Locational Planning and Regional Economic Development: Appropriate Methods in Developing Countries

The functional integration approach is a method for locating services and infrastructure needed for rural development. Applied methods of regional analysis based on the concept of functional integration organize and assess basic information on investments needed to strengthen the roles of settlements as marketing and service centers in developing countries. Critics often misinterpret its intent and purposes. These methods do not maximize access for a portion of the rural population to individual urban functions. Location-allocation algorithms focus on issues of access, but they cannot provide the information needed by regional planners and policy-makers to improve rural-urban linkages and strengthen the functions of economic growth centers in poor rural regions.