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SUBJECT – GEOGRAPHY
SUBJECT CODE – 80
UNIT – VIII
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CHAPTER - 1
Regional Planning:
The dictionary meaning of the term region is a tract of country or an area
characterised in some way. Thus region is a spatial entity. The region consists of spatial units
which are similar to each other one or more specified criterion. A French geographer Vidalde-la Blache emphasised the significance of studying small homogeneous areas called ‘pays’
in France. This led to the study of micro-regions. Hettner (1907), Whittlesey (1929) and
Hartshorne (1939) had made a great contribution in the study of regions. Hettner said that
geography is a study of regions which included knowledge of the areas of the earth as they
differ from each other. Whittlersey has defined region as a ‘differentiated segment of earth
space. According to hartsharne regions are descriptive tools, defined according to a particular
criterion for a particular purpose so that there are as many regions as there are criterion to
define them, e.g. climatic regions, agricultural regions, industrial regions, etc.
Types of Region: The regions are classified as :
Regions
Formal
Natural
Economic
Commodity
Functional
Social
Human
Migrants
Information
Capital
Commuters
Formal Region: This region is uniform or homogeneous in terms of selected criterion.
Earlier they were classified on the basis of physical features like topography, climate,
vegetation, etc. They are often called as natural regions because they exist naturally in space.
There are a number of natural regions in the world such as equatorial, temperate, tundra,
savanna, desert, etc. all these are based on the climate, natural vegetation and location.
In India the first attempt to classify natural or physiographic regions was made by
L.Dudley stamp in 1922. In this classification he divided the country into three major and
twenty two sub-regions At Primary level, he divided the country on the basis of
homogeneity of physiographic and structure and at secondary level he sub-divided it on the
basis of climate.
Spate in 1954, divided India into physiographic regions and then revised it in 1967 in
which he divided the country into true macro regions and subdivided into 34 regions of
first order, 74 of the second order and 225 sub-divisions of the third order. The three
macro- regions were:
(a) The mountain rim
(b) Indo-genetic plains
(c) Peninsula.
S.P. Chatterjee divided India into seven major physiographic regions on the basis of
topography. These are:
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(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
Himalayas and the mountains of north east.
Great plains
Central Highlands
Peninsular plateau
East coast
West coast
Bordering seas and islands.
The Himalayas have been classified into three parts based their structural character and
location:
(i)
Western
(ii)
Central and
(iii) Eastern Himalayas.
Function Region: A functional region is a spatial unit tied to a nodal center through the
medium of transport and communication routes. The functional relationships are usually
revealed in the form of flows, using the criteria like journeys to work, shopping trips, flow of
perishable and non-perishable goods, telephone calls, etc. Hence the functional regions are
defined by taking into account dynamic elements in the form of flow of commodities, goods,
people, information and money. They are also referred to as the nodal or polarized regions
consisting of heterogeneous units such as cities, towns and villages which are functionally
interrelated.
Planning Region: The unevenness in the distribution of natural resources and disparities in
the economic development due to uneven distribution has led the authorities to do planning
so that it could lead to even and equal distribution and development of the region as a whole.
Planning is required for the purpose of development of the relatively backward areas
as well for the maintenance and improvement of the existing level of development attained in
the developed areas or regions. The main aim in the development or uplighment of the
society. The most important criteria in planning is proper resource utilization. The main
criterior for each and every individual is the attainment of at least food, clothing and shelter,
which also is the minimum requirement and is the priority consideration in the planning
process of any region.
M.H. Gopal has rightly remarked that “I shall tentatively define is region as
operationally the most convenient and economically the most gainful spatial, sectoral or
temporal unit for resource allocation, taking planning as merely a process, growth as the
economic result and welfare as the ultimate goal.’
Formal or functional regions or a combination of both may provide a usual framework
for planning regions.
According to Keble, a planning region should be large enough to enable substantial
changes in distribution of population and employment to take place within its boundaries, at
the same time being small enough for its planning problems be seen as a whole.
Sengupta and Solayusk has divided India into seven major planning regions.
Stages in planning :
(1) Identification of the problem
(2) Finalizing the goals and objectives relating to the problem
(3) Identifying the possible constraints.
(4) Projecting future situation
(5) Generating the course and action.
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(6) Production of a preferred plan.
(7) Implementation of the plan
(8) Evaluation.
Non spatial planning: It includes these in which the spatial dimension is not explicit such as
national economic planning, family planning, social planning, etc.
