For my final graduation project, I have conducted a study about urban locating. Two fundamental concepts were analyzed: the creation and use of Landmarks, and the idea of neighborhoods. This research topic was funded by IMU , in parallel with a PhD research about points of interest (POI). I developed a website to collect this information. With an advanced mapping interface, this tool provides all the information on how people orientate themselves in the city. The site is still accessible here.

The study is applied to Saint Etienne. The city is of average size. Since I am from there, I know this city well. This is not necessarily a prerequisite to the installation of such a test, but it made the first construction easier. This tool can easily be re-applied to other French or European cities.

The website displays three main pages, each one illustrating a concept within the study: neighborhoods, landmarks and points of interest

• The first page asks the user about his favorite neighborhoods, whichever sense of neighborhood he has. These positions will become the main pinpoints of the test.
• A second page introduces the concept of landmarks and reveals the previous database that the user established.


• The third page is the main part of the test, it offers a list of POI randomly distributed around areas important to the user and asking simple questions about the neighborhood of each pinpoint and the benchmarks that would help characterize its points interest.

After submitting a form to the user, the site produces a personalized map which points out the information answered by the user.

Once the site was built and completed by Saint Etienne’s population, I had spatial information directly importable on a GIS at my fingertips. I proceeded to calculation on the data, which are explained in my mémoire (only in French).

Directional ellipses representing the main direction of the Saint Etienne districts





Thiessen polygons representing the influence of the main Saint Etienne landmarks