brian mcloughlin, urban and regional planning: a systems approach

8/10/2019 Brian McLoughlin, Urban and Regional Planning: A Systems Approach

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SEMA.2 , (DRGANE CENTRAL (

E DOCUMENTATION1


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Urban and Regional Planning


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Urban

and Regional PlanningA SYSTEMS APPROACH

J.Brian

McLoughlin/)w/j J-1

FABER AND FABERLondon .


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First publishedin 1969by Faber and Faber Limited

24 RussellSquareLondon WCIPrinted in Great Britain

byWesternPrinting ServicesLtd, BristolAll rights reserved

SBN 57 Q9Q5 2

z

ig6g byJ. Brian McLoughlin


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In memoriam I.G.M.


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Acknowledgement

I am grateful to the Council of the Townand Country Planning Summer Schoolfor permission to adapt material from thepaper 'A systems approach to planning'which was read at the 1967 School atQueen's University, Belfast and pub-lished in the School's annual report.

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Contents

Preface page 15i. Man in his Ecological Setting 1g2. Modifying Actions and the Environment 383. Location Theory: A Foundation for Planning 58

4. The Guidance and Control of Change : PhysicalPlanning as the Control of Complex Systems 75

5. Planning as a Cyclic Process 92

6. Goal Formulation : Identifying Objectives i oq.7. System Description: Information Needs 125

8. System Simulation :Forecasting and Modelling 166

9. Plan Formulation : Charting Possible Coursesof the System 2311

i o. Plan Slection : Choosing the Desired Course 26311. Plan Implementation : System Guidance,

Control and Review z'7g12. Implications of a Systems Approach to

Planning 297References 3 r 3Index 325

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Illustrations

4. i A system page 764.2 Error-controlled regulation 86

4.3 Error-controlled regulation applied to planning 88

7. i Land parcels 1347.2 Traditional land use map 152

7.3 Activities 1537.4 Spaces 1547.5 Communications 1557.6 Channels 1568. i Simple graphical population projection 1778.2 Ratio method (graphical) : Step from nation to

region 1788.3 Ratio method (graphical) : Step from region to

sub-region 179

8.4 Apportionment method (graphical) : Step fromnation to region 180

8.5 Apportionment method (graphical) : Step from

region to sub-region 18118.6 Cohort-survival: Female table, first quinquennium 186

8.7 A survivorship matrix 1911

8.8 Diagrammatic representation of planners'information system . 229

g. i System trajectories 232

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Preface

In recent years physical planning has begun to emerge from a

long sleep. Since its inception as a respectable activity of

government in the early years of the century in parts of Europeand in North America it has had a chequered history. On theone hand some remarkable successes can be claimed, among themthe British achievement since the Second World War-for ex-

ample the rebuilding of Coventry, the new towns, the conser-vation of areas of fine landscape, the maintenance of a largemeasure of public faith in the world's most intricate and com-

prehensive planning system. On the other hand, very seriousdoubts have begun to arise-not only about the effectiveness ofthe means for planning, but much more fundamental doubtsabout the ends which institutionalised planning is supposed to

serve,about the nature of the

processas a

whole,about

pro-fessionalism, skills and education. Within the space of four yearsin Britain, government has undertaken a complete re-examin-ation of the nature of the instruments of physical planning andhas begun enquiries into the relationships between physical andeconomic planning, and into the question of public partici-pation ; meanwhile the Town Planning Institute has completeda major overhaul of its membership and educational policies.These events are surely only a beginning and reflect a greaterdegree of awareness of the significance of planning and self-awareness by planners than at any time in the past.

These seemingly distinct developments have a common fac-tor. As the urbanised regions become the dominant humansettlement form, so do many of life's problems and opportunitiesarise within them; but in recognising this we have become

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Preface

acutelyconsciousof the lack of goodtheoreticalfoundationsfortheir study and guidance.Soplanning in Britain,whether seenas an instrument of modern governmentor as a field of pro-

fessionalstudyand action,has had to try and build a larger and. more complexstructure on a fragmented foundation. For thecomponent parts of such a foundation have become moreabundant: economists,sociologists,geographers,politicalscien-tistsand many others have intensifiedtheir studiesof thespatialaspectsof human activity;the boundaries between 'disciplines'become ever more blurred as studies starting from varied

origins impinge upon urban and regional life,mingle,coalesceand reform. Americans, unable to rest on many laurels ofphysicaland statutory achievement,have not surprisinglybeenfertile in speculationand analysis, spurred on by the practicalproblemsof theirburgeoningwealthand mobility.From variousquarters of the 'western' world new and exciting attempts atsynthesishave appeared: for examplethe work of Webber andFoley on urban form, social processesand values; of Isard,Haggett and others on spatial structure; of Lichfieldon evalu-ative methods; of Harris on simulation.But some of the mostimportant work has remained little known to most plannersinBritain,partly because of its being scattered throughout manydifferent sources,partly through problems of communicationbetweendisciplinesand also,onesuspects,becausemany peoplehold the mistakenview that all this theoretical stuff is of little

relevance for practical men.. There is a need to bring the developmentsin both theoryand< practice (many of them closely linked) to the attention of a

i) wider bodyof people and to provide a frameworkwhereby it

can be related to the emergingproblemsof understandingandplanning of cities and regions; this is the first objectiveof thisbook.

Despitethe

greatadvancesmadein the last two decadesthere

remain formidableproblemsin the theoryand practice of physi-cal planning. It is not yet possibleto see obviouspathways be-tween such growing fields as regional analysis and the new'urban sociology';between decisiontheory and the practicalworld of data-processingor between these and questions ofresource management, food supplies and land conservation.And yet there are hints of the higher-orderframeworkwe need

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Prefaceso much. Beginningin strategic studiesin the i gq.o'swe haveseen the growth of operational research into almost all

fjelds (where complexsystemsare managed, includingindustrial and {

commercial activities of all kinds. Increasinglysuch tools arebeing used to solveproblemsin the public services.The identi- /ficationand descriptionof complexsituations has been greatlyaided by the techniques of systemsanalysiswhich itself rests ,on the foundations of general systemstheory. Perhaps the most Ilexcitingprospectof synthesisis offeredby cybernetics,the studyof the processesof information transfer, communicationandcontrol in

very largeand

highly complex systems,especiallythose found in livingmatter. For it is now clear that the funda-mental principlesof control in complexsystemsare universal,/irrespective of the actual nature of the system-real or con-ceptual, animate or inanimate.

Can weapplythesegeneral toolsof study,analysis,evaluationand control to the spatial elements of human life-to the pat-terns of living, working,recreation and movement?In the be-

f )lief that not onlyare we able to do so but that for many reasonswe must,the secondaim of this bookis to providean approachto this task-as the title implies.

This book is neither a new theoretical statement nor entirelya practical manual. Rather it is an attempt to providea frame-work by which interestedpeople may relate the new toolsfrommany fields to the problemsof planning citiesand regions.Jt

also outlines the applicationof thegeneral principlesofsystems ,2)\analysisand control to the planning task, showing by exampl Jehow 'traditional' and new methods my be fused within a sys- 1tems framework of understanding and action. Finally, it is

hoped to encouragethe reader to penetrate more deeplyto theroots of the newsynthesisand especiallyto look forwardbeyondthis book to the long haul of more detailed working out offprinciplesand methods.

The extent of my debt to the published work of others isobvious from the referencesand bibliography.My direct andpersonalindebtednessto many other peopleis at least as great.The struggle with these ideas (so painfully evident in thefollowingpages) began when Ijoined the staff of the Depart-ment of Town and Country Planning at the University ofManchester, shortly after the appointment of ProfessorRoy

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PrfaceKantorowich.Myre-education there isdue to all my colleaguesand students in varying degrees. H. W. E. ('Lyn') Daviesshowed me by example the virtues of logical dissection and

clear synthesis;David Robinson cautioned with a dalesman'sshrewdnessagainstjumping to conclusionsand opened my eyesto many human landscapesas did Ian Melvillewho also intro-duced me to new aspects of perception; Michael Yates andMervyn Schonegevelwere invaluable in trying to make meconvince them-both with great patience and sympathy.GeorgeChadwickshowedme much of the waysof scholarship

and the craft of teaching,and it was he who encouragedme towrite this book and who gave me a wealth of advice and con-structive criticism on its layout and content. Many other col-leagues both in the planning school and elsewhere,researchassistantsand students, have contributed howeverunwittinglyto the developmentof myideas.My friend David Gill has beena source of comfort, hospitality, encouragement and advicethroughout and gave valuable comments on certain sections.

Peter Hall gave me a great deal of practical advice and en-couragement at a crucial time. None of these friends or col-leagues is in any way responsiblefor the faults in the bookwhetherof form,content,factor opinion-for these 1 am whollyto blame.

