Polycentricity and accessibility in mountain areas: the Alpine case

Figures & data

Figure 1. Accessibility of services of general interest in the Alps (ESPON 2018, 7).

Figure 2. Accessibility by car of towns in the Alps.

Figure 3. The isochrone method and the catchment areas.

Figure 4. The catchment areas of small Alpine towns.

Table 1. Small centres and their inhabitants in catchment areas in Alpine countries (own calculation; population data (LAU, 2015) based on ESPON Alps2050 database).

Alpine country	Number of small centres	Number of inhabitants in small centres (rounded)	Number of inhabitants in catchment areas of small centres (rounded)	Percentage of Alpine population in small centres and catchment areas (rounded)
Austria	54	213,000	564,000	6%
France	30	118,000	385,000	4%
Germany	5	19,000	83,000	1%
Italy	47	180,000	425,000	4%
Liechtenstein	1	4,000	10,000	0.1%
Monaco	–	–	–	–
Slovenia	7	27,000	26,000	0.4%
Switzerland	17	213,000	91,000	2%

Table 2. The PCI of selected Alpine towns.

Case region	Town	Inhabitants	PCI
A	Cortina d’Ampezzo	5,920	0.89
	Pieve di Cadore	3,832	3.13
	Badia/Abtei	3,458	2.13
	Auronzo di Cadore	3,380	3.18
	San Candido/Innichen	3,307	2.86
B	Längenfeld	4,442	1.44
	Fulpmes	4,251	1.25
	Mayrhofen	3,864	3.56
	Steinach am Brenner	3,425	3.96
	Sölden	3,279	0
C	Gap	40,776	0.24
	Nyons	6,690	1.17
	La Mure	4,992	1.74
	Die	4,576	0.65
	Larange Montéglin	3,455	2.84
	Veynes	3,159	2.38
	Dieulefit	3,093	1.88

Figure 5. Capturing morphological polycentricity within selected Alpine regions.

ESPON. 2018. “Alps2050 – Common Spatial Perspectives for the Alpine Area. Towards a Common Vision.” Final report. https://www.espon.eu/Alps2050

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