Abstract:
Potential Surface Analysis (PSA) is a method proposed by the Japanese International
Cooperation Agency to identify the potential areas in a city for implementation of
different social and economic activities. This method is almost similar to the Social
Area Analysis (SAA), a theory and technique developed by two American
Sociologists, Eshref Shevky and Wendell Bell (1955), linking changing urban social
structure and residential patterns to economic development and urbanization
processes. However, there were slight differences between Social Area Analysis and
Potential Surface Analysis in terms of techniques proposed to analyse the data. This
paper presents the procedures followed to conduct the Potential Surface Analysis as a
case study of the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka and the results derived through the
analysis