The preparation of the text has been helped greatly by thelabours of Elizabeth Goepel and Maggie Churchill in pre-

paring the typescript,and by Frank Coleman who drew all theillustrations.My wife, Marie, supported me in the decision to take ajob

where 1 might try out some of my ideas in practise and havesolitary evenings away from home to carry on writing. Hercheerfulsacrifice,lookingafter a house and four children aloneeach week for two years, has in large measure made this book

possible;1 dedicate it to her with

greataffection.

Bramhall,Cheshire:Summer1968

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1

Man in his Ecological Setting

The animal homosapiens has existed for somewhat less than halfa million years-a small proportion of the time during which

higher forms of life have developed and a tiny fraction of thelifetime of the planet. For most of that time homosapiens was arare animal living in sporadic but intense competition withother animals and subsisting by hunting and food-gathering(Childe, rgq.2). In the last ten thousand years he has been in-creasingly successful in adapting his environment to his own needsand in the creation of artificial habitats. In the last few hundred

years only he has gained a position of almost complete domina-tion over all other forms of life on earth, greatly expanded hissources of food and energy and his ability to modify the effectsof nature on him. These unique skills and powers are evidenced

by the great increase in his numbers and the steepening of therate of that increase; currently the human population may be

doubling itself within one hundred years.Although in the first flush of the industrial revolution at the

end of the eighteenth century Malthus issued his gloomy warn-

ing that the bulk of the rising population would always liveat bare subsistence level, little attention was paid to his view-

point once the initial fuss had died down. (The main reason

may have been the absence of any reliable evidence about thenumbers of human beings then living, let alone their standardsof food, shelter and health.) The advanced nations of western

Europe and North America bent to their serious purposes of

transforming the condition of their peoples by way of techno-

logical innovation on an unprecedented scale. The grave prob-lems of such rapid change were quickly apparent in the rural

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Man in his EcologicalSettingareas where peasant agriculture was becoming a food-pro-ducing industry, and in the burgeoning towns and cities-increasingly the habitat of nineteenth-century man in the

advanced communities.

)For the most part, such problems were recognised and

tackled in isolation.They wereproblemsof the coal industry tobe resolvedin long and bitter strugglesbetween new groupings

of human power-the entrepreneursand the workers. Or theywere problems of an area-of Manchester, London, Birming-

} ham and Glasgow-to be worked out by new local and central

'!) legal powers and administrative arrangements. But already,the new transport technology was making apparent wider,r 1 planetary relationshipsbetween the diverse activitiesof men in

all its corners. What men did with wheat and cotton in North\ America affected other men in Lancashire and East Anglia;' the intricate social and economic system of the world-wide

i BritishEmpire was sustainedand grewby virtue of tea clippersand gunboats; the hardwood forestsof West Africa could bedepleted to providesideboardsin Cheltenhamand Harrogate,Bostonand Philadelphia.

The steamship, the railway and the modern gun were tofacilitatethe exploitationof nature in new and disturbing ways.Millions of buffalo were wiped out by the westward-moving

railroads and rifles,and with them would vanish in a fewyears,an ecologicalrelationshipbetweenplants, animals, soils and man

which had grown up over countless centuries. The successorsto Melville'sCaptain Ahab would come near to exterminatingthe big whales of the Arctic and Antarctic with their bigger,faster shipsand harpoon guns.

Mechanised agriculture, and especially the tendency to-wards monoculture-large areas consistentlyused for growingone type of crop-would result in such disasters as the 'dust-bowls' in the central and southern United States in the

i g2o'sand t g3o's.Fishingon the continental shelf of westernEuropewould become so technicallyadvanced but ecologicallyback-ward as to threaten the depletion of many staple speciesofedible fish.Lessspectacularbut more widespread crop failureswere to be a feature of large-scalemechanised monoculturesduring the late nineteenth and early twentiethcentury.

In recent years, more subtle and sinister outcomes of the20


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application of new knowledge are becoming apparent both onthe human environment and on man himself. The use ofchemical pesticides and artificial fertilisers are one cause of

concern; the use of anti-biotic drugs, depressants, stimulantsand chemical contraceptives is another. It is not so much theimmediate or direct effects which give rise to disquiet, for oftenthese are desirable. Rather it is the growing realisation that thereare second, third, fourth, and fifth-order side effects of greatcomplexity the 'kick-backs' of which may be understandableand sometimes disastrous.

The new awareness has led to a number of backward glances.We know what happened to highland Scottish farming fol-lowing the deliberate introduction of the Red Deer, to parts ofEast Anglia after the accidental escape of a pair of coypus someforty years ago and to Australia after the rabbits arrived. Butthe decline of the ancient near Eastern civilisations is examinedafresh also: catastrophic effects of earthquakes, political at-rophy, religious wars-or perhaps these together with over-

successfulgrain monoculture?But for many people the present is alarming enough. Thebiological effects of above-ground testing of nuclear weaponsand of the uses of drugs like thalidomide are sufficiently horri-fying to draw world-wide attention and deep concern. But the lessspectacular changes occurring all over the planet, although inthemselves not so eye-catching, are perhaps more disturbing incombination. The most

profound problemsare also the oldest:

the increasing numbers of mankind and the supplies of food andshelter. Beyond mere subsistence lie questions of the quality oflife-bodily and mental health, happiness, fulfilment,joy. Theultimate source of all the benefits of life is the earth itself andman's relationship to all its life and resources.

One thing is becoming very clear: that man's life.isintricately twoven into the whole web of life on the earth (Wagner, 1960).

is astonishing powers have not enabled him to 'control'nature in any categorical sense;merely to administer much more fprofound shocks or disturbances than ever before. But the inter- 'locked nature of earthly relationships ensures at least the possi-bility of more profound repercussions-often coming fromunexpected quarters and with long delays.

The idea that a more and more urbanised and artificial

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Man in his EcologicalSettinghuman environment is less and less exposed to these reper-ussionsis dangerouslyfalse. No matter how specialisedouractivities become, no matter how artificial their immediate

environment, no matter how much local and immediate con-' trol may be exercised,we e lanet's ecologyand weignore this fact at our peril. The inhabitantsof air-conditionedautomated houses,the workersin electronics research labora-tories, the riders in driverlesstrains, the users of internationalvideophones,and those who play chesswith computersneed, asof old,foodand water.They are alsodemandingsecondhomes,

hugeareasofland and water for recreationand are

movingmat-

erials,informationand themselvesabout withincreasingvolumeand frequency.'Megalopolis'is here (Gottmann, I g6I ) :the 40-milliongalaxiesof human beingsbetweenBostonand Washing-ton, Lancaster and Brighton are the emergent form of man'shabitat (Hall, 1966).Visionarieslike Doxiadis (1966) foreseean eventual link-up of these into the world-settlement,Ecu-menopolis.

In many parts of the embryonicworld-settlement,millionsofmen are living at subsistencelevel and below. Famine anddisease are common-place in large areas of Africa, Asia,Southern and Central America.Both the migrationsof some of

, these people to the wealthier areas and the support given bythese more fortunate nations to those in distress make no ap-preciable difference. The awful truth is that most human

beingson earth are very poor; a few are by contrast very richand the gap is wideningas the poorest multiply most rapidlywhile increasingtheir foodsuppliestoo slowly.Let us hope thatthe paternalisticand guilty concernof the fewrich nations forthe multitudinouspoorisonlythe beginningof along,sustainedand more fundamental attack on the problem.

The solutionmust come about in two ways:in the firstplacethere are the enormousethical problemsraised by the need to

make choices and decisionsaffectingthe relationshipsbetweenmen and all other formsof life and between different humangroups; secondly there is the problem of understanding thenature of allthose relationshipsin order to createmore effectiveand sympatheticcontrolsover the problem. This book is con-

?j' , cernedwith the aspectof understandingthe complexsystemsofactivities in the wholecontext of the planet's eco_lo ic

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Man in his EcologicalSetting

systems.We must hope that greater understanding will be ofhelp in the continuing debates and dialoguesabout the vexedethical problems which are involved. For these latter super-

vene :superior knowledgeof howthe world'secologyand man'splacein it isstructured,and the better controlthat should followonly serves to sharpen the points of the ultimate problems ofvalue. The means beg the questionof ends.

