Energy and territorial organization

Abstract

The relationship between energy and space is a topic little explored by geographers, while ecologists and economists have likewise paid little attention to it in the field of energy analysis. As a result, knowledge of energy flow patterns is lacking and it is hence impossible to identify significant spatial resources and energy. The objective of this article is to propose some methods for the study of energy flow patterns at municipal, national and international level. At a municipal scale, cartain hypotheses of economic theory on cities (such as the dependen- ce ofthe balanke between urban input-output flows on laws of marketing) contradict facts revealed the study of cross-municipality energy flows. This leads us to the conclusion that the analysis of the metabolism of the city using the instruments of neoclassical economic theory is not feasible. At national level, a distinction is made between intermediate consumption in production processes and final consumption for the sustenance of the population, which makes it possible to define a «geography» (pattern) of final energy consumption which, in turn, makes it possible to demonstrate the existence of energy flows between peripheral areas and central or centralized areas. Lastly, some comments are made on the «geography» of final energy consumption at international level.