Abstract
Tobler's first law (TFL) of geography was introduced into the geographical literature in an article that Waldo Tobler published in the journal Economic Geography in 1970. In this article, which described a simulation of population growth in Detroit, Tobler stated that to make his model operational he would “invoke the first law of geography: everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.” This entry considers whether TFL is an accurate description of the real world. Specifically, it considers the following questions: Is TFL really a law and, if so, is it the most important law in Geography? Do modern spatial interpolation techniques allow the model to be operationalized? How can “near” and “distant” be measured? Is it true for Euclidean and network space? Do classic models of human and urban geography conform to TFL?
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