Urban Spatial Interaction Models in a Planned Economy: A Review

Urban interaction models form a large and expanding field of study [see Isard 1975]. They have attracted much attention from both researchers and planners over the past ten years or so. Several major reviews and handbooks have been published [Lowry 1968, Goldner 1971, Batty 1972, Sweet 1972, Senior 1973, Wilson 1974], but these refer to concepts and model applications under market economies. They largely fail to account for developments in the building of urban models pertaining to planned economies, and they disregard questions about the applicability of existing models. The purpose of this paper is to present a selective review of literature on spatial interaction models applied to socialist cities. Spatial interaction models in an urban and regional context have been used mostly to represent residential locations in relation to the distribution of work places, and the utilization of services in relation to the distribution of population. These two types of models can be coupled to form a comprehensive interaction model [Wilson 1974, 174]. This simple classification of models is followed in the subsequent parts of the papers. In one section, models of production and organizational linkages are presented briefly. The final sections are devoted to problems of model application.