- Email: [email protected]
Urban and regional models in geography and planning
84
been more useful to deal with more recent material, particularly when it sheds light on the assumptions and hypotheses of the earlier papers, evaluates how valid and useful they were and so on. One finds papers on “emerging views on . . .” from the 60’s: these should have emerged by now and the accuracy and usefulness of these predictions should have been evaluated. Also, many of the readings are widely known and are often reprinted in other collections: it is hardly necessary to reprint them again. Rather recent work which elaborates, modifies and develops these ideas would be useful. The major criticism, however, is more basic. While there is useful material included, the stress of the title, preface and introduction is never really accomplished. How do the various elements interrelate and influence theory? What role would they play in a theory? It would be more useful to digest and distil the material and use it to develop theory (however inadequately). As it stands it is not theory but a collection of papers, the relationships and mutual interactions among which, and their relative importance (which is a critical aspect of theory) are not shown. The greatest weakness of this book is that the various contributions (over 50 of them) do not really fit into a larger schema and their relation to each other (and often even cities and planning) is not clear. Disregarding any specific gaps and weaknesses, the book does not live up to its Me and promise: the material and concepts are never pulled together. This is not a theory of urban planning. Unfortunately, it is just another book of readings. A. RAPOPORT (Milwaukee, Wise., U.S.A.) _~___ URBAN AND REGIONAL
PLANNING
Urban and Regional Models in Geography and Planning. A.G. Wilson. John Wiley & Sons, New York, N.Y., 1974, 418 pp., f 8.50. In the sciences and engineering, it has been traditional to use mathematics, “the queen of the sciences”, to build mathematical models of physical systems. There are a number of fairly obvious advantages in doing this. For example, it enables the relationships between the characteristic parameters of the problem to be expressed in a concise and unambiguous fashion, and it also facilitates objective discussion of the problem. Over the last couple of decades or so, attempts have also been made to extend this type of approach to urban and regional planning problems, and Professor A.G. Wilson’s book has been written with the objective of setting out progress to date in this field. The book is divided into four parts. Part I provides a general introduction on models and urban problems, Part II discusses techniques for constructing urban and regional models, and the main subsistence of the book is to be found in the six chapters constituting
85
Part III of the book. Part IV is mainly concerned with the use of models in practice. Readers of this text will discover that Part I provides a concise yet comprehensive and very readable introduction to the overall subject. A notable feature of the material covered in Part II is that one chapter is devoted exclusively to gravity models and their elaboration to a general theory of spatial interaction. This is an area in which the author has made notable contributions, and the chapter indicates very clearly how balancing factors must be applied to make these interaction models internally consistent. The material discussed here underpins many of the models discussed in later chapters. Part II also sketches out the broad mathematical prerequisites for potential readers of the book, and suggests that little more is required than the level of proficiency normally obtained in a school mathematical education. While this is true up to a point, the book will only be read with facility by those who have pursued their mathetmatical training somewhat beyond this level. Part III discusses a wide variety of demographic, urban, regional and transport models, and presents ways in which these might be integrated to form comprehensive models of large urban systems. This section of the book represents something of a tour-de-force, and the material presented has both breadth and depth. An important feature of the presentation is that an attempt is made to work from first principles, and to model fundamental urban and regional processes at an appropriate level of aggregation. The final chapter in Part III deals in a most illuminating fashion with the important question of model calibration and testing, and shows how certain pitfalls can be avoided in applying various statistical techniques. An important matter which is discussed in Part IV of the book is the question of the design of urban and regional systems as opposed to their analysis. Wilson points out that design is more difficult than analysis, because there are an ,extremely large number of planning options which might represent feasible solutions. However, it should be mentioned here that progress has recently been made in coping with the design problem, which has been formulated in References 1 and 2 as a quadratic programming problem. For many readers, the last Part of the book will be the most important part, since it deals with the use of models in practical planning problems. If models cannot be shown to be useful (or potentially useful) in this context, there is little point in developing them. As demonstrated in Wilson’s book, there is no doubt that models do have a place in practical planning, but an important point relating to their use which needs to be considered is the question of how much of the overall planning problem can be quantified and incorporated into mathematical models. In many planning problems, human and aesthetic values may be at least as important as economic aspects, and the former are not easily quantified. Space does not permit a detailed discussion of this issue, but the problem is surely one of striking a proper balance between the capacity of models to handle the quantifiable parts of the problem, and the capability of planners to provide understanding, insight and
86
intuition in dealing with the total probiem. It is not clear at this stage what contribution urban and regional planning models will be able to make ultimately, but it is essential that planners should have a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. For the reasons discussed previously, it is felt that Professor Wilson’s book will contribute in no small way towards this understanding. It is a volume which should be on the shelves of all senior students, research workers and professional planners. A.R. TOAKLEY (Melbourne,
Vie., Australia)
REFERENCES Brotchie, J.F., 1969. A general planning model. Manage. Sci., 16(3): 265-266. Karlqvist, A. and Lundqvist, L., 1972. A contact model for spatial allocation. Reg. Stud., 6: 401-419.
