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Threshold Analysis-an Economic Tool for Town and Regional Planning

University of Glasgow

J. Kozlowski

Research Architect-Planner, Planning Research Unit, University of Edinburgh

This article deals with a method of increasing co-operation between physical planners and economists by development of the technique of threshold analysis. This form of analysis of planning decisions is based on the fact that the development of an urban area encounters obstacles caused by topography, the public utilities network and existing land uses. These obstacles, easily conceived of spatially, also have an economic significance in two respects; (a) capital expenditure will be necessary to overcome the threshold, (b) the threshold may mark a new, higher-cost period of development for the area.

The threshold, therefore, is a concept with significance for both planning and economic analysis. It can improve communication between the disciplines because a threshold may be designated by a line on a planning map or an inflexion point on a cost curve. Analysis of costs based on thresholds makes possible a number of insights into the efficiency of investment planning associated with development but, perhaps more important, it accommodates the economists' methodology of comparing alternatives.

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