Sustainable Urban Planning

Box 4.4 Input–output patterns

The table represents an agricultural region, with an urban-based agricultural service industry and a fast-growing tourism
industry.

• The outputs from the Agricultural ‘level’aggregate at
  1,800 units of value: of which 200 units go back into
  agriculture itself (to plant nurseries, agricultural
  research etc.), 1,000 units go into the industrial sector
  (wool for making carpets, fruit for canning etc), 100
  and 200 units are taken up, respectively, for local
  tourism and sustenance by within-region consumers,
  while 300 units of local produce is exported out of
  the region.


• The outputs from the Industrial ‘level’aggregate as 900
  units of value: going mostly to the agricultural sector
  (300 units for machinery maintenance, plant hire etc.),
  back into industry itself (100 units for buildings, plant
  maintenance and upgrading), to tourism infrastructure
  (150 units for providing accommodation and
  servicing facilities), direct to the consumer (50 units
  of locally consumed manufactures), and 300 units of
  niche machinery products for export.


• The outputs from the emergent Tourism ‘level’of activ-
  ity aggregates as a minor 700 units of value; with 50
  units going to the agriculture sector (farm-visiting and
  rural home-staying), 50 units to industry and mainte-
  nance, 150 units to the provision of tourism facilities
  (infrastructure, buildings, training), 50 consumer units
  for purchases of local agriculture, and a very impres-
  sive 350 units (half the total) as ‘export’ earnings
  (money spent by out-of-region visitors on accommo-
  dation, transportation, fees and handicrafts).


• TheLabour ‘level’aggregates as 1,000 units of value;
  with 500 units going into the dominant on-the-land

agricultural sector, 300 units going into the agri-

supporting industrial sector, 100 units to the emer-

gent tourism sector (tourism services), and 100 units

going into the consumer sector.

An important feature with this array is that exports from

the historically ‘dominant’ agricultural level represents

less than 19 per cent of gross output from that sector;

whereas exports from the more ‘clever’ industrial level

represents 33 per cent of the gross output from that

sector (withal from only 10 per cent of the region’s

labour input); and that export earnings from the ‘very

clever’ tourism level represents 50 per cent of the gross

output from that sector, the most offensive blot on this

success being the repatriation of some of the tourism

earnings offshore.a

Assuming constant-scale characteristics for the model

(adherence to ‘linearity’ and ‘homogeneity’) analysts

can set out to ascribe outcomes which produce altered

‘input’ and ‘output’ figures: depicting beneficial outcomes

from (say) reducing inputs at the agricultural level,

and commensurately increasing inputs at the tourism

level.

a‘Very clever’ on two accounts:firstbecause of the

‘export’ orientation of the tourism activity;second

because of the modest level of capitalization per created

workplace (contrasting with the higher level of capital-

ization involved with the creation of workplaces in

agriculture and industry).

Agriculture

sector

column I

Industrial

sector

column II

Tourism

sector

column III

Consumer

sector

column IV

Exports

sector

column V

Agriculture

level

Industry

level

Tourism

level

Labour

level

1000 100 200

300 100 150 50 300

50 100 150 50 350

300

1,800

gross output

900

gross output

700

gross output

500 300 100 100 1,000

200

OUTPUTS