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| Desire Line Analysis× | Gravity Model of Migration× | |
|---|---|---|
| Field | Human Geography | Human Geography |
| Family≠ | Process / pipeline | Regression model |
| Year of origin≠ | 1955 | 1946 |
| Originator≠ | Transportation planning tradition (urban transportation studies) | George Kingsley Zipf (formalized); analogy to Newton's law of gravitation |
| Type≠ | Mapping and analysis of origin–destination travel demand as straight flow lines | Spatial-interaction regression model for migration flows |
| Seminal source≠ | Boyce, D. E., & Williams, H. C. W. L. (2015). Forecasting Urban Travel: Past, Present and Future. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. ISBN: 9781848440319 | Zipf, G. K. (1946). The P1 P2 / D hypothesis: On the intercity movement of persons. American Sociological Review, 11(6), 677–686. DOI ↗ |
| Aliases | Desire Line Mapping, OD Flow Line Analysis, Travel Desire Lines, Desire Path Flow Analysis | Migration Gravity Model, Demographic Gravity Model, Zipf P1P2/D Model, Gravity Model of Spatial Interaction (Migration) |
| Related | 4 | 4 |
| Summary≠ | Desire line analysis reveals the underlying demand for travel between places by drawing straight lines that connect each origin to each destination, with line width or weight proportional to the volume of flow between them. The term comes from transportation planning, where a 'desire line' represents the direct, idealized path a traveller would take if no network constrained them — capturing where people want to go, not how the roads make them go. Aggregating trips into an origin–destination matrix and rendering it as weighted lines exposes the dominant corridors of movement, making desire lines a foundational tool for visualizing and analysing travel demand. | The gravity model of migration explains the volume of movement between two places as proportional to the product of their populations (masses) and inversely proportional to the distance separating them, by direct analogy to Newton's law of universal gravitation. Formalized for intercity movement by George Kingsley Zipf in 1946 and embedded in regional science by Walter Isard, it is the workhorse model of human geography for predicting migration, commuting, and other spatial-interaction flows. |
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