Institute for Social and Economic Geography

Research Activities

Status: public -- Last revision: 18 February 2000 -- Expiration date: 31 December 2000

The research activities can be summarised under the next main fields:

1. Urban Geography
2. Industrial Geography
3. Transport Geography
4. Social Geography
5. Geography of the tertiary sector
6. Geography of Tourism
7. Rural Geography
8. Population Geography
9. Political Geography
10. Theoretical geography
11. Geographical Information Systems
12. Regional Developments
13. Education and Geography

Urban Geography

• Urban regions: analysis and development
• Foreigners and social segregation in Belgian cities
• Evolution of the functional equipment and the relation patterns within the Belgian settlement system
• Comparative analysis of West-European cities
• Urban informal economy
• Urbanisation, metropolitan districts and commuting
• Urban Tourism and Recreation
• Urban Revitalisation Projects
• City Marketing
• Dispersion of housing types and prosperity in metropolitan areas
• Socio-spatial structure of Beijing

Industrial Geography

• Location factors and economic potentials of the Belgian regions
• Industrial Geography of Japan
• Foreign companies in Belgium
• Economical structures and fluxes in border regions

Transport Geography

• Commuting

Social Geography

• Spatial aspects of unemployment
• Spatial dimension of poverty
• Spatial aspect of youth problems (education, delinquency)
• Housing typology of the Belgian municipalities

Geography of the tertiary sector

• The tertiary sector in Belgium
• Functional equipment and relation patterns within the Belgian settlement system
• Functional equipment and urban hierarchy
• Geography of the financial sector
• Shifts in buying behaviour - Location of malls
• Geo-marketing

Geography of Tourism

• Tourism, Recreation and Culture
• Tourism and Urban Revitalisation, city-marketing
• Tourism and Regional Reconversion, region marketing
• Tourism and shopping activities

Rural Geography

• Agricultural structure of Belgium and the E.U.
• Agriculture and Changes in the countryside

Population Geography

• Demography of foreign population
• Migrations to Brussels
• Migration patterns in Belgium (by age)
• Population and consumption patterns

Political Geography

• Socialism and spatial structures in China
• Tourism planning and policy
• EUREGIO policies
• Post-apartheid and spatial transformation processes (SA)

Theoretical Geography

• Epistemology of Belgian Human Geography

Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

• GIS-functionality's for socio-economic analysis and management
• Professional use of GIS
• GIS education (use of Internet)

Regional developments / Regional Geography

• Development of Euregio's - urban networks
• Restructuring of industrial regions
• Regio-marketing
• Inter- and intraregional housing differentiation

Education and Geography

• Didactical working sessions for geography teachers
• Excursions and field trips
• GIS education
• Development of modern GIS-tools (CD-Rom)

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