Fortunately there are now a number of signsof awareness,even though expediency may cause progress to be halting.Writing of the International BiologicalProgramme, AnthonyTucker ( i g68)said that it 'has been described as the most am-

bitious scientificprogrammeever undertaken for peaceful pur-poses. In a grand sense it is geared to the increasingneed ofmankind to understand and nurture the environment, ratherthan exploit it for means that are opportunist or, ultimately,out of the desperationof hunger. There is an astonishinglackof detailed knowledgeof the interdependenceof livingsystems,or of the impact of human activityon establishedsystems.We

do not knowhow to make use of thepotential abundance of thesea, nor understand what it really means when apparentlyincidental speciesdie because of some man-wrought change.But biologists and naturalists alike are unswerving in theircertainty that beforeinterferinganymoreseriouslywithexistingcomplexlivingrelationshipsan effortmust be made to under-stand them ... this is not simply a matter of learning, it is amatter of survival'.

All this may seem somewhat removed from the day-to-dayproblems of housing developments,parking, open spaces, thelocation of industry or the renewal of shoppingcentres. Quitethe reverseis true. Whilst town and countrysidewerephysicallydistinctivein the past, increasinglywe live in a more regularand intimate contact with the whole of the earth's surface.Foxpractical convenience we may distinguish 'urban' planning

from 'regional' planning but in reality the problemsweface areso integrated as to make it dangerousto take too circumscribed

(

a view.The challengeis the need to managethe resourcesof thewhole human environment, for man to 'create for himself abetter relationshipwithin nature if he is not to have an irre- \trievablyadverseimpact on the environment' (Arvill, 1967).

This kind of awareness is now growingin the ranks of the

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Man in his Ecological Setting. planning profession and among its client groups. But the fullest

recognition of the nature of the problems and therefore of themeans to tackle them are hindered to some extent by an accident

of history. At the beginning of the present century it was be-coming clear that there was a need for a new kind of pro-fessional skill, or a milieu for existing skills, to cope with the

. nineteenth-century towns and their continued rapid growthinto the twentieth. In Great Britain, the most vociferous, articu-late and well-organised bodies concerned were those with theconstruction and design skills of architecture, engineering andsurveying, together with their colleagues in the legal profession.Although the recent infusion of other persons from difFerentbackgrounds-and especially geography, economics and thesocial sciences-has caused some changes of attitude there is stilla considerable intellectual and practical inheritance from con-struction and design.

. An underlying thme of this book is that a fundamentalreorientation is nee e m ot the co1ceptual baS1S and the prac-

of planning. ilst retaining the vitally im-portant understanding of the operations ofbuilding, engineeringand the measurement and transference of land, the professionneeds a far greater awareness of the processes of change in thehuman environment, the underlying reasons for them, theirmanner of accomplishment, the complex web of interactionsbetween human groups and much greater skill in the techniques

of foreseeingand

guidingchange.It is perhaps significant that one of the great sources of in-spiration for physical planners was a biologist-Patrick Geddes- and that the title of his major work was 'Cities in Evolution'(Geddes, 1915). But much of his message has become garbledand, in the intervening half-century, man's habitats and hissocieties have undergone profound change; the time is ripe fora reassessment. The image of planning in the future must be

drawn not so much from building as from gardening.j

The idea of competition is central to ecology. EvolutionaryV' theories of the development of specieshave concentrated on the

P(i/yi strugglefor survival and shown that long drawn-out processes

j& , ." of change in living creatures involving greater specialisationof skills in adaptation have produced the plant and animalkingdoms we know today. The process is still continuing and is

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likelyto go on as conditionschange and especiallyas man in-creases ?is powers.

-- ___._ .

Plants tend to multiply in conditions favourable to their

growth whilst many animals have specialisedtheir behaviourpatterns and exhibit some locationalspecialisationin their ac-tivities.They have burrows and nests for domesticand repro- ] i,ductivefunctions,'workareas' for food-gathering(in predators,these will be areas occupiedby their prey), someanimals, e.g. ! St-

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dolphins, monkeys and others seem to select or adapt areas ' fi lsuitable for play. Becausedifferent aspects of the creatures'life tend to occur in separate locations, they must travel be-

'lut1tween them and quite complex tracks or channels of com-munication can be discerned. These take a rich variety offorms: the salmon uses rivers to commute between the deepsea where he spendsmost of his 'working' life and the middleand upper reaches of fresh-water rivers where he breeds. Therabbit has well-markedtracks between hisgrazingareasand his \livingquarters. )

The animal world displaysa rich complexityof activities, ,locationsand gymunications but if weconsiderany individualspecies the range of behaviour and spatial patterns is quite jsmall. Relativelysmallbrain-powerand a consequentlyheavy \reliance on instinctiveresponsegivesall but the 'highest' ani-mals a very limited range of adaptability.

Theevol tiou ofhomosapiensshows astrongcontrast.Possession firlof

prehensileforepawsand a

largebrain has enabledman within

il "ritless than half a millionyears to outstrip all the rest. The last J.ten thousand years has witnessed the rise of our speciesto a Pr 'positionof ecologicaldomination. In the dawn of human de- ,velopmentit seemsthat the differentiationof behaviourpatternsand the adaptation of and to spaces was limited. Similarly, , ,


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Man in his Ecologicalsettingthe modern vehicleassemblyplant, chemical works (especiallypetroleum refining)and steelworks.

Similarly, distribution to wholesalers, retailers and con- ,sumers exhibits

rapid changein methods and the differen- .'

tiation and re-integration of activities whilst personal, social ,,and domesticaspectsof life are becoming very diverseindeed,particularly where real incomesare risingquickly.

Highlyspecialisedactivitiescarried out in speciallysuitable oradapted placesat large numbersofseparate locationshave to beconnected together. If they were not, man's economy andsocietywould collapsein the extreme case. Where connections

are poor, or temporarilyabsent, serious dislocationsoccur andthe livesof individualsare reduced in scope.Communicationscan be seen both as the consequencesand

th prerequisitesof spatial separation of activities. The foot-wayswithin the villageand between the villageand placesout-side become the streets of the early city, the great rivers, theconduits, the pipes and the written documents. From these

times onwards we have successivelyimprovedcommunicationsand substituted one form for another. More efficientforms haveousted the less efficientwhich either disappeared or becameused for lessdemanding purposesas when the railwayreplacedthe canal as a bulkcarrierformost,but not all purposes.A moreimportant type of change is the substitution of non-materialcommunicationsfor thosewhichinvolvethe movementof peopleor goodsas when telephonemessagesreplacea personal journeyor the carriage of mails. We should notice especiallyciprocalrelationshipsbetween the,_19_eionof activities and the

\growth of communications;spatial separation of activities re-quires communication between them, but the introduction of\a means of communicationmay itself encourage that spatialseparation.

Wehave identifiedthree facetsin the ecologicalprocesswith \

particular reference to human affairs. First, the successivedi-versification and increasing complexityof rles and functions Qand the contexts within which these are performed;second,as 'Sa consequenceour great ability to create special 'habitats' forthis very large range of activities whether by adaptation tophysicalspaceor the directadaptationofspace(typicallybuildingand engineering works); and third, the evolution of a rich

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variety of communicationswhich we need and enjoy in order to interconnect the locationsof activities.

1 We must be quite clear that this division is made for dis-' cussiononly-in

fact these facets areintimatelypnnected.

Theproduction and use of special spaces and places in whichparticular activitiescan be carried on is closelylinked with thedivisionof labour or specialisationof rolesin human evolution;similarly,communicationsarise directly out of those processesand also enable them to proceedfurther.

t So far we have partly outlined an ecological system (oreco-system)from the human standpoint. But to state that it

evolvesleavesan important questionunanswered;whyand howdoes it change?What providesthe dynamismfor its evolution?The answers derive from a look at an essentialfeature of eco-systems-competitivebehaviour-which we shall interpret inhuman terms.

\...All livingcreatures,plant and animals, competefor the sur-

vival of their speciesand compete for conditions which will

favour survival.A snake,to findfood,must seek out those areaswhich his prey inhabits. He must find shelter from the rodentsand birds which prey on him. He will use certain paths alongwhich to range in search of his prey and which minimise his

. chancesof beingpreyed upon. The complexset of relationshipswhich exist is the ecologyof that area. Consider now somedisturbance of this system,let us say an increase in sparrow-hawks. More snakes will be eaten, the creatures on which thesnakesprey will tend to survive and multiply. The increasednumbers of small voles and shrews,frogs and mice will havetheir effectson grubs and insects,grassesand other plants. This.may reduce the foodsupplyand habitats of other creatures andplants and soon. The readerwillbe able to think ofmany otherreal or imaginaryexamplesdrawn from his own experienceorreading.

