Quantitative Geography

A multidisciplinary team conducted by geographers focuses on studying the location of human activities, which encompasses the movements of persons and goods and the impact on the environment. Different spatial levels of analysis are covered, including the behavior of firms and households, the structure of urban areas, the systems of cities, and regional development. Tools are borrowed from various disciplines, such as cartography, economics, geographical information systems, mathematical programming, and statistics.

Current Research Areas

Research in geography at CORE is focused on human and economic geography, with a quantitative and theoretical orientation, keeping in mind the usefulness of the research results in policy and planning. The four major research areas are:

Models in human and economic geography: Relationship between the location of economic activities and the built-up morphologies

  • Development of quantitative theoretical models;
  • Applications of the models on real case studies;
  • Examples of ongoing researches: modeling urban sprawl, modeling the urban-rural fringe, urban morphometrics, etc.

Quantitative analyzes of spatial data: Spatial econometrics, fractals, thematic mapping, community detection, etc.

  • Sensitivity analyzes and associated methodological problems such a data aggregation, endogeneity, neighborhood effects, or spatial autocorrelation;
  • Examples of applications using census data and big data: road accidents, housing, migrations, health, phone data, jobs location, etc.

Transport geography in a sustainable mobility context

  • Relationship between the location of human/economic activities and the shape of the transportation network;
  • Indicators for measuring the shape of the transportation network or for measuring accessibility, mobility and sustainable transportation problems.

Location-allocation models: Modeling the optimal location of private and public firms

  • Development of models, algorithms and heuristics;
  • Sensitivity analyzes of the results to the various inputs of the models such as demand, externalities, the transportation network, etc.;
  • Applications to real-world land-use planning case studies at the local, regional or supra-national levels.

Journal Articles


1. Adam, Arnaud; Proost, Stef; Thomas, Isabelle. Does Tolling Per Kilometre Compensate for the External Costs of Trucks? A Geographical Approach for Belgium. In: International Regional Science Review, (2022). doi:10.1177/01600176221145883 (Accepté/Sous presse). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/269287

2. Montero Redondo, Gaëtan; Caruso, Geoffrey; Hilal, Mohamed; Thomas, Isabelle. A partition‐free spatial clustering that preserves topology: application to built‐up density. In: Journal of Geographical Systems : geographical information, analysis, theory and decision, (2022). doi:10.1007/s10109-022-00396-4 (Accepté/Sous presse). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/265721

3. Trabelsi, Sonia; Casas Ruiz, Lidia; Nemery, Benoit; Thomas, Isabelle. Geography of medication reimbursements in Belgium: an exploratory analysis. In: CyberGeo : revue européenne de géographie, , no.982 (2021). doi:10.4000/cybergeo.36950. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/248448

4. Lauwers, Laura; Trabelsi, Sonia; Pelgrims, Ingrid; Bastiaens, Hilde; De Clercq, Eva; Guilbert, Ariane; Guyot, Madeleine; Leone, Michael; Nawrot, Tim; Van Nieuwenhuyse, An; Remmen, Roy; Saenen, Nelly; Thomas, Isabelle; Keune, Hans. Urban environment and mental health: the NAMED project, protocol for a mixed-method study. In: BMJ Open, Vol. 10, no. 2, p. e031963 (2020). doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031963 (Accepté/Sous presse). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/227706

5. Gandica, Yérali; Decuyper, Adeline; Cloquet, Christophe; Thomas, Isabelle; Delvenne, Jean-Charles. Measuring the effect of node aggregation on community detection. In: EPJ Data Science, Vol. 9, no. 6 (2020). doi:10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00223-0 (Accepté/Sous presse). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/228122

6. Quesada Perez, José Miguel; Tancrez, Jean-Sébastien; Lange, Jean-Charles. Express Shipment Service Network Design with Complex Routes. In: Computers & Operations Research, Vol. 114, p. 104810 (2020). doi:10.1016/j.cor.2019.104810 (Accepté/Sous presse). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/220531

7. Aerts, Raf; Nemery, Benoit; Bauwelinck, Mariska; Trabelsi, Sonia; Deboosere, Patrick; Van Nieuwenhuyse, An; Nawrot, Tim S.; Casas, Lidia. Residential green space, air pollution, socioeconomic deprivation and cardiovascular medication sales in Belgium: A nationwide ecological study. In: Science of The Total Environment, Vol. 712, no.1, p. 136426 (2020). doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136426 (Accepté/Sous presse). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/226695


Book Chapters


1. Caruso, Geoffrey; Pumain, Denise; Thomas, Isabelle. No “Prêt à Porter” but a Multi-scalar Perspective of “Smart Cities”. In: Knowledge Management for Regional Policymaking , Springer, 2022, 123-147 (chap. 7). 978-3-031-15647-2. xxx xxx. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-15648-9_7. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/270132

2. Sanders, Lena; Thomas, Isabelle; Vacchiani-Marcuzzo, Céline. On the Survival of Butterflies in the Jungle of Urban Systems. In: Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis : Theories and Models of Urbanization (Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis; xxx), Springer, 2020, p. 151-167. 9783030366551. xxx xxx. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-36656-8_9. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/224727


Working Papers


1. Takayama, Yuki; Ikeda, Kiyohiro; Thisse, Jacques-François. Stability and sustainability of urban systems under commuting and transportation costs. 2020. 49 p. CORE Discussion Papers 2020/05. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/226226

2. Kichko, Sergey; Liang, Wen-Juang; Mai, Chao-Cheng; Thisse, Jacques-François; Wang, Ping. The rise (and fall) of science parks. 2020. 33 p. CORE Discussion Papers 2020/15. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/229697