Modelling Historical Accessibility and Its Effects in Space

Abstract

This thesis deals with the modelling of historical accessibility values, covering Switzerland and neighbouring regions from today until 1720. Changes in transport supply have spatial e ects on environment, society and economy; many of them are persistent. There are methods to quantify, isolate and capture causality. However, related studies are rarely done, one reason for that being missing data. The thesis details methods to reconstruct historical transport networks and corresponding travel system times. The related techniques, relevant conditions in historical transport maps and procedures needed are explained in detail. The associated numbers related to development in transport and travelling are prepared. The thesis shows applications of such results regarding state reach and productivity gains. The accessibility model includes both transport on the main road network as well as the space in-between capturing all relevant transport modes and generating continuous results for long-distance travel. Results show strong border e ects; this might be due to the population distribution model or the rather flat weight function. Results show an increase of accessibility over time, following the networks available at the time and along the central axes.