'

Severalpoints must be noticed. First the primary action ofcompetitivebehaviour (the sparrowhawk'ssearch for meals),second, the sequence of responses in the eco-systemwhichfollowedand third, that whilst the hawks, acting with self-interest,started the ball rollingthe repercussionsbecomequitecomplex and far-reaching, affecting many members of theliving communitywhohad perforceto makeadjustmentsthem-

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Man in his EcologicalSettingselves.In fact, eco-systemstend to be sdf-regulatingand reachequilibriumstatesknown as climaxecologiesin which the wholecommunity of plants and animals, predators and prey, co-

exist in a state of mutual interdependence. Climaxes can bedisturbedby major forcesonly,such as climaticor geographicalupheavals, or by the rise of a very superior animal. The IceAgesprovide examplesof the former, the (geologically)recentrise of man exemplifiesthe latter.

For countlessages the world probably consistedof climaxecologiesor eco-systemsin which change was so gradual andprotracted that they were for all practical purposesclimaxes.

Human evolution is so advanced and rapid (and apparentlyaccelerating) that our speciesnot only dominates the planetbut, apart from a few isolated and inhospitableareas (e.g. thepolar ice caps) and areasof verysparse population (e.g.centralAustralia,Northern Canada) eco-systems,with humans domi-nant, are evolvingvery rapidly indeed.

But the human speciesitself,in a positionof almostcomplete

1

dominanceover the planet, is richlydiversified.Our millionsofindividuals,with their complex groupings and multitudinousfunctions,needs,aspirations,our many activitiesand their loca `S'-tions,richlycross-connectedand involved,in fact fonna humaneco-s stem.This, too, is driven forward in its evolutionlargely by

j j \competitivebehaviour.Let us see how this happens. It will behelpfulto use one or two casesasexamplesand then to conclude , s'in

generalterms. Let us imagine first of all a small clothing

lie 1manufacturingfirm,With-itWeatherwear,Ltd. Thisis a highly ,';J zcompetitive business and experience of the trade will havetaught the proprietor,Mr. A. that certain thingsare important iJ(to him: he must be near wholesalersand retailersservinga large l y

1market; he must be in touch with the quicksilver processof .. .changesin fashion;he must have raw materials in great varietyand small or large quantitiescloseat hand and there should be

a large pool of partly-skilledcasual labour (usually women)nearby.Mr. A will alwaysbe scanningthe world around and evalu-

ating his positionin it. We have already seen that the humaneco-systemcompriseslocated activitiesoccupyingspaceswhichare interconnected by communicationsflowing in channels.Mr. A's part of thesystemconsistsfor the mostpart of a suiteof

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workrooms (1845 houses knocked about, Mr. A the seventhnon-residential occupant since 1927) which he rents annuallyfrom an 8o-year old widow. The most important and regular

communications which flow to and from this space are (a) adaily trip by Jaguar from Mr. A's suburban home 4 miles away(b) a similar trip by Mini-van used by his 19-year-old son, A

junior, who works in the business (c) about 20 trips by bus,bicycle and on foot by his all-female staff, most of whom live inobsolescent housing within a 2-mile radius (d) innumerable

trips in the van by Ajunior to inspect materials in mills andwarehouses and collect sample cloths etc. and also trips to

wholesalers and retailers to show them With-it Weatherwear'slatest offerings on the market. Most of these trips are of lessthan 2 miles, many of them are in and around the large citycentre i mile away (e) a large number of telephone calls to

mills, warehouses, wholesalers, retailers, mostly within tenmiles (f) sense-data flowing into the premises include the cease-less noise of traffic, the usually drab grey sky, air which is full

of pollutants, altogether a dispiriting, even depressing en-vironment. The A's and their workers seldom notice all this-

having been inured to it. Their activities impinge on the passer-by in similar fashion; there is a whirr ofmachinery, the buildingitself is drab and badly maintained, though its visual offence,being at the general level of the area, passes almost unnoticed.The coming of the Mini-van is more obvious.

There is much else we coulddescribe; inputs

ofwater,electricity, mails, parcel deliveries, outputs of sewage, garbage

and so on. But we have sufficient for our purpose. We have infact sketched in outline the activity systemof With-it Weatherwear

(Chapin, 1965).Mr. A, like all of us, behaves competitively, scanning the

world around and adjusting in an optimising fashion (or so he

thinks). Many of these actions have little direct effect on his

activity system; our concern is with those that do. Let us assumefor example that over a period Mr. A has noticed that it hasbecome increasingly difficult to recruit and retain his workers.He has tried increasing wages but this has had only a temporaryeffect. He now finds that the problem arises from local authorityhousing clearance and redevelopment at lower densities. Not

only are there fewer women within easy reach of his factory,

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in the centre of town. Her son, Bjunior, was apprenticed at a

big electrical engineering firm six miles away and has workedthere since. He is now 29 and his 2?-year-old wife is expecting

their first child. He travels to work by motor cycle and to thelocal College of Advanced Technology where he is studyingfor a diploma in management three evenings a week. He wantsto 'improve himself', to buy a car and have holidays abroad.His wife gently suggests to him that they should buy a house,adding (out of her mother-in-law's earshot) that the area is

'going down' rapidly and it would be nice to have a garden forthe

baby.Mrs. B senior is not unaware of the problem but hesitates togive any hint that she may wish to live with the young people.Moreover, any move would be a big wrench for her; she wouldnot like to travel further to her job in the city, she is gettingolder and it is tiring enough, she has church, old friends and

neighbours, the over-6o's club and a lifetime's attachment tothe area.

The arrival of With-it Weatherwear forces these and manyother issues to a head. The area clearly is going down, the noiseis increasing, women in curlers are seen arriving at 8.0o a.m., aMini-van seems to be forever racing its engine to park outsideor to roar off on dozens of seemingly life-and-death missions.

Young Mrs. B (now the proud mother of a month-old child)is distracted because the baby is always being woken by these

disturbances;Mr. B is so unsettled that his studies are

sufferingand he is increasingly concerned about his mother's future. Aseries offamily conferences is held. A great deal of debate resultsin the decision to look for a modern 3-bedroomed bungalow at a

price they can afford and in a convenient location. Weekends

of searching and consultation of newspapers and estate agentsensues. Eventually everyone is satisfied. A local builder has anew bungalow in course of construction some seven miles from

the centre of town. Public transport to the centre is not verygood but there is the possibility that old Mrs. B will find asimilar job in the growing shopping area on the estate. Thisis within walking distance. The longer journey for Mr. B towork (he has passed his exam and confidently expects pro-motion in the firm) is a little onerous being a somewhat tortuousand very congested ten miles. There was another bungalow,

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Man in his EcologicalSettingonly slightly more expensive,rather closer to the works butwhat finallyclinched the issue was the news that a new dual-carriagewayroad wasshortlyto be completed.This would lead

from the vicinityof the new house to within 3 miles of hiswork,making his daily 'commute' much easier. (Also, thought theshrewdyoung B, house values would tend to rise.)

'Before her marriage, the young Mrs. B was a keen tennis

player and now that the baby was six months old, and theweather was fine she began to think of playing again. Aneighbour invited her tojoin the local sports club. The clubcommittee had a problem. In the ig2o's when it was foundedit had been rather 'exclusive',enjoyeda fine site, and had in-vestedsteadilyover the years in pavilion, changingrooms,barand dance floor,pitches, turf, courts and the like. Now popu-lation in the area was growing and new membership appli-cations poured in. Tennis was a particular problem. It wasincreasingly popularand memberswerehaving greater difficultyin bookingcourts.The debate in committeeranged widely. Lay

out another court? Out of the question, it would encroach oneither the car park or the cricket field or both. Obtain facilitiesat another club?Unthinkablydifficultand fraughtwith danger.Build more courts on a new site? Land was running short andbeing sold at 'very fancy' pricesto builders and speculators-inany event it would cut down the social contact betweenmem-bers and involveplayers injourneys from the overflowcourt,back to the club

headquarters.Sell

upthe whole site and start

afresh?No, they would never recoup their great investmentinthe ground, and never find so attractive a location.

One committee member, an operations research manager,pointed out that many bookingswerein fact neverclaimed andthe club rules sometimesprevented the courts being used byothers in the queue. He had done a little work on the problemand came up with a provisionalsolution. He explainedthat it

was arrived at by 'linear programming',not many of the othermembers understood this but were swayed by his convincingassertionthat in fact a revisionof timings,the bookingrulesanda slight reduction in the playingof singlesgamescould almostdouble the capacityof the presentcourts! The motion that thisschemebe tried out for a season was carried unanimously.SoMrs. B had no difficultyin getting a game with her neighbour,

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though she heard older members grumbling about the revised

booking arrangements...... Our experience of the everyday world confirms the view that

\.human relationships with the environment can be understoodecologicalor eco-system(Wagner, 1960). In terms of human

vN9 behaviour we identify the components of the system as activities

located in spaces. The activities interact or are connected bymeans of physical or non-material communications which flow'through channels. The behaviour of individuals and groups is

clearly competitive and is motivated by a constant scanning of

theenvironment which from time to time results in action to

modify either activities, spaces, communications, channels orsome combination of these or their relationships.

