Spatial-economic analysis of the economic activity within the agricultural area of the province Antwerpen

Main research question/goal

Which enterprises are active in the countryside of the Belgian province of Antwerp? Is their location linked to the vicinity of cities or residential areas or to specific rural characteristics? In this project, ILVO analyses the economic activity in the agricultural zones of Antwerp province.  A spatial-economic analysis of economic activity should give an idea of the diversity of enterprises in agricultural area. The goal of this research is twofold: to make an inventory of all (agricultural and non-agricultural) enterprises in the agricultural area and to visualise and analyse the spatial distribution pattern of these enterprises.

Research approach

The inventory of economic activities in the agricultural area is based on methodology developed in previous research (Verhoeve & De Roo, 2008). With this method, all enterprises located in the agricultural area of the province are mapped through the combination of specific datasets in GIS. This inventory is then compared to other spatial data in GIS to search for factors explaining the location of specific activities, such as the vicinity to cities or residential areas.

 

Relevance/Valorisation

This research project is related to the creation of agricultural and rural maps performed by the Department of Agricultural and Rural Policy in Antwerp province. The spatial-economic analysis produces several maps to be used as a basis for these agricultural and rural maps. One map shows the location of all activities and another map shows the location of the different type of activities which can then be related to rural characteristics.