Publications

Noronha VT, Goodchild MF 1992  Modelling Inter-Regional Interaction: Implications for Defining Functional Regions.  Annals, Association of American Geographers 82 (1) 86-102 

Abstract The concept of the functional region is intimately linked to selectivity in human interaction and the ratio of within-region to between-region interaction has often been cited as a possible basis for delimiting functional regions.  This paper extends the well known spatial interaction model to the analysis of inter-regional and intra-regional interactions.  The Inter-Regional Interaction Model explains the behavioral phenomena that we recognize as functional distance and functional regions, and calibration of the model amounts to their objective delimitation.  Regionally biased interactions are simulated, and the embedded regional structure successfully recovered in a series of tests, even when substantial error components are introduced into the simulations.  A heuristic calibration technique is developed for large problems.  The heuristic is used to partition the United States into two function regions, based on student migration matrices.  A cluster of southeastern states consistently emerges as a functional region distinct from the north. 

This is a digest of Dr Noronha's PhD thesis, which won the Nystrom PhD-of-the-Year Award from the Association of American Geographers, 1986.  The research was supervised by Drs Michael Goodchild, late William Warntz, and Donald Janelle.  The award-winning paper: Functional Regions Re-examined: The Black/White Interaction Model, was subsequently expanded into the Annals article above

Publications