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THE RAILWAY NETWORK AND THE PROCESS OF POPULATION CONCENTRATION IN SPAIN, 1900-2001*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2015
Abstract
This paper proposes a methodology for quantifying the territorial impact on population distribution of the railway. The central hypothesis is that access to railway services provides the best-connected areas with a long-term comparative advantage over others that are less accessible. Carrying out a historical analysis and providing comparable data at the municipal level allows us to determine the extent to which the railway has fostered the concentration of population within its immediate surroundings. The case study presented here is that of Spain between 1900 and 2001, but the same methodology could equally be applied to any other country for which the required data are available. In this case, key data included a Geographic Information System with information about both the development of the railway network and census data relating to total population at the municipal level. The results obtained suggest the relevance of this methodology, which makes it possible to identify the periods and areas in which this influence was most significant.
Resumen
Este trabajo desarrolla una metodología para cuantificar el impacto territorial del servicio ferroviario en la distribución de la población. La hipótesis central es que el acceso al ferrocarril supone a largo plazo una ventaja comparativa para las zonas mejor comunicadas en relación a las menos accesibles. El análisis histórico con datos comparables a nivel municipal permite determinar el grado en que el ferrocarril ha fomentado la concentración de la población dentro de su entorno inmediato. El caso de estudio es España entre 1900 y 2001, pero esta metodología puede ser aplicada a cualquier otro país que disponga de los datos necesarios: un Sistema de Información Geográfica (SIG) que incluya tanto información sobre la evolución de la red ferroviaria como datos censales de población total a nivel municipal. Los resultados revelan que su aplicación es relevante. Permite tanto acotar los periodos como determinar las zonas en que esta influencia es más significativa.
Keywords
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- Information
- Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , December 2014 , pp. 351 - 379
- Copyright
- Copyright © Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2014
Footnotes
The authors acknowledge valuable advice from referees. Funding for this research was provided by Generalitat de Catalunya (ICREA-Academia) and the Spanish Ministry of Education (CS02010-16389).
Department of Geography and Sociology, University of Lleida, Víctor Siurana Square, nº 1. 25003 Lleida, Spain. [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
References
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