Vol. 15 No. 1 (2024)
Research Article

Accessibility, Rural Depopulation & the Modified Areal Unit Problem: An Analysis of Mainland Greece

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  • George Panagiotopoulos,
  • Dimitris Kaliampakos
George Panagiotopoulos
National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Dimitris Kaliampakos
National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Schematic modelling of the relationship between accessibility and activity/population flows
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.g.pan.15.1.042.053
Categories

Published 2024-03-27

Keywords

  • Accessibility,
  • Modified Areal Unit Problem,
  • regional development,
  • Greece,
  • relative accessibility,
  • absolute accessibility
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

Panagiotopoulos, George, and Dimitris Kaliampakos. 2024. “Accessibility, Rural Depopulation & The Modified Areal Unit Problem: An Analysis of Mainland Greece”. European Journal of Geography 15 (1):42-53. https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.g.pan.15.1.042.053.

Copyright (c) 2024 George Panagiotopoulos, Dimitris Kaliampakos

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Received 2024-03-27
Accepted 2024-03-27
Published 2024-03-27

Abstract

In the realm of new economic geography studies, an ongoing debate centers around the role of transportation costs in redirecting economic activity away from peripheral areas towards urban spaces. This theory gains support from the phenomenon of rural depopulation in developed countries, as it is generally accompanied by improvements in accessibility due to new infrastructure and technology. This study introduces a methodology for analyzing the relationship between accessibility and regional inequality while accounting for rural depopulation. Moreover, it acknowledges the significance of the measurement timeframe, as the dynamics between accessibility components are not always synchronous. The developed methodology is employed for investigation within the geographical region of mainland Greece. The findings reveal that relative accessibility, in contrast to absolute accessibility, exhibits a correlation with rural depopulation in mainland Greece. Finally, the study examines the Modified Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) to address inconsistencies observed in similar spatial studies. The disparities in results among the various geographical administrative levels carry substantial implications for policymakers dealing with issues of urbanization and uneven regional development.

Highlights:

  • Introducing a methodology to analyze accessibility's impact on regional inequality, addressing rural depopulation.
  • Emphasizing the connection between accessibility & human capital decline, pivotal for rural development.
  • Spatial analysis tools & scale considerations are vital for addressing methodological issues like MAUP in accessibility research.

 

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