Currently, I am working on defining the region that I want to study in terms of regional development disparity. To define a region, I read that by Reilly's Gravitation law one can mark the influential area of a metropolitan city in the surrounding region. Is it scientifically fine and reliable if I would use it in my research?
Usually you what to commuting flows but lacking that dat a gravity model (the foundation for rielly's law) would work...so if no better trade fow data like commuting then a gravity model is a fine slterative
Dear Irfan,
In the olden days Reilly's Law was a pretty good rough way to define local market areas. In modern times it has not worked well, particularly at identifying local market regions within a metropolis (as in the case of village markets that have been overwhelmed by metro growth and overspill). This means that the scale of enterprise historically was not differentiated greatly by local market or metro area location. But in fact we know that often there are very big different scalar factors in metro businesses as compared to local towns and villages. To know whether Reilly will work for you in your study area, make a few calculations. Then go into the field and verify the truth of the boundary as expected from Reilly.
Your research on the subject, I think you can use Reilly's law to mark the area of influence of a city in the metropolitan region. To delineate the influence of metropolitan city should compare it to other urban areas (cities) in the region, perhaps with less influence. I suggest you consult and Converse's law which complements that of Reilly law.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Phytochemistry
- Extracts