Obviously these processes are complex both in themselves

(i.e. for an individual or group) and in the ways in which theymay be interwoven. But some structural simplification is

necessary and possible. Chapin suggests that the individual or

group is possessed of a certain set of values concerning relation-

ships with the environment. These lead to needs and wants on thebasis of which goals are formed which lead to the considerationof coursesof action, a decision and action. This, when carried outmodifies the relationship between the individual and his en-vironment but it may also alter the environment and the de-cision-maker. Values are thus modified and the cycle beginsagain. This complete cycle Chapin calls a behaviour pattern

(Chapin, 1965, pp. 29-39and

62-8).' We are concentrating here on the actions which individualsand groups may take. The imaginary examples we related,whilst sketched in simple outline, remind us that such actionsare not simple but nevertheless certain elements can be dis-

tinguished (McLoughlin, 1965).First, in relation to the spaces within which activities occur,

three elements are apparent:(a) People may adapt their behaviour to enable them to

improve the suitability of an existing space as did the sports clubin relation to the tennis court problem. We will call thiselement of change space-behavioural.

(b) A more suitable space for the activity may be sought asin the case of With-it Weatherwear; this necessarily involves a

change in location and is usually motivated by a desire to alter

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Man in his EcologicalSettingthe pattern of spatial relationshipsbetween the activity andothers with which it must interact. We will call these elementsspace-locational(Luttrell, 1962;Goddard, in67).

(c) Buildingor engineeringworksmay be used to modifyorto construct afresh a space suitable for an activity. Examplesabound: factories,warehouses,shops,offices,garagesand resi-

'

dential buildingsof all kinds; alsoplayingfields,parks, stadia,and other outdoor works. The B familyhappened to resort tothis in buying a new house (the builder having speculativelyanticipated their 'commission'). We will call such elements

space-developmental.In similar fashionwe can consider the connectionsor com-munications :

(a) A veryfamiliaraspectof our livesis the waywe adjust tothe communicationchannels available to us. We drive on theleft (in Britain), slow down in congestedconditionsand try touse the 'phone in off-peakperiods; givena certain route wemaychange modes of transport in order to optimise e.g. we mayabandon the car in favour of the bus; or we may use a com-bination of modes rather than one, e.g. train or aeroplane forpart of a journey, car for the remainder. This element ofchange in communication behaviour we will call channel-behavioural.

(b) We are accustomed to seek the xasiest path through anetworkof communicationsin order to minimiseeitherdistance

or time or to increase the pleasurable qualitiesof thejourney.The young Mr. A in his Mini-van would be an adept at this,knowing the city 'like the back of his hand'. He would un-doubtedly adjust his routes to changing conditions, e.g. newtrafficlights,one-waystreets,a changeof addressby a customerand so on.When With-it Weatherwearmovedhe would havetoadjustalmost all his trips to newroutes.So would the staff andMr. A seniorin hisJaguar. We will call this elementof changechannel-locational.

(c) Finally,formanyreasons,new channelsof communicationare needed from time to time. Transport technologymay re-quire them (railwaysin the nineteethcentury),new materialsorenergy may haveto be shipped(e.g.pipelinesand the electricitygrid in the twentiethcentury). More familiar is the build-up ofdemand for movement alongcertain paths requiring expansion

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Man in his EcologicalSettingof channel capacities (e.g. the dual-carriagewayroad whichyoung Mr. B will use when it is completed).We will call thiselement channel-developmental.

We must stressthat these six elementsare drawn out for con-venience of expositiononly. They are very seldom found inisolation;our examplesindicate that. For instance, whilst theA's firm made what was predominantly a space-locationalchange somespace-developmentalchange was present (knock-ing down walls, concretingthe forecourt),and a good deal ofchannel-locationalchange ensued, especiallyin the van trips

and the machinists'journeys to work. The B familyplumpedfor action that was partly space-developmentaland partlyspace-locational but obviously many other elements wereassociated.The sportsclub's alteration of the way in which thetenniscourtscould be usedwas almostpurely space-behavioural.

In reality the actions we take in modifyingthe environmentand our relationshipswith it are mixesof a great number ofelements.These mixesvary greatly accordingto who is takingaction, in what sort of society,how powerfuland wealthy orweak and poor he may be, whether the action is taken by afamily,a socialclub, a firm or an individual. These mixes willalso contain varying amounts of irrationality; in other wordsnot all aspectsof human behaviour can be explainedin formalterms, there are usuallyirrational and random elementsin ouractivities.But we believe that the six broad elements we have

givenare sufficientto help in a preliminary understandingandwe encouragethe reader to interpret his own actions and otheraspectsof the world around him in these terms.

One final point must be stressedwhich derivesdirectlyfromthe eco-systemapproach we are usingand which is essentialtomuch of the later material in this book: the chain-reaction' manner in which the systemevolves.We saw how the increasednumbers of hawkstriggeredthis off in our earlier examples.Inthe later discussionof With-itWeatherwearetc.we saw how the' introduction of Mr.A's workshopsnext door to Mrs. B and herfamily finally brought about a move and how, partly in con-sequenceof the young Mrs. B'slikingfor tennis the club had tomodify its internal arrangements. Let us be clear about this;we are notsayingthat With-it Weatherwear'saction was the sole' cause of Mrs. B moving house, or that, had it not been for

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young Mrs. B's desire for a game of tennis, the rearrangementsin the club would never have come about.

What we are saying, and the point is vital, is that optimisingactiontaken

byan indioidualor

groupat a

particulartimehas

reper-cussionswhichalter thecontext fordecisionsto actbyotherindividuals(or groupsat subsequenttimes.Whenever we take action in our

environmentin our own interest (or appoint agents to act forus) repercussionsspread out likerippleswhen we throw a stoneinto a pool. These ripples are effects on communications,channels, spaces and activities. They merge with the ripples fpersisting from other previous actions, they ebb and flow,

\

compound and dissipate in complex ways. But they alter thestateof thesystemand thus they alter the basis on whichthe next \action will be made, or they push someoneover the threshold zof taking action, or they affectthe type of action taken.Very large numbers of decisions are being made by themultitude of individuals and groups compromising humansociety. Their actions set up complex repercussionsin the

ecological system.We may think of these actionsand

reper-cussions(and further actions based on them, ad infinitum ...)as forming a ceaselessflowof change through time (Hoover,1948,Chapter 9). Sincethis isboundlessand occupiesthe wholeof the eco-system?v -,??ilfcallit systemicchange.This affects allrrimbersof the human (and animal and plant) communityforgoodand ill sincewe are all involvedin our own eco-system.Weshall say later that planning must seek to guide and control

systemicchangebut beforewe do so,we must lookmore closelyat how individual and group actions to modify the environ-ment are motivated and constrained and how they are carriedout.

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., 1 "


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ModifyingActionsand the Environment .

tivity. To a greater or lesserdegreemuch of the vast canvas ofan individual's life is 'place-related'-that is, certain activitiesand commnmcations occur at certainlocationsand alongcertain

routes in a regular and patterned way. The more regular andeyjened- (Le.in both time and space)human activitiesare, th -morethey are susceptibleto certain kinds of analysisand themor they are the concernof the planner.* We are concernedthen with the motivations which people fieel_ beagse of4is-s_atisf_acti_ons (howeverslight) with these place-relatedaspectsoftheir lives :with the suitabilityof the spaceswithin which theycarry on their activity (house, school, factory,

shopetc.) by

virtue of the benefitsthey enjoyascomparedwith the coststhatare incurred; with the suitabilityof the location in relation toall other located activities with which frequent interaction isnecessarythus incurringa set of interaction costswhichmay becompared with the resultingbenefits.

Put another way, any particular activity (residence,work, yrecreation, etc.) being carried on at a particular location (this

house, this office,that sports club) has a set of costs and a set 1, tAl/'thof benefitsat any time. Both the costs and the benefitshavetwo elements: those which arise from the nature of the activityand the kind and quality of the spacein which it is carried onwe refer to as activity.costsandbenefits;those which relate to theinteractions with many other activities at other locations weshall call communicationcostsand benefits.We shall deal a littlelater with the

problemsencounteredin

definingand

measuring )these costs and benefitsand comparingthem. Our presentpur- ;/ Aposeis simplyto suggestthat activitieswhich peopledecideonby way of altering their relationships with the physical i environment (as discussed in Chapter i) arise because theybelievethat in carryingon their particular activityin the presentspace and at the present location the ratio of total benefitstocosts is moving in their disfavour (Lichfield, 1956, Chapters1-11).We have seenthat there are a number ofelementsin the formofactionthat arises:behaviouralchangesalter the nature of the

* Many activities are regular and patterned-eating meals, going to bed, havinga bath, the playing of a football game (the patterning of the activities inside thestadium)-yet are not the direct concern of the planner but rather of the architect,the engineer, the football club manager and the lawyer.

