Calculating Intraurban Agglomeration of Economic Units with Planar and Network K-Functions: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

According to recent research, one of the most promising strategies for intraurban job growth lies promoting localized clusters that produce goods and services which are primarily sold within a single city, metropolitan area, or urban region. However, in order to design urban policies to create or reinforce local clusters, the first challenge is to measure in a reliable way the clustering tendencies of different kinds of economic units in intraurban space. The aim is to compare the similarities and differences in results obtained from two methods designed to measure global clustering tendencies (the planar and network K-functions) in terms of characterization, scale, and intensity of intraurban localization patterns for tertiary economic units in a Latin American metropolis. It is concluded that the network K-function is a more appropriate method for measuring agglomeration patterns, scale, and intensity at the intra-urban level.