Regional Impact: Case of Application of Territorial Accessibility Analysis

Abstract

In the project Studies for the development of land use planning and technical studies for the road system in the South Central region of the Caldas Department, conducted by Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Manizales Campus), the integral design of road interventions established by the Departmental Administration was proposed. The characterization of traffic and accessibility, offered by current and future infrastructure, became one of the main resources for planning. In these studies, it is necessary to evaluate the physical and operational characteristics of the infrastructures, with the purpose of performing, through comparison of parallel scenarios, the modifications and extensions that the transportation system actually requires; in order to do so, the goal was to promote neglected and isolated areas. An analysis of the average global accessibility offered by the road network was conducted; this was calculated in a study area of 35 km radius from the urban area of the town of Palestina, in order to establish a compact area of direct influence over the South Central region, taking into account that the Aeropuerto del Café (Coffee Airport) will be located in that municipality