TY  - JOUR
Y1  - 2007///
PB  - Pion
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/b32128
KW  - PACS numbers: 89.75.-k
KW  -  -87.23.Ge
KW  -  05.40.-a
SN  - 0265-8135
JF  - Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design
ID  - eprints1883
A1  - De Montis, Andrea
A1  - Barthélemy, Marc
A1  - Chessa, Alessandro
A1  - Vespignani, Alessandro
IS  - 5
N2  - We study the structure of the network representing the interurban commuting traffic of the Sardinia region, Italy, which amounts to 375 municipalities and 1 600 000 inhabitants. We use a weighted network representation in which vertices correspond to towns and the edges correspond to the actual commuting flows among those towns. We characterize quantitatively both the topological and weighted properties of the resulting network. Interestingly, the statistical properties of the commuting traffic exhibit complex features and nontrivial relations with the underlying topology. We characterize quantitatively the traffic backbone among large cities and we give evidence for a very high heterogeneity of the commuter flows around large cities. We also discuss the interplay between the topological and dynamical properties of the network as well as their relation with sociodemographic variables such as population and monthly income. This analysis may be useful at various stages in environmental planning and provides analytical tools for a wide spectrum of applications ranging from impact evaluation to decision making and planning support. 
TI  - The structure of interurban traffic: a weighted network analysis
VL  - 34
EP  - 924
AV  - none
SP  - 905
ER  -