attribute, or activity when two locales are far

Distance decay away from each other. For example, there is

less interaction between distant places because
Lilian S.C. Pun-Cheng accessibility and land value tend to decrease from
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China a center.
Distance decay is commonly represented
The term distance decay has been used to graphically by a curving line that swoops con-
describe the effect of distance on interactions cavely downward as distance along the x-axis
between two separate locations. Although the increases. It can be mathematically represented
term might also be used in ecology or habitat of by the expression I = 1/d2 , where I is a measure
plant and animal species, the description here is of spatial interaction and d is distance (The
confined to human activities in the disciplines Stands4 Network 2013). Borrowing the idea of
of urban, economic, and cultural geography, Isaac Newtons equation defining gravitational
that is, a concept linking geography and the force, distance decay bears a strong relationship
occurrence or frequency of a pattern of activity. to the gravity model in that a precise mathemat-
Distance decay is an important precept of spatial ical relationship exists between the strength of a
analysis, especially for spatial interaction models spatially expressed phenomenon and the distance
and notions of cultural diffusion; it is inherent over which it is distributed (Hanks 2011). For
in various applications of gravity models (Hanks instance, a superstore tends to have a lower
2011). distance-decay function than a neighborhood
As a term that describes the decline of influ- convenience store (Figure 1). Geographers using
ence as distance increases, the term is related to gravity theory in their work attempt to construct
Waldo R. Toblers first law of geography that a similar model analyzing labor or trade flows;
All things are related but near things are more transportation; shifts in population; and diffusion
related than far things. Two terms need to be of languages, religions, and technologies.
qualified: distance and decay. Traditionally, distance The bidrent theory is an important element
means the physical map and, more realistically, in the gravity model, in which the concept of
topographic surface distance. Assuming a flat accessibility plays a decisive role. The rationale
surface where accessibility from a center point to is that due to land-use competition in a free
all directions is equal, lines of equidistance will market, the land will be allocated to the highest
display a circular pattern around that point. This bidder that is able to derive the greatest utility
was the key assumption in the von Thnen rural from the most accessible land. The saving in
land-use model and in Christallers central place transportation cost can be traded off for extra
theory at the time when the road network was rent payment. As the distance from the city cen-
not yet well developed and animal transportation ter increases, the accessibility decreases, resulting
was still dominant. The term decay refers to in the decrease in derivable utility and rent.
the diminishing influence of a phenomenon, Hence, distance and land rent bear a negative

The International Encyclopedia of Geography.

Edited by Douglas Richardson, Noel Castree, Michael F. Goodchild, Audrey Kobayashi, Weidong Liu, and Richard A. Marston.
2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0179
DISTANCE DECAY

A Conventional CBD Rent

B Commercial / industry
C High to medium density residential
Superstore D Subcenter
E Suburbia
Customers

A B C D E

Grocery store
Distance

Convenience
store Figure 2 Contemporary modifications of the bid
Distance rent theory. CBD = central business district.

Figure 1 Conventional distance-decay curves for

retail activities. Source: 19982014, Dr Jean-Paul
Rodrigue, Dept. of Global Studies & Geography,
Hofstra University, New York, USA. cities, the highest land values occur in the city
center, but prices drop off rapidly with increasing
distance. Local increases to the prevailing trend
relationship termed as distance decay. Different occur at outlying subcenters, forming secondary
functions have different bidrent curves due peaks, which are probably also major freeway
to differences in height (a measure of the util- and arterial highway locations, forming ridges of
ity) and gradient (an indicator of sensitivity to higher land value (Figure 2). Values at suburban
accessibility). Commercial land use, especially downtown locations again reach the peaks found
for high-order retail business and service, earns in the downtown areas, but drop off rapidly at
the highest bid, as it is supported by a large short distances.
market threshold with longer range. Industrial It has always been controversial whether the
land use has smaller utility, as the return per unit concept is universally applicable and the relation-
area is low due to its large space requirement. ship is quantified correctly. With the advent of
Residential land use has the least utility, so its transportation and communication technologies,
bidrent is the lowest. The distance-decay curve, the frictional effect of distance has largely been
therefore, turns out to be steepest for commer- reduced. Personal or social group interactions
cial use and the gentlest for residential use. In need not be actually meeting one another at
urban geography, a city or town center is usually the same place and at the same time. Besides,
explicitly defined, from which all attributes, such speculation for high-class residential blocks
as population density, land value, and quality and in space-limited cities has drastically raised its
quantity of services, decline as the distance from bidrent ability. It may be more accurate to
it increases. conclude that physical or topographic distance
Although the distance between two places is no longer a prime determinant of the degree
need not necessarily include such a center, of interactivity between places and people. Yet,
it bears the same underlying assumption that they still dictate a spatial variation of interactivity
declining accessibility will lead to reducing between places, whether at the local, regional,
interactions for places farther apart. In many national, or global level.

