A generic approach to evaluating territorial attractiveness in a bipolar cities system: the case of north-eastern Algeria

Evaluating territorial attractiveness can result in several interpretations due to the multidimensional nature of the concept, starting from economy and expanding into many fi elds such as geography and social studies, in this paper, we attempt to analyze the existing economic-urban dilemma in the north-east region of Algeria by evaluating the attractiveness of its two national metropolises as separate territorial units. Th e main objective of the study was to explore the possibility of evaluating the three facets of attractiveness simultaneously in a bipolar cities system. Our method is not in itself new; it has been used as a model for assessment in many other regions of the developing world suff ering from lack of data and economic-urban issues, but this is the fi rst time it has been used to assess attractiveness. Th is multi-factorial model with synthetic indicators will help us to have a general view of the issue and to defi ne strengths and weaknesses of both territorial units. However, the limits of this methodology will be the percentage uncertainty that lies in the subjectivity of the weighting step performed by experts.