Regional Information Flows: Existing and New Approaches to Geographical Study

Abstract

The global experience of geographical study of information flows is reviewed for the first time based on journal papers and monographs published in 1988–2017. It is established that the issue is understudied, subject to a shift from understanding the relevance of such studies to attempts to measure and structure information flows. The key areas of geographic study are identified: flows without channels and traffic, channels without traffic, traffic without channels, and flows with channels and traffic. No publication has been retrieved for the fourth area, which is most important for regional studies. Three new approaches are proposed in the framework of next-generation communication network studies and in line with the fourth area: uplink–downlink traffic distribution, redistribution of traffic inside a region proportionally to the population size of settlements, and the definition of potential of mobile communication field. The new approaches are tested with a case study of Russia’s Irkutsk oblast.