DELINEATION OF FUNCTIONAL REGIONS BY COMBINING COMMUNITY FINDING METHOD WITH SPATIAL INTERACTION MODEL

Abstract

A functional region is a territorial unit that is composed of multiple subunits interacting each other socially or economically. In this study, we propose a new method of delineating functional regions that is based on the community finding method known as the modularity maximization approach. By formulating the null network of modularity based on an entropy model, we make it possible to apply modularity maximization approach to the functional region delineation problem. Through the case study using Japanese intermunicipal commuting flow data, we show that the proposed method is robust to the expansion of applied area size.