Spatial Science and Network Science: Review and Outcomes of a Complex Relationship

Abstract

For decades, the spatial approach to network analysis has principally focused on planar and technical networks from a classic graph theory perspective. Reference to models and methods developed by other disciplines on non-planar networks, such as sociology and physics, is recent, limited, and dispersed. Conversely, the physics literature that developed the popular scale-free and small-world models pays an increasing attention to the spatial dimension of networks. Reviewing how complex network research has been integrated into geography and regional science reveals a high heterogeneity among spatial scientists as well as key directions for increasing their role inside multidisciplinary researches on networks.