Spatial Planning: Those in which geographical dimension of space is explicit. The main aim
of this type of planning is to affect the spatial pattern of human activity.
Sectoral planning: It is a non-spatial planning concerned with the development of various
sectors of economy like agriculture, industry etc.
Physical Planning: It involves the planning of an area’s physical structure like land use,
utilities, etc. It can be related to area development e.g. town development.
Economic planning: It is related to the economic structure of an area and its overall
development.
Developmental planning: It is used in the content of socio-economic development of a less
developed societies or countries.
Imperative Planning: When the public sector takes up the task for developing an area.
Indicative Planning: When the mainspring of economic growth is left to the private sector
sometimes the govt. has a supreme hand may be completely or partially but it does not
interferes in the affairs of the private firms until and unless the firm is following the norms
laid down by the government and in leading towards the path of development.
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REGIONAL PLANNING
Regional Hierarchy:
Planning regions depend upon the type of multi-level planning in the country. A very
small country will, naturally have one level planning. A planning region in a multi-level setup requires regional plan, which is a spatial plan for the systematic location of functions and
facilities in relation to human settlements, so that people may use them to their maximum
advantages. In fact, more important than reducing the regional disparities is the task of
ensuring that backward region and rural areas have basic minimum needs.
For comprehensive planning, there has to be a national plan and then a state plan and
finally district/block plans. Since a planning region is a sub national area demarcated for the
purpose of translating national objectives into regional programmes and policies and since,
plan formulation and implementation need administrative machinery, administrative regions
one generally accepted as planning region.
The hierarch of planning region would be:
1. Macro level
3. Meso level
2. Micro level
4. Macro-minor level
Macro level Regions: Macro region is naturally bigger. Macro region can be a state of even
a group of states if the states of a country are not big enough. A Macro-major region can be a
zone in a country, which may comprise of a few states. e.g. in India there East, West North,
south and Central Zones and Zonal councils of which function is mutual consultation
developing cooperation and mutual counseling in a sense macro regions are second
hierarchy, next to the national level. It is also possible that a physical macro region may
comprise parts of different states of a country for project planning purposes e.g. big river
valley projects, an electric grid of different states and for the purpose of a particular activity
facility planning the macro region will be parts of different states.
State boundaries are respected in the sense that the macro region may transcend or
cut-across administrative boundaries of the states of a country. A micro region may not be
uniform inhomogeneous in all respects. It may have homogeneity in one respect (physical
complementary and may have heterogeneity in other respect (administrative boundaries) A
macro region should have a common resource base and specialization in that resource base,
so that production activities can develop on the principle of comparative advantage based on
territorial division of labour. The planning commission of India have just 5 zonal councilsEastern, Northern, Central western and southern comprising of certain states, but beyond this
there is no macro- regionalization in India. These so called macro regions of India have to
have interstate cooperation in the matter of utilisation of river water and electricity grids etc.
Meso Level Regions
Meso region can be identified with a division of a state, comprising of several
districts. There should be some identifiable affinity in the areas. Which may even facilitate
planning. It can be cultural on administrative region and will be even better, if it is a
homogenous a meso region can also become a nodal region provided the combined micro
regions on parts there of can be developed in a complementary manner (NSS of India has
identified 58 meso regions of India, but they are not shown on maps as planning regions)
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Micro Level Region
In multi-level planning, district is the micro region. It becomes the lowest territorial
unit of planning in the hierarchy of planning regions. The most important reason why district
is the most viable micro region for planning is the existence of data base and compact
administration.
This is the area which is viable for plan formulation with administration for plan
implementation and monitoring. A metropolitan area can be one micro region and area of
influence can be another micro region. A nodal point is also a micro region, though in many
cases micro regions are basically rural areas, which may have a number of minor nodes,
without any organizational hierarchy influencing the entire area.
The basic characteristic of a micro region is its smallness. There can be some specific
micro regions such as belts of extraction of mineral in a reclaimed area on a not so big
command area of an irrigational project.
Micro-Minor Level Region
This is the region which is associated with, what is called the grass root planning. a
micro minor level region can be a block for which also data exists now and for which there
may be a plan.
The block level plan in integrated with the national plan, through the district and state
level plans. A block level plan is not surgically cut portion of the district plan, which has its
own logic and linkage. At block level, most of the effacers will be more concerned with the
implementation of the plans than formulating the plans.
At block level, the main exercise will be to take into account of the physical and
human resources and to find out the prime moving activities, which will cable the block
people to make best use for the development potential of the block to meet the basic needs of
the people.
