 Link2

24. Push/Pull………… Push factor - push people to leave their abodes
Pull factor - attract people to certain locals from other places
Are you being pushed or pulled into Cookeville?
Place Utility – the measure of an individual’s satisfaction with a given residential location. (Starts a Spatial Search) Compare to current and future location, the relative place utility helps decision being made. Personal aspiration level (the level of accomplishment or ambition for her/him self) will be used to make decision for relocation.
Chain Migration: follows the 1st group of immigration, the sebsequent migration originating in the same common origin and frequently reunited by kinship or friendship.
Channelized migration: migration channels link areas that are in some way tied to one another by past migration, by economic trade or other affinity (not necessary family ties); such as southern whites/blacks to northern cities, Scadinavians to Minnesota and Wisconsin and US retirees to FL, AZ..(greater than expected flows) (fig 3.30)

25. Migration fields of FL and CA, 1980

26. Voluntary migration
Two major migration flows - Europeans to overseas colonies and Africans to the Americas
American Dream - millions from Europe.
Irish families left for the New World - a “Pull” factor.
Muslims picked Pakistan instead of India. Religion reason
In US. Retiree move to sunbelt - living with other retiree - Florida and Arizona.
Tied to other factors: Push-Pull tied to complimentarity, costs of relocation – related to transferability. larger cities more attractive is an example transferability and from small to large city is reflected on gravity model and hierarchical migration patterns.

27. Forced Migration
1970s, Asians was forced to leave Uganda - forced migration which is different kinds of forced migration.
Slave trade - a dark period in human history. Families were destroyed, children orphaned, and communities disrupted. Loneliness and terror faced by the African slaves.
Convicts were shipped from Britain to Australia ( )
During early 1900s, non-Russian forced to move to Central Asia and Siberia for political reasons
Native Americans forced onto reservations during 1800s (fig. 3.25)
1969, Indonesian government moved 8 million from Java to other islands.
Counter migration- illegal entries are sent back by government.