AN APPLICATION OF THE ENTROPY MAXIMIZATION APPROACH IN SHOPPING AREA PLANNING

Abstract

The Principle of Maximum Entropy is used as an useful alternative approach in studying the urban planning problem. As a specific example, the entropic model has been adapted and applied to the study of consumer mobility with respect to shopping for food items and for clothes in Fukushima, Japan. In this paper, we maximize the entropy of consumer mobility subject to the known constraints on the system. The model, when solved by the iterative scaling method, provides comparable or even better results than those obtained in previous works by the Multiplicative Competitive Interactive spatial model.

INDEX TERMS:

• Urban planning
• probabilistic systems
• information theory
• maximum entropy
• consumer mobility

Additional information

Notes on contributors

KYOJI HOSHINO

Currently Visiting Professor at Carleton University, Ottawa.