Le Maup et l’insoluble question de frontière optimale

This paper tests for the presence of the modifiable areal unit problem on a bunch of local spatial indicators calculated using micro-data of 2011 on employments per establishment in the province of Quebec. From the localization of the ports of the province, the application first constructs the indicators selected by making a bunch of spatial delimitations, circular, of radii varying between 250 and 10 000 meters. The stability of these indices is tested in order to identify a structural break, which allows identification of an « optimal » distance for the definition of the indices. The results confirm the difficulty to establish a unique geographic limit that allows having stable results, sustaining once again the difficulty to fully solve the modifiable areal unit problem. While it is possible to identify break points which serve to describe territorial realities specific to port regions, the article shows how the spatial micro-data can be gathered to define territories to be studied.