An Appraisal of Gravity Model for Kurundwad Town and Its Surrounding Villages in Kolhapur District (Maharashtra: India)

Abstract

The theory of gravity was introduced by Issac Newton in 1686. Newton postulated that the gravitational force, which acts between two bodies in space, was directly proportion to the mass of the two bodies and inversely proportion to the square of the distance between the bodies. It was second half of the 19th Century that the theory of gravity was applied to human interaction. The gravity model is aimed at formalising, studying and predicting geography of flows or interactions. The model has first been formulated in analogy with Newton’s law of universal gravitation: two objects attract each other directly proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the distance separating them. For decades, social scientists have also been using a modified version of Isaac Newton's Law of Gravitation to predict movement of people, information, and commodities between cities and even continents. The gravity model, as social scientists refer to the modified law of gravitation, takes into account the population size of two places and their distance. Since larger settlements attract people, ideas, and commodities more than smaller settlements and places closer together have a greater attraction. An application of the gravity model at the local level helps to examine the interaction between Kurundwad town and its surrounding villages. The magnitude of social interaction and the flow analysis indicate the degree of centrality of town. For the flow analysis two main criteria undertaken are city bus frequencies and Newspaper circulation. The present paper, therefore, mainly focused on how this gravity model works at local level and also in context with development planning of urban centers to mitigate the increasing pressure of population.

Key words- Gravity model, applicability, reliability, social interaction, interaction magnitude.