Modelling the City examines the changing role of urban models in respect to both the need to re-address measures of urban well-being and the need to create models which are in line with key planning problems. This text argues that although there has been progress with a wide range of theoretical problems in urban modelling, modellers have not paid enough attention to the usefulness of their model outputs in indicating the workings of the city or region. The book offers a new geography of performance indicators for the public and private sector based on the principles of spatial interaction.

10 Definitions Operations research, first called operational re- search by P. M. S. Blackett (1) in Britain about 1938, has a broad zneaning illustrated by several exaznples in this section. Briefly, it znay be defined as the study of znan- znachine systezns that have a purpose. In znore descriptive terzns, operations research involves the application of physical, biological, and social sciences in the znost quanti- tative way possible. It thus draws on the disciplines of znedicine, psychology, and all forzns of engineering (2). As the following historical exaznples will show, an essential...

Mathematical models have long been used by geographers and regional scientists to explore the working of urban and regional systems. However, this all changed with the advent of catastrophe theory and bifurcation. This study outlines the implications of these mathematical models for geography and regional science.