Static Models
Spatial Interaction Models
Spatial interaction models aim to estimate flows between locations, for instance, workers commuting from residential zones to employment zones. Models are built from:
- A collection of \(n\) origin locations described by some characteristics \((X_i)_{1\leq i\leq n}\)
- A collection of \(p\) destination locations described by some characteristics \((Z_j)_{1\leq j\leq p}\)
- A collection of \(n\times p\) characteristics of the difficulty of travelling (in a broad sense) from origin \(i\) to destination \(j\), \(c_{ij}\)
The goal is to estimate flows \((Y_{ij})_{1\leq i\leq n, 1\leq j\leq p}\) from origin locations to destination locations. A typical hypothesis is for the flows to depend on characteristics as follows:
\[ Y_{ij}=f(X_i, Z_j, c_{ij}), \]
for a well-chosen function \(f\). The most well-known spatial interaction model is the so-called gravity model, which takes the form:
\[ Y_{ij}\propto \frac{X_iZ_j}{c_{ij}^2}, \]
where \(\propto\) means proportional to, \(c_{ij}\) is supposed to be the distance between origin \(i\) and destination \(j\), and the characteristics \(X_i\) and \(Z_j\) are assumed to be numerical.
Constraints
Spatial interaction models can be instantiated with different constraints:
- On production: the \((X_i)\) are interpreted as production values. Then the model is production-constrained if \(\sum_{j=1}^pY_{ij}=X_i\) for all \(i\);
- On capacity: the \((Z_j)\) are interpreted as destination capacities. Then the model is capacity-constrained if \(\sum_{i=1}^pY_{ij}=Z_j\) for all \(j\);
- On both: the doubly-constrained models are both production- and capacity-constrained. One of the most common models used in practice is the doubly-constrained gravity model.
Maximum Entropy Models
In the late 1960s, Alan Wilson developed a collection of spatial interaction models based on a maximum entropy principle. In those models, the flow is given by:
\[ Y_{ij} \propto X_iZ_j^{\alpha}\exp(-\beta c_{ij}), \]
where \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) are two parameters interpreted as follows:
- \(\alpha\) is a return to scale parameter: if \(Z_j\) grows above \(1\), its actual attractiveness can increase in a super-linear way (\(\alpha>1\)) or in a sub-linear way (\(\alpha<1\));
- \(\beta\) acts as the inverse of the scale of the costs \(c_{ij}\). If those osts are distances, for instance, \(\frac{1}{\beta}\) can be seen as a cut-off distance.
As with other spatial interaction models, maximum entropy models are
constrained. In blvim, we focus on production-constrained
models and thus we have:
\[ Y_{ij} = \frac{X_iZ_j^{\alpha}\exp(-\beta c_{ij})}{\sum_{k=1}^pZ_k^{\alpha}\exp(-\beta c_{ik})}, \]
which ensures:
\[ \forall i,\ \sum_{j=1}^pY_{ij}=X_i. \]
This model is implemented in blvim by the
static_blvim() function.
Dynamic Models
The models described above are static: they correspond to a frozen view of the exchanges with no retroaction of the flow received at one destination location on its attractiveness, for instance.
In the 1970s, Harris and Wilson developed dynamic models that assume a form of etroaction, initially in terms of an equilibrium state.
Harris and Wilson Equilibrium Values
The main idea from Harris (1964) is that if we interpret incoming flows as revenues, then the capacity/attractiveness of a destination location should be adapted to those revenues (for production-constrained models). Essentially, this could be written as:
\[ \forall j,\ Z_j=\kappa D_j, \]
where \(\kappa\) is a conversion factor between capacity and revenues, and where \(D_j\) is the total flow incoming in \(Z_j\), i.e.:
\[ \forall j,\ D_j=\sum_{i=1}^nY_{ij}. \]
Applied to the maximum entropy production-constrained model, this leads to a spatial interaction model defined implicitly as follows. We assume given the production constraints \((X_i)_{1\leq i\leq n}\) and the cost matrix \((c_{ij})_{1\leq i\leq n, 1\leq j\leq p}\), then the attractiveness \((Z_j)_{1\leq j\leq p}\) is a solution of the following collection of fixed-point equations:
\[ \forall j,\ Z_j=\kappa\sum_{i=1}^n\left(\frac{X_iZ_j^{\alpha}\exp(-\beta c_{ij})}{\sum_{k=1}^pZ_k^{\alpha}\exp(-\beta c_{ik})}\right), \]
where \(\alpha\), \(\beta\), and \(\kappa\) are fixed parameters.
From the \((Z_j)_{1\leq j\leq p}\), the flows are computed using the standard production-constrained maximum entropy model.
A Dynamic Model: The Boltzmann–Lotka–Volterra Model
The collection of fixed-point equations can be solved using different techniques, for instance, Newton’s method. The simplest solution is probably to perform fixed-point iterations, as discussed in Harris & Wilson (1978). We start with some initial values of the \(Z\)s, denoted \((Z^{0}_j)_{1\leq j\leq p}\), and then iterate:
\[ \forall j,\ Z_j^{t+1} := \kappa\sum_{i=1}^n\left(\frac{X_i{(Z^{t}_j)}^{\alpha}\exp(-\beta c_{ij})}{\sum_{k=1}^p{(Z^{t}_k)}^{\alpha}\exp(-\beta c_{ik})}\right), \]
until convergence.
