Centrality Analysis in Urban-Rural Spatial Networks: Contributions to the Study of Metropolitan Areas

Many different social, economic, political, and ecological relations take place at the metropolitan scale, making metropolitan areas face both multiple challenges and opportunities. In this highly complex context with varied gradients of multiple interconnected processes, we think that the spatial network approach, particularly centrality analysis, can offer new insights into the study of metropolitan areas. To address this concern, this research aims to: (1) provide an overview of spatial centrality analysis applications in different fields, through a literature review with a focus on recent documents; (2) demonstrate the varied nature of spatial networks in metropolitan areas; and (3) suggest future research directions for the application of centrality analysis in metropolitan areas. Our findings indicate that most spatial centrality analyses are still very much tied to intra-urban contexts. Therefore, we suggest exploring some metropolitan spatial networks that we think have received little attention, such as minor rural road networks, and mixed urban-rural networks, on which interesting metropolitan socio-spatial dynamics take place.