ABSTRACT
The most well known and probably most well tested model of the urban structure derives from Lowry's classical model of the metropolis which had been subsequently developed and modified in recent years. This chapter presents a general model of the urban spatial form using the Lowry framework with the embellishments of the entropy-maximising methodology. The Lowry model is based on two principles, namely that of the urban economic base and that of spatial interaction. The calibration of spatial interaction models has increasingly assumed a central role in the design and construction of such models. The empirical development of the Lowry model requires easily available demographic, economic and spatial behavioural data and an economic system that can be dichotomised into basic and service sectors. The outputs of the model necessarily identify hiatuses that exist in our knowledge about urban processes. Consequently they provide useful inputs in designing more accurate models of the metropolis.
