Activity Analysis of Spatial-Allocation Models

This paper illustrates how the concept of activity analysis can be used to construct general frameworks for descriptive urban models. There is a brief introduction to the activity analysis and the representation of a multisector production-consumption system. This is followed by examples of the use of the framework with two spatial-allocation models—a singly-constrained retail model and a version of the Lowry model. These models generate coefficients within a general activity-commodity table. One insight provided by the framework is the ‘dual’ model. This provides a set of system indicators for use in the evaluation of projects which are fully consistent with the implied production and consumption system represented by the spatial-allocation model.