Units

Applied geography and geomarketing

The research led by the team focuses on spatial planning and its relations with the economy and regional social structures.  The team also indirectly studies environmental issues through the analysis of landscapes and of regional structures, in urban as well as rural environments.  These analyses are also used for educational and tourism purposes through the collaboration with the Royal Belgian Society of Geography in the production of thematic guides.  The unit also extensively studies industrial and tertiary structures at different scales.  In the field of urban studies, the unit focuses on housing, renovation and rehabilitation policies and their social impacts.  The team also pays particular attention to the issue of development and land use plans at local and regional scales. In addition, the unit produces transport network analysis.  The geomarketing team within the unit works in the field of retail and services geography.  The cell contributes to the understanding of social and economic spaces and of spatial planning through its analysis of the spatial consequences of economic policies regarding retail trading, the hierarchy of retail nodes in the city and the characterization of commercial structures.  Typologies of the Belgian statistical units regarding demographical, socio-economical and landscape characteristics are made on a regular basis.  Theses analyses are used in various studies and applications, including by other services of the university (sociology, public health...) and by private companies.  Finally, over the last several years the unit has developed numerous studies in political and electoral geography.  It also takes part in European networks studying spatial planning.

Projetcs

Commerce geography and urbanism

The geomarketing cell leads its basic and applied research on the commercial structures, their economic, social and legal framework and their hierarchical system with the aim to define the commercial areas and the retail strategies.

Geomarketing and enterprise localizations.

The geomarketing team within the unit works in the field of retail and services geography.  The cell contributes to the understanding of social and economic spaces and of spatial planning through its analysis of the spatial consequences of economic policies regarding retail trading, the hierarchy of retail nodes in the city and the characterization of commercial structures.

Population Geography and Demography

Analysis of the spatial differentiation of the demographic behaviours and structures, mainly at Belgian and European level, and search for the factors involved.