Models of Migration And Activity Space

Atlanta Braves Spring Training – Disney World Gravity Model Expectation of opportunity exerts ‘gravitational force’ “Opportunity” in big places Shopping Education Employment Entertainment and culture (museums, theatres, events) Cultural expression Eiffel Tower Atlanta Braves Spring Training – Disney World

Gravity Model Based on Newton Big things attract each other more than do small objects, and things close to each other have a stronger mutual attraction than do objects at greater distance. Attraction decreases very rapidly with even small increases in separation

Gravity Model Although spatial interaction always tends to decrease with greater distances between places, at a given distance it tends to expand with the increase in the places’ sizes. The bigger the place, the more likely you are to go there… except when it’s wicked far away. Gravity model can be used to account for many flow patterns in human geography like population migration, journeys to work or to shopping, commodity flows, etc.

Lee’s Model Lee believed… Migration is a decision People assess and perceive the destination People assess the conditions where they are People look at obstacles between the point of origin and the destination People consider personal circumstances The decision to migrate = weighing the positives and negatives at the origin point with the positives and negatives at the destination point AND assessing intervening obstacles

Lee’s Model of Migration

The following slide shows sample activity spaces for a family of five.

Parent Two Middle Child Oldest Child Youngest Child Parent One Home Parent One

Time and Space Daily activities consume time and space Can be represented on a space/time graph “Space-time path” “Space-time prism” Length of prism indicates activity duration Width indicates distance & mobility Distance away from home