Elementary Spatial Systems of Industrial Production

An elementary spatial system of industrial production is conceptualized as the primary geographical formation in industry. Such an elementary production system (EPS) is viewed as consisting of raw-material and consumption nodes connected by lines of movement with a single production node. Besides the measures proposed by Kansky (University of Chicago, Research Paper 84, 1963), such a system, represented in the form of a connected, directed graph, can be described by measures of material and spatial transformation and by indices of dispersion of aggregate nodes. Characteristic properties of EPS are the spatial attraction between nodes and the spatial coincidence and intersection of common nodes of two or more systems. The usual Weberian movement-minimization approach to the building of a model of such an elementary production system is judged to be inadequate because it ignores local differences in production costs, and a “field of potential costs” is proposed instead to take account of the total cost picture.