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Modifying Actions and the Environment

activity itself or the 'mix' of communication modes employedfor interaction with others, developmental changes make

physical-form alterations to the space (building, etc.) within

which the activity is housed or to the channels which carrycommunications whilst locational changes occur when the

activity seeks a new location or the communications are re-routed through the network of channels.

We stressed in Chapter i that these were elements which

usually occur in many different combinations and seldom in a

'pure' form. Here we would add that the type of modifyingactions considered or chosen

and th squencein which a

number of lments in the total action are carried out will de-

pend on the nature of the activity itself and the space in whichit is housed, the social, political, legal and economic context of_the activity and the 'actor', the precise nature, dimension andincidence of the relevant costs and benefits, the nature and_,quality of thc communication opportunities which are available.nd the personal collective tastes and whims of the individual

or_group 'actor'.For example, a family man who feels his house is too small has

the choice of building an extension (developmental change), re-

organising the household's activities within the existing house

(behavioural change), or moving to a larger house (locationalchange). A wholesale grocer faced with a similar problem has asimilar range of choices open to him. But the choice of type of

action or of the sequence of actions for both of them dependson the type of activity (what sort of family is it, in terms of size,ages, income, etc., what sort of wholesale grocery?) the natureof the spaces (number of rooms, quality of structure and so onin the house, floorspace, hoists, lifts, ventilation, refrigeration andso on for the warehouse) the alternative houses and warehousesavailable, the communications available at all those alter-natives, the social and economic background within which both

men must operate and their personal ('subjective') preferencesabout place-related and other aspects of their lives.

Identifying the possible courses of actionIt is very difficult to generalise about the ways in which house-

holds, firms and other corporate bodies identify the possible. courses which are open to them when they seek to change their

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ModifyingActionsand the Environment

situation because of the very great diversityof activitiesandpeoplewe are tryingto consider.It isthisdiversitywhich makesthe human environment complex. In the long term we must \

hope for much more research into decisionsof this kind and the ; ihuman motivationsbehind them.But eventhoughwe are ill-sup- .'pliedwithsuchknowledgeweshouldrememberthat it is the effects\of the subsequent actions with which the planner must deal. /This being so, it is perhaps sufhcient here not to attempt any- tthing like a comprehensivereview of a very wide range of tactivities and decision-makersbut rather to give a few illus /-trative examples.

Byfar the most numerous of decision-makersare households,and residentialactivityis the biggestsingleuser of urban land.The householderor familyman has a number of characteristicwaysof reviewingthe coursesopen to him. He may first thinkof developmental changes-buying an adjoining plot of landif he wants more garden space or selling (or leasing) if he hastoo much, building on an extension if he wants extra room in

the house,installinga heating systemand soforth. He identifiestheseopportunitieslargelyon the basisofhisexperienceand thatof friendsand colleagues,the influenceof massmedia urging orsuggestingwhat he could or should do, consultingwith pro-fessionaladvisers such as architects,and engineersand trades-men of variouskinds,all of whomgivegeneraladvice as well asdrawing up more detailed recommendations for the house-holder's consideration. _

When consideringlocational change his problems areferent. His field of choice at firstappearsvast but is quicklyre-

l- .

duced by reference to the price-rangesof housesavailable, the ,areas which he regards as desirable in terms of access to hiswork,to shops,to schoolsand in terms of itssocialand aestheticcharacter (Wilkinsonand Merry, 1965).Even when the prob-lem is thus narrowed down the taskof selectinga 'short-list' can

be formidable.Information is the main difficultyhere. Houseson the market are advertised in numerousways: privately, bythe vendor pastinga noticein his windowor advertisingin thepress;or by the employmentof an estateagent. Even in small ormedium-sizedtown the person seekingaccommodation mustsearch through a multitude of differentinformationsources tomake sure he has covered the field. Many people accept that

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to attempt a comprehensivereview would be too difficultand. time-consumingand partially self-defeatingsince a good pros-pect which is knownmay be bought by someoneelse whilethe

poor seeker is trying to find out if other suitable houses areavailable!Clearlythe 'classical'economicnotion of perfect competition

in the market, dependingas it doeson perfectinformationto allbuyersand sellerssimplywill not hold waterwhenoneexamines

the housingmarket. A point we take up elsewhere(Chapter 3)is that, accepting this, the idea that house purchasers make'sub-optimal' choices,i.e. ones which are admittedly not thebest possible,is a more realisticone. Also such decisionscanusefullybe interpreted as moving away from an unsatisfactoryposition-making a tangible improvement-ratherthan the attain-ment of the best possiblesituation.

Behaviouralchange in the household is most difficult of allto discuss since it is so frequent and small-scale. But certainexamplesof more substantialchange can be given. Rearrange-

ment of activities within the house, the use of rooms for newpurposes,the letting of spareroomsto lodgersor 'paying guests',. are examples of decisions requiring some deliberation and

which alter the way in which the space is used, perhaps ob-viating the need for altering the house physicallyor for re-movingto a new home. Such decisionsare reached most oftenby discussionof a few alternatives within the household,withor without the advice of bank

managers,solicitorsor friends.

The small firm, in manufacturing, wholesale or retail dis-

tribution, personalor professionalservicesgoesabout the prob-

lem of identifyingpossiblecoursesof action in wayswhich arenot dissimilarfrom those of the household, except that pro-fessional and other expert advice may more often be used

(Luttrell, 1962). This is not only because being in businessor professional life makes the firm more aware of the

benefits of skilled specialist knowledge but also that ex-penditure incurred in obtaining such advicemay be allowableas an expensefor tax purposes-a remissionnot usually enjoyedby the householder. Furthermore, even for small firms thematerial risk inherent in making decisionsis greater than formost households.As we sawin Chapter i smallfirms,likehouse-holds, may consider physical development, relocation or

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changesin their operationsand methods as elementsin a num-ber of alternativepossibilitiesamongstwhichthey will choose.

The largefirms,with even more at stakein such matters tendto

givemore

lengthyand elaborate considerationto these issues.

The final decisionwillrest with the board of directorswho willwish to have the essenceof thoroughlyworked-out alternativespresented to them. Such reports may have involvedmonths,even years of internal debate and investigationbacked up byexpert study by specialistswithin the firm. Generally speaking,larger firms have more expertsavailable within their staff-law-yers, accountants, the construction and designskills as well as

their production, research and marketing staffs-but even theywill have recourse to consultants over particular issues re-quiring highly specialisedknowledge;for example, advice onthe taxation laws of a foreign country in which investmentisbeing considered.

Public bodies-local governmentsand departments of state,public corporationsand the nationalisedindustries-tackle their

problemsin much the same way as firmsof similar size.Dif-ferences arise in the isolation of alternative coursesin so far astheir motivations are unlike those of theprivate sector-the ab-sence of a profit motiveand of a market mechanism,reflectingsupply and demand for services-and because much of theexpert advice upon which they must call is available in otherpublic departments who are charged with the responsibilityforgivingthe necessaryassistance(Lichfield,1956,Chapter 18).For example, most acquisitions of real property by localgovernments must have the approval of the District Valuerof theDepartmentof Inland Revenue who is able to giveadviceon what are reasonablepricesfor a number of alternativepiecesof land which are under consideration. If a government de-partment is seekingnew accommodation,the advice of archi-tectural and other staffsof the Ministryof PublicBuildingsand

Works will be obtained on several alternative possibilities,perhaps including adapting, converting, buying or leasingexistingpremises,as well as tentative estimatesfor newbuilding.

Constraints on possible actionNearly all actions aimed at altering the environment,our re- .lationshipswith it, or the waysin which we carry out activities

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or communications are limited or constrained in severalways.

Some constraints on freedom of action are due to nature:the nature of rocks and

subsoil,the

slopeand

aspectof land,the

incidence of strong winds, the presenceor absenceof sunshineand rainfall, the probabilityof flooding,of storms and of land-slipsare all examplesof natural constraints.Sometimesman'sactions contribute to a 'natural' constraint as when miningcausessubsidenceor instabilityof thesurface,engineeringworksincrease flood hazards, and imprudent agriculture causes soilerosion.

