Urban Form, Function, and Land Use

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Urban Form, Function, and Land Use
Geo309 Urban Geography
Instructor Jun Yan Geography Department SUNY at
Buffalo
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Last Class

• The Industrial City (1875-1920)
• Spatial reorganization of urban space so rapid
  and so dramatic
• Highly specialized land use segregation
• Land use zoning
• Impact of streetcars and rapid transit system
• CBD
• Functional organizations
• Core-Frame Structure of CBD

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Outline

• Land Use Modeling

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History

• Von Thünen Agricultural Land Use Theory in 1826
• A German farmer and amateur economist
• To explain the patterns of the distribution of
  the agricultural land use and land value
• Ring-type land use structure
• William Alonsos Urban Bit-Rent Theory

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Utility

• Utility more desirable situation offers more
  utility than less desirable situation
• A replacement of revenue since in a lot of
  cases the satisfaction of consuming certain goods
  is hard to quantified by money
• We often rank utility based our preference
• Utility maximization
• People generally choose the case in which the
  utility can be maximized (best used)
• Under certain conditions/constraints

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Location Rent

• Also called as economic rent or ground rent
• Different from contract rent (e.g. the rent we
  pay for renting an apartment)
• Definition the surplus paid to land owner above
  the minimum amount that would be necessary to use
  the land at all.
• Practically often calculated by minus the total
  revenue with the total production and
  transportation cost
• So the lager the location rent of a piece of land
  for a particular activity the higher and better
  use for that land (bit-rent) different land uses
  compete and the best wins
• Foundation of Bit-Rent Theory

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Urban Bit-Rent Theory Assumptions

• A flat featureless plain
• Transportation cost is a direct (linear) function
  of linear distance between places, uniform in all
  directions
• CBD, located at the city center (point), have all
  the employment opportunity
• Economic Man people can make rational
  decision-maximize utility
• Perfect competition no one can affect the market
  by his own activities

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Bit-Rent Curve

• By definition
• Location Rent (LR) Total Revenue (TR)
  Production Cost (PC) Transport Cost (TC)
• TC Production (P) Transport Rate (TR)
  Distance (D)
• Assume TR, PC are constant, then LR is a function
  of TC ? a function of Distance

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Bit-Rent Curve

• Shape of Bit-Rent Curve (BRC)
• Central point has the highest LR
• Decline with Distance from center
• Bit-Rent Cone

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Bit-Rent Curve
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Bit-Rent Curves

• Different land use have different BRCs
• LR in center (CBD) retailingfactorieswarehouses
  residential
• Decline rate same order
• Explanation high accessibility of the center

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Bit-Rent Curves
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Modification Residential Distribution

• Contradictory observation
• Upper class outside city while working class near
  city center
• Additional assumption on household behavior
• Utility a combination of living space and
  accessibility
• Trade-off between these two/Trade-Off Model
• Upper class could trade off transport cost for
  extra space
• Lower class force to resident in high-cost
  locations but have to minimize the living space
  and household costs

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Modification Multiple Foci
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Urban Bit-Rent Theory Limitation

• Assumption of Perfect Competition
• Assumption of Economic Man
• Assumption of Free Entry
• A Static Model

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Hoyts Sectoral Model

• Homer Hoyt (1939)
• Land use is a function of Direction
• In a given direction from center, a certain type
  of land use will prevail
• Land use mosaic consists of a series of sectors
  radiating out from city center

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Hoyts Sectoral Model

• Some regularities
• Rent varies primarily by radical sectors
• High-rent sectors often extend out from CBD
  (linearly along major routes, high ground)
• On either side of high-rent sectors are located
  sectors with intermediate rents (buffer)
• Low-rent sectors often locate the opposite of
  high-rent sector
• Industrial zone often surrounded by low-rent
  sectors

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Hoyts Sectoral Model
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Hoyts Sectoral Model Explanation

• Upper class
• First pick away industrial belts and CBD along
  certain routes (linear) and high ground
• Upper class often like to move farther away to
  the city edge and sell their old homes to
  slightly lower class (generational shift)
• Obsolescence functional, from, locational, style
• Middle class
• In the surrounding area of upper class residence
  good name
• Middle class then sell their old home to their
  lower class (generational shift)
• Vacancy Chain (filtering mechanism) social
  ladder!!! ? neighborhood change

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Hoyts Sectoral Model Explanation
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So What Patterns in Buffalo Land Use?
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Next Class

• Suburban Infill (1920-1945)
• Reading chp 5. pp 106118