Our methods of property description have not been followed with an accurate and consistent ability to quickly appraise desirable shelter capacity options for occupant activity on these land areas. The result has been arbitrary approximation and promiscuous consumption of land. It continues because the ability to mathematically correlate shelter capacity, occupant activity, physical intensity, and economic performance on a given land area has been non-existent. It has been a matter of hope, opinion, and experience with random results ranging from sprawl to excessive intensity. Shelter capacity, intensity, and activity relationships can produce economic stability and a desirable quality of life within a geographically limited master plan area; but it requires leadership with mathematical tools and correlated databases that encourage research, measurement, evaluation, decision, and direction. This has been our method of proceeding from opinion to knowledge throughout history. Opinion will continue to demand more land from the Natural Domain and the Agricultural Phylum of the Built Domain until knowledge helps us understand the Urban Phylum and its place on a planet that will not compromise with ignorance.
I have written about these mathematical tools in many
essays on my blog at www.wmhosack.blogspot.com and
on Linked-In. Earlier versions of the forecast models involved were included on
CDs in my first two books. The latest and most useful forecast models remain to
be published as one of my future projects.
Walter M. Hosack: June 2024