Many natural constraintscan be mitigatedor evenremovedby engineeringworks-drainage schemes,floodprevention,andslope stabilisation,but obviouslythe climate of an area is not(as yet!) capable of being modifiedthough its effectsmay bereduced by the appropriate design of works. Significant pro-tection against natural hazards and the overcomingof majordifficultiesposed by landform and topographywill alwayscall

for considerablecapital investment. That is why suchmeasuresare usually taken by the community at large and also why anumber of alternative schemes are commonly devised andtested for benefitsand costsbefore a decisionis reached (seetheconcludingsection of this chapter, below) by both public andprivate developers.

; Constraints or limitations on possibleaction also arise be-causeof the presenceof activitieson the land or investmentstoenable activities to occur. It is more difficultto acquire landalready occupiedand used intensively(by housing,or shopsorindustry) than land which is either unused, derelict or in ahighlyextensiveuse such as grazingor forestry.To a verylargeextent these relativedifficultiesare expressedin the marketpriceof land in the existinguse (and leaving aside for the momentlegal and administrative restrictionson its potential.use_whic

is mentionedbelow).The greater the intensityof the use oflandand the higher the investmentsthat have been made in the landand its associatedstructures, plant and capital equipment-inshort, the higher the degree of 'adaptation' to a particularactivity-the greater the price that must be paid either to con-vert it to another (and presumablymore profitable) use or tore-use the investment for a similaractivity.

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ModifyingActionsand the Environment. Limitation can also arise because of difficultieswith com-munications.A possiblesitemay have much to commend it-itmay be the right size, with suitable levels, aspect and local

climate, be suitably drained and otherwise provided with awhole range of utility services,and yet so disposedin relationto other activitieswithwhichfrequent interactionsare necessaryas to make it unsuitable for the particular use in question.Moreover,the site may be geographicallynear to the locationsof those other activitiesand yet inconveniently placed in re-lation to road, rail, pipeline, telephone and other channels ofcommunicationwhich are needed.Asbefore,thesecharacteris-

tics will be reflectedin the price whichis offered for the site byany intending user.

A highly complexweb of constraintsis imposedon the use of \land by the law and administrativeregulationsof allsocieties-

\

whether 'advanced' or otherwise (Heap, 1965). These have \grown up gradually over long periods of time, usually in res- /ponse to pressing problemsas they arose. They form complex ..

accretions of statute, 'common' law, case law and adminis-trative precendent which requires the exerciseof incisivepro-fessionalminds to unravelin many instances.Planninglaw andadministration is a relative newcomer to this scene standingalongsidea vast labyrinth of older formsof land law and regu-lation over construction and use.

Finally there are limitsplaced on the use of land which arisefrom a

society'smores as

appliedto the environment

(notall

of whichhave been formalisedas laws or regulations).Most ofthese govern the mannerin which activities are carried on-theamount of noisethey make, the fumesand smokethey emit, thevehicular traffic they attract, or the appearance of buildingsand plant to house the activity. Many of these limitations areembodiedin the common law (e.g.of torts, nuisancesand mis-feasances)and the statute law (e.g. on buildingstandards and

the emissionof ef?luents).Planning in Britain has taken uponitself to regulate the appearance of certain developments byadministrativeproceduresunder the planningActs and a greatdeal of negotiationis carried on about the designand layoutsofbuildings and other proposalsbetween planning oflicialsand .intending developers.

There are two interrelated frameworkswithin which we can

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study these various constraints on the freedom of action of thedeveloper (or locator or actor) :the market and the law.

The market price of a site will reflectthe constraintsimposed

by natural conditions,by the presenceof investmentin the landto support present activitiesand the costsof removingor miti-gating these limitations; the constraintsimposed by law (andespeciallyplanning law) cannot easilybe removedand thesetoowill be reflectedin the price of the land.

The intending developermust discoverthe extent of all thesevarious constraints so that he knows the area within which hecan manoeuvreand draw

uphis alternativeschemesfrom which

he will select a course of action.

V Agenciesand Methods

Whatever kind of change is contemplated-involving develop-

ment relocation,orchangesin the nature of the activity whether

singlyor in combination-only those which are trivial will becarried out directly by the personor group concerned.Almost

alwaysa greater or lesser number of advisors,agents, contrac-tors and others will be involvedat some or all stagesof the pro-cessof change.

We have already mentioned the sorts of advice which aresought in the period beforechange occurs-in the stage of ex-ploringthe possibilitiesof differentcoursesofaction.The lawyerwill advise on both the precisepoints of law affectingdifferentalternatives and

give his consideredopinion (orseek

counsel's_ specialisedadvice)on more obscureissues;the accountant andthe banker will give their support or advise caution in respectof variousalternatives;the financier will indicate the extent towhich he is prepared to provide funds for the project, othercompaniesmaybe involvedin complexoperationstogetherwiththeir own advisers. In recent years specialisedconsultingfirmshave grown up offering 'package deal' advice tailored to in-

dividual problemsand drawing on the skills of staff membersqualified in economics,law, accountancy,operationsresearchand many other fields. The duration, extent and complexityof' these preliminarieswill vary with the nature and scale of the

, project : a man seekingto build a privatehousemay spenda fewweeksdiscussinghis problemwith his bankers,his solicitor andhis architect, whilst a chemical firm thinking of building a

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plant in a foreign country may well spend years in extremelydetailed investigationand negotiation.**

Developmentcannot occur until a site is owned or a leasehold

interest secured and all statutoryand administrativeprocedurescompleted and impediments removed. At this stage the keyadvisers are still the lawyer and the construction and designprofessions,e.g. architect, landscape architect, engineer andsurveyor.The buildingor engineeringcontractor will certainlyhave been consulted at the stage of site electionamong alter-natives ;once a specificsite is chosenthe contractor will havebegun his own detailed appraisalof how to tackle the (possiblycomplex)job of organisinghis operationson the ground. Heretoo the 'package deal' is emerging whereby firms offer an in-tegrated legal/ economic/financial/ design/ construction/ equip-ping and maintenance serviceto the client; the advantages ofsuch 'one-stop' forms of serviceare obvious. Developmentofcommunication channels involves similar skills and advicethough in many countries post, rail, air and road transport,

power transmissions,water supply,drainage, etc., are to a verygreat extent publiclyowned and controlled,and this results inadvicebeing exchangedand evaluated within and between de-partments of the public service rather than between privateindividuals or firms and independent professionaladvisers andother commercial undertakings. Public developers (as men-tioned earlier) either have a public department availableto

carryout the actual worksor invite tenders from suitable

publiccontractorsin the same way as would a private developer.Newer forms of communication (e.g. pipelines, telemetric

control,closed-circuittelevision,radio-telephony,etc. etc.)havegivenrise to a great varietyof new professionalskillswhich arein a state of rapid evolution.

Locationalchange,removal or relocation must very often beprecededby similar sortsof adviceas in the caseof development.

The new accommodation must be free from legal difficulties,economic appraisals will have been necessary, and financeavailable for the purchaseof the freeholdor a lease,and foranynecessary adaptation (a 'developmental' change, of course).Again the simplicityor complexityof the processof gathering

* See for example The Times (Business News) 25 October 1967. 'The BrightonMarinacase'.

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'ModifyingActionsand the Environment

the advicedependson the nature of the relocation or removal.. A student or single girl moving from one bed sitting-roomor

flat to another may simplyconsult her parents, friendsand bank

manager, whilst a County Council with staff numbering 500or i,ooo movingfrom city centre premisesto a specially-builtsuburban office'campus' facesa rather morecomplexoperationneedingconsiderablygreater breadth and depth of adviceandpreparation.

The operationitself isperformedby one sortof agencyonly-the removal contractor-but an agency which takes a great

varietyof forms. The

singlegirlwill 'contract' withher

boy-friendor her father to transport her few personal belongingsa fewmiles or street blocks;at the other end of the scale specialisedfirms with many yearsexperienceoffer their servicesin movinga family's household effectsin one smooth operation halfwayround the world, involving packing, crating, storage, roadtransport to docks, loading, insurance in transit, unloading,transport to final destination and unpacking; often such an

operation involvesthe use of agents and sub-contractorsbothat 'home' and in the country of destination.There are, however, activities which can relocate with the

greatest of ease where no physicalmovementof materials oc-curs. When a motor-cyclingor car club changes the regularvenue for its meetingsfrom Mr. A's fields to part of Lord B'sestate, little or no physical removal may be needed-yet the

activityhas been relocated justas surelyas the 'bed-sitter' girlchanged her residenceor the County Councilits offices.Behaviouralchangeis characterisedby the use of rather more

'internal' advice. Familiesrearranging their pattern of livinginside a house to accommodateGrandma or increasingamountsof homework,discussthe problem amongstthemselvesand mayshift the furniture about, altering the heating and lightingarrangement,put up a few extra shelvesand build in a cupboardwith little or no recourse to 'outside' aid.Behaviour in the use of communications systemsperhapsillustrates the point in its purest form. We ourselvesusuallyconsider and decide a route to work in the car, or choose totelephonelater, to catch an earlier train, to deliver the Christ-mas presentspersonallyrather than to send them by post,with-out recourseto 'outside' advice.

