This study investigated the socio-economic characteristics of population movement fields in the Seoul metropolitan area based on the geographical field theory. The patterns of population movement were derived from daily commuting and students’ commuti ...
This study investigated the socio-economic characteristics of population movement fields in the Seoul metropolitan area based on the geographical field theory. The patterns of population movement were derived from daily commuting and students’ commuting trip. The results are as follows.
As a result of analysis, seven flow patterns by spatial interaction were obtained. So, the Seoul metropolitan area is divided into seven functional regions such as South-western Seoul, North-eastern Seoul, Incheon, Southern Gyeonggi, Eastern Gyeonggi, North-western Gyeonggi, and Mid-western Gyeonggi. The analysis of spatial movement pattern shows no clear hierarchical order because of current shift towards both multi nuclear pattern and spatial dispersion. The functional regions show duplicated structure overlapping their boundaries each other.
In the analysis of socio-economic factors that may cause spatial interaction, six-dimensional configuration was duplicated in Seoul metropolitan area. With regard to economic activities, agriculture, forestry and fishery, machine operating job, managerial job, and professional job sectors showed strong correlation between the employed ratio and the ratio of workers. But service jobs, clerical workers, and simple labor job sectors showed weak correlation. Among the six dimensions which were inherent in the Seoul metropolitan area, the location of sales and skilled job has high explanatory power. The spatial arrangement of these factors was more influenced by the type of economic activities rather than social attributes.
Through the analysis of mutual interdependency between the seven movement patterns derived from spatial interaction and the six dimensional factors derived from socio-economic attributes, the socio-economic characteristics which were inherent in the population movement field were inferred. As a result of the analysis, three statistically significant canonical vector were obtained. From these factors, the socio-economic characteristics of each movement field were investigated.
Five movement fields except for North-western Gyeonggi region and Mid-western Gyeonggi region were commonly explained by sales, skilled job, and professional job. Additionally, the North-eastern Seoul region was explained by service job, the Incheon region was explained by manufacturing business and non-skilled job, and the Southern Gyeonggi region was explained by machine operating job. In all fields, the location of the educational institutions had no explanatory power.
This study applied the geographical field theory of spatial behavior which implies interdependence of the properties of each region and the spatial interactions to the Seoul metropolitan area. In conclusion, this study shows that commuting region can be changed by the residents’ properties or the difference of economic activities.