Interaction, Evolution and Chaos in Space

For many decades scholars from various disciplines have been intrigued by the question whether there are unifying principles or models that have a validity in different disciplines. The building of such analytical frameworks bridging the gaps between scientific traditions is a very ambitious task and has not been very successful up till now. In the past - in a static context - several such principles have been defined and advocated at the edge of the natural sciences on the one hand and social sciences (in particular, economics and geography) on the other hand, mainly based on the paradigm of 'social physics'. Some important contributions to the integration of the spatial systems sciences and physics can be found in gravity theory and entropy theory, which have formed the comer stones of interaction models in space. This book is about spatial interaction models. It describes the origin, the history and the correspondence of such models from a 'social physics' perspective. It is emphasized that such models need a clear behavioural underpinning as a sine qua non for a valid use in spatial systems analysis. This view also explains the use of micro-based disaggregate choice models as a tool for analyzing spatial systems. This is mainly analyzed in Part A of this book.

Autorentext

Professor Dr P. Nijkamp has received the 1996 Spinoza Award, an annual award to honour outstanding scientific merit and to stimulate innovative future research.

Klappentext

This book presents a unified framework (based on spatial interaction models) that encapsulates most of the models developed so far for the analyses of spatial patterns of human activities at both a static and a dynamic level. The book shows how such models can be associated in a static analysis, with macro- and meso-oriented entropy theory and micro-oriented random utility theory. In a dynamic analysis such models can be seen as the result of an optimal trajectory through which a closed system approaches an equilibrium state, in both a deterministic and stochastic framework. However spatial interaction models can exhibit chaotic patterns under particular conditions, since they can be linked to both a logistic form (in a degenerate case) and interrelated logistics (in a general case). Finally, such models may serve to form a broad "envelope" incorporating many dynamic models currently used, which end up with logistic structures. The theoretical-methodological foundations are original, as various tools originating from different disciplines (e.g. economics, mathematics, physics, statistics, biology and natural sciences) are used to develop a unified framework.

Inhalt
A Static Models of Spatial Interaction.- 1. Spatial Interaction Models and Gravity Theory a Concise Overview.- 2. Entropy Theory and Spatial Interaction Analysis.- 3. Entropy and Generalized Cost Minimization Models at the Macro Level.- 4. Spatial interaction models and utility maximizing Behaviour at the micro level.- B Dynamic Models of Spatial Interaction.- 5. Dynamic and Stochastic Spatial Interaction Models.- 6 Spatial Modelling and Chaos Theory.- 7. Spatial Interaction Models and Chaos Theory.- 8. Spatial Interaction Analysis and Ecologically-Based Models.- 9. Retrospect and Prospect.- References.