The author introduces a decision method for facilitating physical planning and other decision processes at central government level, at the same time, taking into account some justified differences in local needs for the provision of urban facilities. The method considers the following factors influencing local needs: the number of urban inhabitants; the influence of larger cities (metropolises); and the number of inhabitants to be served in the hinterland of a city. The nationwide standard accepted for urban facilities is first differentiated according to city size, and for any specific city, i, it is further modified by the coefficient aLi, expressing the local deviations of the factors. The coefficient aLi is constructed from the ratios of ‘real’ local values of the factors to the ‘a priori’ values derived from a regular model of the settlement network in a larger territorial unit. The method is operationalised without any special technical aids, the ‘a priori’ values being tabulated or expressed by no...