Spatial Interaction Model: a shift towards network-based territorial configurations assessment for data-driven sustainable planning

Cartographic representation reveals where territorial phenomena occur, but not how they are generated. The location of services, infrastructures, attractors, and socio-economic activities reflects deeper spatial processes structured by proximity, accessibility, complementarity, hierarchy, and interaction. The difficulty of defining these processes lies in the complexity of territorial systems, which are not fixed in space but relational configurations shaped by flows, dependencies, feedback mechanisms, and multi-scalar interactions among places, infrastructures, services, institutions, and communities. The identification of latent relational structures is therefore central to territorial analysis. By modelling territorial components as networks, the research uncovers the spatial organization of the system and the constraints that shape its configuration. Starting from this assumption, the thesis addresses the limits of traditional cartographic modelling and GIS-based overlay approaches. The central research hypothesis is that territorial phenomena are not random spatial arrangements, but emergent configurations generated by underlying interaction processes. The research proposes a spatial interaction model for network-based territorial configuration assessment, aimed at reconstructing emergent territorial structures from fine-grained spatial data. Tourism is chosen as the empirical field through which the analytical framework is developed and tested. As an inherently spatial and relational phenomenon, tourism involves the interaction between attractors, services, accessibility components, and territorial resources. The contribution of the thesis is threefold. Conceptually, it frames territorial systems as complex relational structures and interprets spatial sustainability as a configurational property of territory. Methodologically, it integrates spatial interaction modelling, graph theory, and data-driven spatial analysis into an analytical framework for territorial assessment. In conclusion, it provides a planning-support approach capable of identifying functional geographies, revealing service disparities, supporting sustainable tourism strategies, and assessing how territorial investments may reshape local configurations.