45 th Congress of the European Regional Science Association "Land Use and Water Management in a Sustainable Network Society" Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 23-27 August 2005 A spatial interaction model for agricultural uses. An application to understand the historical evolution of land use on a small island (not assigned) Joana Gonçalves, Gabinete de Gestão e Conservação da Natureza, Departamento de Ciências Agrárias Universidade dos Açores, Angra do Heroísmo, Portugal joanag@mail.angra.uac.pt Tomaz Dentinho, Gabinete de Gestão e Conservação da Natureza, Universidade dos Açores Departamento de Ciências Agrárias, Angra do Heroísmo, Portugal. tomaz.dentinho@mail.angra.uac.pt Abstract The agenda is to explain the historical evolution of land uses in small islands. First we assess the capacity of the island territory for different uses based on agronomic analysis and transform these capacities in attractiveness coefficients. Then we design a spatial interaction model with five different sectors which employment can be closely related with surface area, first to five zones in the island and within those zones to small plots of 1 hectare each. Finally we use historical data on population and main export crops in order to calibrate the model for each historical period. Therefore, based on data on the export crop and on the population it is possible to estimate the different land use of the island for all the sectors and to assess the carrying capacity of the island. Keywords: Planning, Land Use,