Accessibility and Spatial Interaction: an Introduction

There is no doubt that spatial interaction is related to accessibility, since improved accessibility will increase the spatial interaction between places. However this relation is often asymmetric, since some places take more advantage than others of better accessibility. Accessibility improvements can emerge from transport infrastructure developments or from land use changes, that is, increased number of jobs in a certain location. Accessibility indicators are able to capture changes in both components (transport infrastructure and land use) and for this reason their performance has been recognized in the framework of sustainability policy, in light of best practice planning and decisionmaking processes where evaluation methods, such as cost–benefit analysis, multi- criteria analysis and risk analysis, can embed accessibility results.Accessibility is associated with higher productivity levels, as regions with high accessibility benefit from lower transport costs and agglomeration economies. Accessibility also concerns patent output, regional economic growth, new firm formation, labour and export performance of regions. It should be noted that, given the increasing relevance of accessibility issues, mostly in this globalized space- economy, a great number of review studies have been published that also show the potential and role of this tool for best practice and planning. In this context, we aim to go beyond these accessibility analysis studies and to reflect on the specific issue of the link between spatial interaction and accessibility from the theoretical, methodological, empirical and policy analysis perspectives. On the basis of the above, the rationale of this book is to present a collection of recent studies modelling and discussing spatial interaction by means of accessibility indicators.