PLANNED
URBAN
DEVELOPMENT
(NEW TOWNS)
for New Community Development in the United States. Gideon Golany (Editor). No. 9 of Community Development Series. Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, Stroudsburg, Pa., 1975, 293 pp., 28 figures, 45 tables; a 16-page central photographic-plates supplement containing 11 actual views, 5 models and drawings, and 6 plan maps; price $ 28.00.
Strategy
This collection of essays is the result of an interdisciplinary seminar held in 1973 at Pennsylvania State University. As might be expected, the result is a certain incoherence among the articles, in style and subject matter, and a tendency to be didactic and short on supporting evidence, dealing in “paternal” general statements and judgments, as illustrated by Golany’s introductory article on social quality of life and Robert E. Simon Jr’s “The private developer and title VII new communities”. Fredrick A. McLaughlin Jr’s “National growth policy and new communities in the United States” has a more pragmatic base - the history of legislation and governmental policy re new communities in the United States - but lacks case specifics and touches too lightly on the performance problems of the HUD Title VlI New Community Program. Irving Hand’s article on Pennsylvania’s new community policy is transparent evidence of lack of concrete action and accomplishment there - emphasizing instead tact and an advisory role - illustrating the old senatorial dictum “Study is a substitute for action”. Golany’s above-mentioned study for the Roanoke Valley is a nice model exercise in planning which may or may not have anything to do with subsequent implementation. In contrast, the core, indisputable value of this book is its updating of major recent specific case experience with critical (albeit unavoidably non-
been more useful to deal with more recent material, particularly when it sheds light on the assumptions and hypotheses of the earlier papers, evaluates how valid and useful they were and so on. One finds papers on “emerging views on . . .” from the 60’s: these should have emerged by now and the accuracy and usefulness of these predictions should have been evaluated. Also, many of the readings are widely known and are often reprinted in other collections: it is hardly necessary to reprint them again. Rather recent work which elaborates, modifies and develops these ideas would be useful. The major criticism, however, is more basic. While there is useful material included, the stress of the title, preface and introduction is never really accomplished. How do the various elements interrelate and influence theory? What role would they play in a theory? It would be more useful to digest and distil the material and use it to develop theory (however inadequately). As it stands it is not theory but a collection of papers, the relationships and mutual interactions among which, and their relative importance (which is a critical aspect of theory) are not shown. The greatest weakness of this book is that the various contributions (over 50 of them) do not really fit into a larger schema and their relation to each other (and often even cities and planning) is not clear. Disregarding any specific gaps and weaknesses, the book does not live up to its Me and promise: the material and concepts are never pulled together. This is not a theory of urban planning. Unfortunately, it is just another book of readings. A. RAPOPORT (Milwaukee, Wise., U.S.A.) _~___ URBAN AND REGIONAL
PLANNING
Urban and Regional Models in Geography and Planning. A.G. Wilson. John Wiley & Sons, New York, N.Y., 1974, 418 pp., f 8.50. In the sciences and engineering, it has been traditional to use mathematics, “the queen of the sciences”, to build mathematical models of physical systems. There are a number of fairly obvious advantages in doing this. For example, it enables the relationships between the characteristic parameters of the problem to be expressed in a concise and unambiguous fashion, and it also facilitates objective discussion of the problem. Over the last couple of decades or so, attempts have also been made to extend this type of approach to urban and regional planning problems, and Professor A.G. Wilson’s book has been written with the objective of setting out progress to date in this field. The book is divided into four parts. Part I provides a general introduction on models and urban problems, Part II discusses techniques for constructing urban and regional models, and the main subsistence of the book is to be found in the six chapters constituting
85
