Spatial Overview of Urban Systems

The broad focus of this paper is to seek a framework of functional Urban regions to give better understanding of the impact of public policies in the fields of population distribution and economic development. There are two major concerns which prompted this effort. First, there is a feeling among planners that one or more of the largest cities is too big in the sense that social costs of further growth exceed the social benefits. Secondly, it is felt that assistance should be given to promote the growth of lagging regions, which usually tend to be rural. Obviously the problems of big cities, lagging regions and other parts are not independent of one another because these are linked by flows of goods and services, migration etc and therefore there is a need for a common framework. Further, since growth-producing innovations are normally transmitted downward through the urban hierarchy as well as from urban centres to their surrounding hinterland, we need to understand this process in its entirety. For example if we lack cities in a certain critical size-range to facilitate such spread effects, then one objective of national urban policy could be the development needed urban centres. Finally a tentative list of research topics is provided at the end, followed by a focus on management inputs to the dynamics of urban systems. This is done in a typical hand-waving fashion and needs further work.