ABSTRACT
Planning models and techniques provide systematic statements of relationships between the different elements of spatial structure. Meaningful planning analysis is interdependent analysis and it is clear that forecasts should, as a result, be integrated, as they are interrelated. An intelligent approach to planning analysis must, therefore, also probe the area of theory, no matter how elegant or mathematically consistent the techniques in question, and even when complemented by an abundance of well-conceived empirical studies. Statistical and mathematical models in themselves are nothing more than abstract representations and simplifications of a particular phenomenon of interest. The tendency in urban modelling is to study change at the micro-level that is at the level of the household or firm. But there are serious theoretical problems in translating and utilizing new knowledge from research at the micro-level, with the need for more aggregative data consistent with the kind of integrative models.