This iterative scheme can also be interpreted as a dynamic model in which the attractiveness of a location is updated to match its incoming flow. The update is not instantaneous, and thus an update parameter is introduced, \(\epsilon\). Then we start again with some initial values of the \(Z\)s and then iterate:
\[ \begin{align*} \forall j,\ D_j^{t} &:= \sum_{i=1}^n\left(\frac{X_i{(Z^{t}_j)}^{\alpha}\exp(-\beta c_{ij})}{\sum_{k=1}^p{(Z^{t}_k)}^{\alpha}\exp(-\beta c_{ik})}\right),\\ \forall j,\ Z_j^{t+1} &:= Z_j^t +\epsilon(\kappa D^{t}_j-Z^{t}_j). \end{align*} \]
Using \(\epsilon<1\), typically a small value of \(0.01\), gives a full trajectory for the \(Z\)s with the added value of preventing oscillation behaviour.
A variant of the dynamic model has been proposed by Wilson in 2008, replacing the second update by a quadratic version:
\[ \forall j,\ Z_j^{t+1} := Z_j^t +\epsilon(\kappa D^{t}_j-Z^{t}_j)Z^{t}_j. \]
Both solutions are implemented in blvim().
Diversity
A typical behaviour of the equilibrium solutions is a concentration
of the attractiveness on a subset of the destination locations. This can
be measured by the diversity() function. It uses the notion
of diversity outlined in, for example, Jost (2006). The main idea of
this notion, rephrased in the context of locations, is to find from the
\(Z\)s an equivalent number of
locations, say \(m\), for which the
attractiveness would be evenly spread (that is, proportional to \(\frac{1}{m}\)).
If we normalise the \((Z_j)_{1\leq j\leq p}\) such that they sum to 1, we get the probability distribution \(\mathcal{P}=(p_j)_{1\leq j\leq p}\) over \(\{1, \ldots, p\}\). One way to interpret the notion of diversity is to measure how “random” \(\mathcal{P}\) is. Indeed, if it is concentrated on 1, for instance, with \(p_1\simeq 1\), then samples generated in an i.i.d. manner from \(\mathcal{P}\) will not be diverse, as they will mostly consist of the value 1. Then an entropy is a rather natural diversity index. For instance, the Shannon entropy \(H(\mathcal{P})=-\sum_{j}p_j\log p_j\) provides a good diversity index. Based on the principle outlined above, the diversity of \(\mathcal{P}\) is the number \(m\) such that the diversity index of \(\mathcal{P}\) is equal to the diversity index of the uniform distribution on \(\{1, \ldots, m\}\). It can be shown that for the Shannon entropy, the diversity of \(\mathcal{P}\) is \(\exp(H(\mathcal{P}))\). This holds also for all the Rényi entropies.
Notice that in diversity() the diversities are computed
according to the incoming flows, i.e., not using the \((Z_j)_{1\leq j\leq p}\) but rather the
\(D_j\) defined above by \[
\forall j,\ D_j=\sum_{i=1}^nY_{ij}.
\]
Self-Exchange Configurations
In the general case, exchanges in spatial interaction models follow a bipartite scheme: production locations send their productions to destination locations. These locations are two distinct sets. The non-bipartite case is when production and destination locations are identical. This does not change anything in the definition of the models (static and dynamic), but new tools can be defined specifically for this particular case.
Location Domination and Terminals
These tools are based on notions proposed by J. D. Nystuen and M. F. Dacey (1961). As any location is both a production and a destination location, one can compare the outgoing flows to the incoming ones. In particular, Nystuen and Dacey focus on the maximum output flow and on the total incoming flow (the \((D_j)_{1\leq j\leq p}\)). More precisely, they define the importance of location \(j\) as \(D_j\) and introduce the notion of domination: a location \(k\) is dominated if its importance is smaller than the importance of the location to which it is sending its largest flow. In equation:
\[ D_k < D_{\arg\max_{j} Y_{kj}}. \]
A terminal is a location that is not dominated. Rihll and Wilson (1991) propose a relaxed version in which a terminal is a location that receives a total incoming flow larger than all its individual outgoing flows. Thus, location \(k\) is dominated according to this definition if:
\[ D_k < \max_{j}Y_{kj}. \]
It is easy to see that a terminal in the Nystuen and Dacey definition
is also a terminal for Rihll and Wilson, but the reverse is false. The
functions terminals() and is_terminal()
compute the terminals according to either definition. In addition, the
number of terminals can be seen as a diversity measure and is thus
included in the definitions supported by diversity().
Domination Graphs
In addition to extracting terminals from a non-bipartite model,
Nystuen and Dacey propose to analyse the so-called nodal
structure of the flows. It consists of the nodal flows,
i.e. the links between each non-terminal location and the location to
which it is sending its largest flow. This defines a graph on the
locations which is very sparse (it has \(p-t\) edges, where \(p\) is the number of locations and \(t\) the number of terminals). The function
nd_graph() computes this graph according to both terminal
definitions.
References
Harris, B. (1964). “A model of locational equilibrium for retail trade”, Penn-Jersey Transportation Study, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (mimeo).
Harris, B., & Wilson, A. G. (1978). “Equilibrium Values and Dynamics of Attractiveness Terms in Production-Constrained Spatial-Interaction Models”, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 10(4), 371-388. https://dx.doi.org/10.1068/a100371
Jost, L. (2006), “Entropy and diversity”, Oikos, 113: 363-375. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2006.0030-1299.14714.x
Nystuen, J.D. and Dacey, M.F. (1961), “A graph theory interpretation of nodal regions”, Papers and Proceedings of the Regional Science Association 7: 29–42. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf01969070
Rihll, T., and Wilson, A. (1991), “Modelling settlement structures in ancient Greece: new approaches to the polis”, In City and Country in the Ancient World, Vol. 3, Edited by J. Rich and A. Wallace-Hadrill, 58–95. London: Routledge.
Wilson, A. (2008), “Boltzmann, Lotka and Volterra and spatial structural evolution: an integrated methodology for some dynamical systems”, J. R. Soc. Interface.5865–871 https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2007.1288