Funding source: Volvo Research and Educational Foundations

Performance period: 1/1/2014 to 5/31/2015

Project description

The purpose of this paper is to look at the spatial distribution of freight and logistics facilities in both the Paris region and the Paris megaregion (the Paris basin) between 2000 and 2012.

We have documented a major rise in the number of warehousing and logistics facilities since the beginning of the 2000s in both areas. In terms of its spatial characteristics, this growth illustrates both centrifugal processes, from the urban core to the suburban and ex urban areas of the region, and centripetal processes, from the margins of the Paris basin to the edges of the Paris region. The logistics system is a global distribution process from international supply chains to urban supply chains. In this process, freight hubs serve as switches connecting these two scales of the logistics system. This role explains part of the locational patterns of logistics and warehousing facilities in Paris, both at the metropolitan scale of the Ile-de-France region and at the megaregional scale of the Paris basin. We conclude by providing areas of further research that could help establish and better specify the megaregional nature of the Paris basin as far as freight and logistics facilities are concerned.