L'évaluation, le choix et la décision dans l'usage des espaces urbains et périurbains - Une approche interdisciplinaire des mobilités quotidiennes et résidentielles – ECDESUP

The proposed interdisciplinary project is concerned with evaluation, choice and decision making in the use of urban and peri-urban spaces, and (more specifically) in practices and trends in residential and everyday mobility. Changes in everyday mobility are linked to the phenomenon of urbanisation and peri-urbanisation over the last 50 years. The project brings together geographers, psychologists, and economists, and aims to go beyond the sectoral approaches commonly adopted in the analysis of choice and decision making as well as in studies of urban and peri-urban areas. The project is structured around 3 working groups, undertaking research on all or part of the 6 actions. Action 1: Clarification of ideas and concepts Action 2: Review of current research on modelling of evaluation, choice and decision making. Action 3: Construction of simulation models of peri-urbanisation Action 4: Collection of information on spatial behaviour Action 5: Use of results from survey and observation Action 6: Modelling and simulation of evaluation, choice and decision-making The first phase of work concerns Actions 1 to 3. In this context, the work clarifying concepts and ideas used in the different disciplines has already been started. This will allow the definition of a common vocabulary of terms employed and, ultimately, the creation of a glossary. We will pay particular attention to the approaches and theories used in the different disciplines concerned by the project, but also to those emanating from other disciplines. In addition, we aim to identify the extent to which the social context influences evaluation and decision making, and in what context collective action may emerge (pressure groups, various protests, etc). In this context, the research will consider complex and self-organising models, artificial intelligence behavioural models, and models of non-cooperative actor behaviour based on economic approaches, game theory and psychology. Finally, peri-urbanisation simulation models will be constructed using cellular automata. In the basic version of the model, households move into an area over time and the local authority must provide access to the urban centre by an unbroken road network. Households seek to maximise their utility, taking into account good accessibility to urban services (CBD) and proximity to open views. Another version of the model, applied to Dijon, focuses more explicitly on the preference of households for open spaces located nearby. The second phase of work incorporates Actions 4, 5 and 6. The aim is to collect information on spatial behaviour, and its change and development, through observations and surveys and the analysis of their results, to allow the construction of simulation models of evaluation, choice and decision-making. The study areas chosen for data collection will be the metropolitan areas of Besançon, Belfort, Mulhouse and Strasbourg. Socially segregated and vulnerable areas (e.g. ZUS) will be incorporated in the study along with those identified as 'new urban spaces'. The study areas will have the same characteristics from one urban area to another: a socially deprived neighbourhood, a peri-urban area and an inner urban district, to assess the perception of residents of their respective residential environments. To accomplish the research two survey periods are foreseen, using three complimentary survey methods: an eco-behavioural survey, a questionnaire survey, and mental maps. Together, the different elements will enable the development of behavioural models (evaluation, decision making). In particular, three lines of research will be developed. The first aims to deepen, using fuzzy set theory, the concept of place attractiveness as an indicator which synthesises the assessment of a location and which constitutes the frames of reference for decision-making. The second will seek to identify behavioural rules consistent with individuals' feelings. These rules will enrich the dynamic modelling of the decision making process. The third will seek to model the emergence of collective phenomena based on individual decisions and the retroactive effect of these phenomena on the assessment of space (residential environment, places visited or avoided, effect of environmental deterioration, etc.) The research outputs will include participation in conferences, high quality publications and the publication of a glossary and a collective work.