Potential business-shed model for spatial economic land use planning: towards regional economic resilience

Abstract

ABSTRACT Economic resilience is the ability of a region’s economy to withstand urgent economic shocks. To plan for regional economic resilience, the key lies in the spatial economic power of areas of interest (AOIs) and in the city-region concept as the basis for the sustainable regional planning. This study aims to develop guidelines for ‘resilienizing’ the regional economy by proposing a Potential Business-Shed (PBS) Model based on the Huff-Gravity Model, a tool for economic planning, incorporated with sustainable growth strategies, socio-economic factors and GIS. The study is applied on the Northern Region of Jordan, where the guidelines are enriched by the consultation of the public residents. The results of a survey (2332 at random) reveal an economic resilience plan with the locations of three AOIs: Regional Commercial Business (RCB), greenheart, and refugee settlements. The proposed RCB received 41% of the market share in the area and covered an area of (307,740 m2). 84% of the residents want an accessible RCB and 97% think the region needs it. The study provides a model that ‘resilienizes’ similar regions with sudden shocks in their economic structure.