2
 DISTANCE DECAY

A new perspective of distance decay most cases cost in monetary terms is not
proportional to distance. In particular, for
public transport, fare is nonadditive. Zonal
Interactions between places and people are still
fares, section fares, concessionary fares at
very much dependent on available connectivity
selected stops can apply in many different
and the efficiency in transporting people and
ways for different modes of transport in
goods or transmitting information. It can be
different cities. These may alter the pattern,
a passenger-traveling network for land, sea,
in that people may be willing to travel a
and air transport, a walking path network for
little further distance for greater benefits
short-range travelers, or even a wireless network
or leisure. In Hong Kong, ever since the
for mobile communication. As such, the term
government introduced a subsidy for senior
distance needs to be defined with a new per-
citizens to travel anywhere for just HK$2
spective. Empirical studies have shown that the
(equivalent to one US quarter), mobility for
following have become key variables instead of
this age group has increased significantly.
mere physical distance.
Such spatial expansion is especially obvious
for people who rate fare more importantly
1 Time distance with a road network for
than time.
driving by car or walking as a pedestrian,
3 Convenience in terms of alternatives this refers
the time taken to travel between two places
to reaching a place directly or having to
normally increases in proportion to distance;
make one or more transfers. The proximity
but additional factors, such as waiting at
to car parks, terminals, stops, or transport
traffic lights, the number of stops, number
nodes can also affect the desire to travel.
of lanes, density of cars or commuters, and
4 Behavioral preference despite shorter time
speed restrictions, will all affect the travel
and lower cost, some prefer to travel on
time. This also varies temporally for day and
certain modes of transport or to certain
night, normal and rush hours, weekday and
destinations for leisure or business activities
weekend, low season and peak season. Time
due to other nonquantifiable reasons, such
is an important determinant for everyday life
as security, fame, or personal preference.
activities, public administration, and com-
mercial decisions. A 510 minute longer
travel may stop people from buying daily
Rate of decay
necessities from shops that are further away.
It is uncommon to spend over three hours Traditionally, the rate of decay or distance lapse
journeying to enjoy just an hours hiking in rate in some literature was plotted inversely
the countryside in a day; postal delivery is with one variable distance, with the gradient
less frequent the greater the distance from dependent on the phenomena and studied area
the post office; shopping malls and business being considered. From a strictly normative
activities will orientate themselves toward path set by the original retail gravity models
the biggest potential markets. in the 1930s, consumer behavior was consid-
2 Cost distance this includes fuel cost, toll ered predominantly uniform and deterministic
fee, or even administration cost at custom until the 1960s. For instance, land value has a
borders. Despite the general truth that it is steeper downward sloping curve for cities with
more costly to travel a greater distance, in less developed transportation or more rugged