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But matters are not so simplein larger organisationswherethe internal workingsof manufacturingand commercialfirms,local government,universitiesand national legislaturesmay be

the subject ofincreasinglysophisticatedoperationsresearchadvice.The acceptance of such recommendationsmay involve theorganisationin considerablere-structuringof its wholepatternof operations (which may in part 'spill over' into subsequentdevelopmentsand relocations)or internal behaviour. The exe-cutive agency for such changes is usually the organisationitself-the directors, management and staff of afirm, and aca-demicand administrativestaff ina university-aided to a greateror lesserdegree by the operationsresearch adviserswho maythemselvesbe either members of the organisation or (morefrequently) consultants whose independent advice has beensought.

Evaluation and choice of modifying actionsWe have nowdiscussedthe motivationswhichdrive the actor to

considermodifyinghis relationshipswith the environment,theways in which he identifiespossiblecoursesopen to him, theopportunities and constraints which influence him and themethods by which he seeks to carry out his intentions (eitherdirectlyor through appointed agents).

It now remains to say a little about the way in which hechoosesa particular course.Earlier we suggestedthat there aretwo sets of costsand benefitswhich

applyto the actor

carryingon a particular activityat a particular location:actiaitycostsandbenefitswhich relate to the activityitselfin the particular space(building,area of land, enclosure)includingrents, interest, de-preciation, rates, repairs, wages and salaries, professionalchargesand soforth, and the benefitsderived from that particu-lar space, and communicationcosts and benefits (related to thelocation of the activity in relation to others) such as vehicle

travellingcosts,telephonecharges, rail fares and air fares, to-gether with the benefitsor convenienceassociatedwith all theseinteractions.

We noted earlier that this is an arbitary distinction-for ex-ample the wages paid to employeesmight be regarded as anactivitycost,but the fact that theymay include a smallelementreflectingthe difficultiesof attractingworkersto a location which

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is inconvenientto reach by variousmodes of transport suggeststhat this element is a communicationcost-but it is neverthelessuseful for purposesof discussion.

In general we have assumed that the actor's objectiveis toseek that location and that space for his activity which mini-mises his total (activity and communication) costs whilstmaximisinghis total ber'fits; in other words, that optimalsitu-ation which maximiseshisbenefits/costsratio. It followsthat hisevaluation of possiblecourses of action and his choice will be

. made by assessingthe costs and benefits of the alternativeswhich he considers.**

When a modifyingaction is contemplatedthe actor will be-gin by exploring,at a 'reconnaissance' level the opportunitiesthat are available to him. The waysin which this is done arealmost as varied as human activitiesthemselves.One actor willbegin by consideringlocationalchange and will ring up estateagents and ask them to report on suitable premiseswhich areon the market. Anotherwill justconsiderdevelopmentalchange

and call in his architect to discussdraft plansfor rebuilding,ex-tension or internal alterations. Still others will considerchangesin their 'communicationsmix' issuingedicts forbidding long-distancetelephonecalls,consultingtrade union representativeson the possiblewithdrawal offree transport servicesforworkers,re-negiotiatingrates and conditions with haulage contractors,seekingnew sources(locations)of bulkyraw materials. And yetotherswill firstthink of

changesin the nature of their

activity-volumesof production,officehours, range of servicesprovidedor goodstraded.

The sequenceand relativeemphasiswith whichtheseaspectsofchangeare consideredwilldependin large part on the natureof the activityitself but also to some extent on the personal (orcollectiveor institutional)whims and fancies of the actor. Onecentral-areasmallshopkeeperwill first considerrelocationwhen

a rise in rents ismootedwhilst hisneighbouringcompetitorwillstick it out by making different adjustments because he likesthe view of the street from his shop window.

* What we havejust stated (though using different terms) is in effect the foun-dations of the 'classical' theories of the location of economic activity or the locationof the firm. We shall discuss these, and their inherent difficulties and the object-ions which have been raised in a more suitable context in Chapter 3 which fol-lows.

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In the 'classic' theoriesof location,an equilibriumconditionwas assumedin which eachactivitywasoptimallylocated.Thus,equilibriumwas reached by a longseries of individualmovesin

which each actor acted 'rationally' to optimise his circum-stances.This rationalitywas based on the assumptionof perfectinformation-that is, comprehensiveknowledgeof all the avail-able opportunitiesfor changing his situation. As objectionstothe classictheorieshave longsincepointedout, and as commonknowledge indicates, no one_has such 'perfect' information.Anyonewho has searchedfor a houseto buy knows that of allthe traumatic experienceswhich attend on this operation, per-haps the most extreme is being constantly haunted by thefeelingthat one simplycannot know of all the suitable housesthat are on the market. This fear is frequently given sharpconfirmationwhen, the day after concludinga deal (thankfulthe whole wretched businessis over) one findsa superiorhouseat a lower price on offer in the next street!

But there is another way in whichinformation on alternative

possiblecoursesof action is imperfect.Considerthe complexityof the alternatives(rebuilding,extensions,cutting down labourcosts, moving etc., etc.) and the countlesspermutations andcombinationswhichmight intheorybe examined;in practisetheactor can consideronly a very limited number of discretepos-sibilities.Thesewillarisein a number of ways:in the matter ofrelocation they will be a selectionof the suitable buildingsorsites on the market, in the matter of conversions,adaptions orextensionsof the present building or site they will be 'schemesA, B and C' which the actor and his advisersdraw up, limitedby time, error, energy and 'imagination'.This latter point isimportant-the literature on decision theory points out thatdecision-makershave a field of choice which is in part at leastcircumscribedby their own range of experience,direct or in-direct, and that this is a product of their upbringing,education

and personal qualities.In practisethen, a limitednumber of alternative courseswillpresent themselvesfor considrationand in general, evaluationwill proceedalong the followinglines.

The listsof costsand benefitswhich followare illustrativeonlyandgiven tohelpunderstandingoftheprinciplesinvolved;an ex-haustivelistingfor all activitiesisvirtually impossiblein any case.

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(a) ACTIVITY COSTS

(i) Mortgageredemptionand interest charges.(ii) Chiefrents, head rent or feuduty.

(iii) Leaseholdcharges,interest on loans.(iv) Annual building rents.(v) Repairs, maintenance,decoration,etc.

(vi) Heating, lighting, power, cleaning.(vii) Rates and other taxes.

(viii) Professionalcharges.(ix) Raw materials,components,etc. (manufacturing,

assembly)...

(x) Plant, equipment, etc. (construction,recreation).(xi) Wholesalesupplies (retailing, etc.).(xii) Food, clothing,schoolfees,etc. (residential).

(xiii) Wagesand salaries(economicactivities).For any establishedactivity (we shall consider the case of

changesin a moment)some or all of thesecostsmust be incurredthough in proportions which vary between activitiesat a lo-

cation and for the sameactivityat diffrentlocations.And sincewe are concerned at the moment with establishedactivities,those not undergoing significant change by relocation, de-velopment,etc., all of the costsmay be expressedas outgoingsper annum or other unit of time. For any activity the total ofthese we define as the activitycost at that locationand in thatspace.

Now considertheproblem of change

under the threeheadingsderivedarlier-developmental, locational and behavioural.

Developmentalchange:Here, the actor must take into accounta number of costsfor all of the alternative schemeswhich he andhisprofessionaladvisersdraw up. Lichfield(1956)has provideda useful listingof the costs which will have to be borne. Theseinclude: the acquisitionof land; the legal preparation of thesite; the physical preparation of the site; the construction of

roads, sewersand services,planting; the construction of build-ings and the interest on capital during the constructionpro-cess.Againstthese costshe will be able to set the proceedsfromthe sale of hispresent premisesif he is vacating them; in manycaseshowever the developmentmay be an addition, alterationor extension of his present premises.If he is consideringalter-natives,adaptation of hispresentpremisesand the construction

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of completelynew accommodationmay figure amongthem. Hewill also have to estimate the changed annualcosts which thesecapital costsentail; indeed, he may usefullyconvert all esti-

mated costs to a fresh set of annual costsfor each alternative soas to afford direct comparisonswith his current total activitycost.

Locationalchange:Many of the changedcostsincurred by suchchange are obviouslycommunicationcosts which we deal withlater. The activity costsinclude the costs of the removaloper-ation itself, the loss of business and trade, other disturbancecosts such as the disconnection and reconnection of utilityservic

brian mcloughlin, urban and regional planning: a systems approach

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