Delineation of Regions
The process of delineation of regions is called regionalization. It is very difficult to
define a region because the concept had been used by different people to mean different
things. The very vastness and amorphous quality of the relationship between man and
environment have puzzled the geographer. The concept is generally linked with space and
the spatial dimension.
The followers of this subjective approach treat region only as an idea by accepting the
nation as a point economy arbitrarily divided it into as many regions as the need be, indepent
of considerations of space. however, for more geographers and public in general region is an
objective reality linked with space and defined in terms of space.
Methods of Regionalisation
Regionalization is the process of delineating regions. The process may take several
forms depending on the purpose of regionslisation the criteria to be used and data availability.
Regionalization are studies of special structure that involve pattern and linkages in complex
inter relationship. It may involve the delineation of formal regions using certain relevant
criteria and the delineation of function regions is resolve congestion problem.
The selection of regions for delineation depends upon.
* Availability of data
* Purpose of Planning Based on the availability of data, delineation methods are divided into
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two groups.
* Qualitative methods
* Quantitative method
Qualitative methods are based on the attributes of the region and are used for
delineation of formal region. Quantitative are based on the functionality of region and are
used for delineation of functional region.
Delineation of Formal Regions:
The delineation of formal regions involves grouping together of local units, which
have similar characteristics according to certainty clearly defined criteria. The resultant
formal regions may not be perfectly homogenous, but must be homogeneous within certain
clearly defined limits.
If the criteria are simple and static identification is relatively simple, but if there are
variety of criteria such as unemployment rates, migration trends etc. Then several techniques
are used to deliberate formal regions.
The weighted Index Number method
It has been outlined by Boundville and has been developed by others into new
sophisticated techniques such as cluster analysis and social area analysis.
According to this method, the most problematic area is identified by assigning
specific weight to each area and the area with the maximum weight will be the most
problematic area. First the planners identify the criteria or problems. Then weights are
assigned to each of the problem on the basis of certain principles. The area which gains
maximum weight is located as the main problematic area. For , policy regions there is need to
isolate the main problem region the area of economic molasses. Problems implicit in this
method are of course the choice of the original criteria, the choice of weights and the
determination of acceptable homogeneity. Limits, Nevertheless, because of its implicitly this
is a well used method.
Under the weighted index method an arbitrary weight is given to each index and a
single weighted mean is obtained. Under the variable index method the weight given to each
activity in each region is different and in accordance with the value on the volume regionally
produce eg. If Region ‘A’ is wheat region and Region ‘B’ is coal region, the weight of wheat
index will be the largest in the former and the weight of coal index will be largest in the later.
The factor Analysis Method .
It is a more sophisticate approach to regionalization, which owes much to the
pioneering work of BERRY in the USA. This can be used to isolate the basic factors and to
group on e of the basis of factor loading,
According to this method, the common source for addressing various problems will
be identified. It involves deriving generalization of problems across various manifested
symptoms. Greater the number of symptoms emerged from the source, more the factor load
given to the source eg. poverty is basic factor, which has five factor loadings health,
lawlessness, pollution socio-political unrest, illiteracy. On his analysis of economic health
regionalization in England smith identified industrial charge and industrial structure to major
industrial factors and social structures and population charge as major socio-economic
factors.
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Delineation of Functional Regions
The delineation of functional regions involves the grouping together of local units
_____display a considerable degree of interdependence.
The two basic approaches are flow analysis and gravitational analysis.
Flow Analysis
It involves the measuring of actual amount of goods and services that flows between
the two nodes on cores. Flow analysis build up functional regions of the basis of the direction
and intensity of flows between the dominant centres and surrounding satellites.
The number of telephone calls is the usual flow criteria and provides a useful index of
a wide range of economic and social relationships. The flows are plotted in MATRIX from
which the primary and secondary flows into and out of each centre can be identified.
Variation of flow analysis method graph theory method, where the actual data is represented
in a graph.
Gravity Analysis
Gravitational analysis concerned with the theoretical forces of attraction between
centres rather than the actual flow. The simple gravity model assumes that interaction
between two centres is directly proportion to the population of the centres and inversely
proportion to the distance between them This method measures the actual amount of
movement between the two centres and compares the factual and the actual numbers and
development of the region will be planned accordingly.
Amount of flow 
G * Pi * Pj
D2ij
Here C=Constant
Pj=Population of the city
Pj=Population of the city
Dij= distance between the cities i and j.
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