Part III of the book. Part IV is mainly concerned with the use of models in practice. Readers of this text will discover that Part I provides a concise yet comprehensive and very readable introduction to the overall subject. A notable feature of the material covered in Part II is that one chapter is devoted exclusively to gravity models and their elaboration to a general theory of spatial interaction. This is an area in which the author has made notable contributions, and the chapter indicates very clearly how balancing factors must be applied to make these interaction models internally consistent. The material discussed here underpins many of the models discussed in later chapters. Part II also sketches out the broad mathematical prerequisites for potential readers of the book, and suggests that little more is required than the level of proficiency normally obtained in a school mathematical education. While this is true up to a point, the book will only be read with facility by those who have pursued their mathetmatical training somewhat beyond this level. Part III discusses a wide variety of demographic, urban, regional and transport models, and presents ways in which these might be integrated to form comprehensive models of large urban systems. This section of the book represents something of a tour-de-force, and the material presented has both breadth and depth. An important feature of the presentation is that an attempt is made to work from first principles, and to model fundamental urban and regional processes at an appropriate level of aggregation. The final chapter in Part III deals in a most illuminating fashion with the important question of model calibration and testing, and shows how certain pitfalls can be avoided in applying various statistical techniques. An important matter which is discussed in Part IV of the book is the question of the design of urban and regional systems as opposed to their analysis. Wilson points out that design is more difficult than analysis, because there are an ,extremely large number of planning options which might represent feasible solutions. However, it should be mentioned here that progress has recently been made in coping with the design problem, which has been formulated in References 1 and 2 as a quadratic programming problem. For many readers, the last Part of the book will be the most important part, since it deals with the use of models in practical planning problems. If models cannot be shown to be useful (or potentially useful) in this context, there is little point in developing them. As demonstrated in Wilson’s book, there is no doubt that models do have a place in practical planning, but an important point relating to their use which needs to be considered is the question of how much of the overall planning problem can be quantified and incorporated into mathematical models. In many planning problems, human and aesthetic values may be at least as important as economic aspects, and the former are not easily quantified. Space does not permit a detailed discussion of this issue, but the problem is surely one of striking a proper balance between the capacity of models to handle the quantifiable parts of the problem, and the capability of planners to provide understanding, insight and
86
intuition in dealing with the total probiem. It is not clear at this stage what contribution urban and regional planning models will be able to make ultimately, but it is essential that planners should have a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. For the reasons discussed previously, it is felt that Professor Wilson’s book will contribute in no small way towards this understanding. It is a volume which should be on the shelves of all senior students, research workers and professional planners. A.R. TOAKLEY (Melbourne,
Vie., Australia)
REFERENCES Brotchie, J.F., 1969. A general planning model. Manage. Sci., 16(3): 265-266. Karlqvist, A. and Lundqvist, L., 1972. A contact model for spatial allocation. Reg. Stud., 6: 401-419.
PLANNED
URBAN
DEVELOPMENT
(NEW TOWNS)
for New Community Development in the United States. Gideon Golany (Editor). No. 9 of Community Development Series. Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, Stroudsburg, Pa., 1975, 293 pp., 28 figures, 45 tables; a 16-page central photographic-plates supplement containing 11 actual views, 5 models and drawings, and 6 plan maps; price $ 28.00.
Strategy
This collection of essays is the result of an interdisciplinary seminar held in 1973 at Pennsylvania State University. As might be expected, the result is a certain incoherence among the articles, in style and subject matter, and a tendency to be didactic and short on supporting evidence, dealing in “paternal” general statements and judgments, as illustrated by Golany’s introductory article on social quality of life and Robert E. Simon Jr’s “The private developer and title VII new communities”. Fredrick A. McLaughlin Jr’s “National growth policy and new communities in the United States” has a more pragmatic base - the history of legislation and governmental policy re new communities in the United States - but lacks case specifics and touches too lightly on the performance problems of the HUD Title VlI New Community Program. Irving Hand’s article on Pennsylvania’s new community policy is transparent evidence of lack of concrete action and accomplishment there - emphasizing instead tact and an advisory role - illustrating the old senatorial dictum “Study is a substitute for action”. Golany’s above-mentioned study for the Roanoke Valley is a nice model exercise in planning which may or may not have anything to do with subsequent implementation. In contrast, the core, indisputable value of this book is its updating of major recent specific case experience with critical (albeit unavoidably non-