3
DISTANCE DECAY

terrain. Today, distance decay may still hold for When evaluated by empirical data, the effect of
long distances. With the advent of transportation distance decay can be assessed.
and communication technologies, the increasing However, to accurately model the degree of
diversity of means of transportation, the intro- interactions between places, it is necessary to
duction of various fare structures, and the formulate very clear objectives. The type of
increasing demand for better living conditions, interaction, for example, working, schooling,
the effect of distance on human interactions or shopping, and whether it is a single or
has become less and, thus, the curve deviates multipurpose trip has to be identified first. Much
significantly from the traditional trend. Models essential data have to be collected including:
explaining human activities between places
should take into account not only typical nor- 1 places of origins and destinations, which can
mative criteria but also other environmental and be scaled from a building to a city level or
people-based factors. One of the major problems even national level;
associated with traditional gravity models is lack 2 demographic composition and characteris-
of parameters on intuitive understanding of tics (e.g., certain age groups, income level
interaction behavior. or socioeconomic status) at origins that are
Many studies have, therefore, worked on essential to the type of interactions;
computing mobility patterns to see the extent 3 services at various destinations, which can
be a long and complex list, such as the type
of distance or other factors in governing human
and order of services, cost, popularity, and so
behavior. In particular, with the advent of geoin-
on, from which an index of attractiveness is
formation technology, mass data can be collected
computed;
and analyzed. To compute or predict the number
4 individual trip data obtainable from the
of interactions between two spatially separated
more traditional but reliable questionnaire
places, one way is to evaluate their accessibility survey and activity log sheet to the more
with various types of activity, facility, or service. advanced and automatic mobile tracking
The impact of distance on a particular activity data and credit/debit card records; traffic
may be linear or nonlinear and can be modeled flow data in between places might also
with a distance-decay function. Computation reflect the degree of interactions made at a
accuracy is enabled with network analytical generalized level.
functions in a number of commercial geograph-
ical information systems (GIS). The accessibility On the other hand, to find out if these activity
of each origin or center is computed with regard patterns are related to distance or other variables,
to a number of destinations or service points, for data on the journeys made are important. These
example, school from residential blocks, super- include not only the more quantifiable and
markets from housewives residences, resorts objective parameters of the above-mentioned
from potential sources of visitors. On the side of physical distance, time distance, and cost dis-
origins, both distance (including also traveling tance, but also the more subjective behavioral
parameters such as time and cost) and attractive- issues like safety and familiarity, road qual-
ness can be taken into consideration. Together ity, and scenic value. The latter are perhaps
with the demographic data of the service points, overriding but not accounted for very well
potential trips or interactions are predicted. in traditional path-finding models. The main

4
 DISTANCE DECAY

reasons are that these spatiotemporal variants Further reading

are not easy to quantify and precompute and
are perceived differently from individual to Ahuja, R.K., T.L. Magnanti, and J.B. Orlin. 1993.
individual. Network Flows: Theory, Algorithms and Applications.
The collection, manipulation, and analy- Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
sis of voluminous data have become feasible APHG Class Wiki. 2013. Distance Decay and Time
with advances in positioning technology, Space Compression. http://lewishistoricalsociety
CCTV image capturing, and geoinforma- .com/wiki2011/tiki- read_article.php?articleId=9
tion technology. The current way forward is (accessed January 10, 2016).
to develop appropriate techniques for big data Evans, J.R., and E. Minieka. 1992. Optimization Algo-
rithms for Networks and Graphs, 2nd edn. New York:
mining and to generalize patterns for developing
Marcel Dekker.
reliable models, especially in the area of human
Illenberger, J., G. Flotterod, and K. Nagel. 2011. A
behavior, of the activity patterns. Model of Risk-Sensitive Route-Choice Behavior
and the Potential Benefit of Route Guidance.
IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Sys-
SEE ALSO: Accessibility, in transportation tems, 12(2): 384389.
planning; Central business district; Central place Knox, P.L., and S.A. Marston. 2013. Human Geogra-
theory; Distance; Geographic information phy: Places and Regions in Global Context. New York:
science; Geographic information system; Pearson.
Network analysis; Spatial interaction; Toblers Letchner, J., J. Krumm, and E. Horvitz. 2006. Trip
first law of geography; Transport and Router with Individualized Preferences (TRIP):
development; Transport networks; Urban Incorporating Personalization into Route Plan-
geography ning. In Proceedings of the IAAI 06 Conference,
Boston, MA, 17951800. Menlo Park, CA: AAAI
Press.
References Pun-Cheng, L.S.C. 2012. An Interactive Web-Based
Public Transport Enquiry System with Real-Time
Hanks, R.R. 2011. Encyclopedia of Geography Optimal Route Computation. IEEE Transac-
Terms, Themes, and Concepts. Santa Barbara, CA: tions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 13(2):
ABC-CLIO. 983988.
The Stands4 Network. 2013. Definitions for Webber, B.B. 2003. Spatial Consumer Behav-
Distance Decay. Definitions.net. STANDS4 ior: A Multi-perspective Geographical Analysis
LLC, 2013. http://www.definitions.net/definition Approach. PhD thesis, University of Idaho.
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