The Role of Delineation for Decision Making and Urban Governance

Abstract The spatial/areal delineation choice can profoundly affect spatial analytical results, influencing decision-making, urban policy and governance. This contribution discusses and exemplifies the relationship between geography, spatial analysis and policy through (1) exploring the dilemma between size and accuracy of areal units and appearing ethical problems applied to the example of France, (2) understanding border effects using the case study of Sweden and (3) on a neighbourhood scale segregation analysis applied to a synthetic example. These three examples build an argument on all scales for multi-scale governance. Understanding the strong relationship between areal delineation for analysis and governance promotes awareness for urban planners, policy advisors and decision-makers about the power of spatial delineation and its influence on decision-making and further policy recommendations.