The Long and Winding Road: Combining Least Cost Paths and Network Analysis Techniques for Settlement Location Analysis and Predictive Modelling

Tom Brughmans (1) , Laure Nuninger (2) , Frédérique Bertoncello (3) , Philip Verhagen (4) , Graeme Earl (1)

1 University of Southampton
2 LCE - Laboratoire Chrono-environnement (UMR 6249)
3 CEPAM - Culture et Environnements, Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-Age
4 CLUE - Cultural Landscape and Urban Environment

In this paper, we describe an exploratory analysis of the possibilities of combining least cost path analysis and network analysis techniques. Accessibility is a potentially important site location factor. So far, the cost paths. However, these methods do not provide direct information on the foci of movement. Starting from networks created from least cost paths, network analysis and space syntax were used to obtain additional information on the structural features of the network. It is concluded that both techniques can be used with least cost path-based networks, and will provide new insights into the characteristics of the network. For most applications however the space syntax measures that take the geographical dimension into account seem to be preferable to the simple network analysis measures used here.

Mots clés: Network Analysis; Space Syntax; Least Cost Paths; Accessibility; Movement

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Archéologie et Préhistoire; Géographie; Méthodes et statistiques; Modélisation et simulation

Tom Brughmans, Laure Nuninger, Frédérique Bertoncello, Philip Verhagen, Graeme Earl. The Long and Winding Road: Combining Least Cost Paths and Network Analysis Techniques for Settlement Location Analysis and Predictive Modelling. Philip Verhagen; Graeme Earl. Archaeology in the Digital Era, Amsterdam University Press, pp.357-366, 2014, Archaeology in the Digital Era, 9789048519590. ⟨10.1515/9789048519590-039⟩. ⟨hal-02466706⟩