CENTRAL%20PLACE%20THEORY

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• CENTRAL PLACE THEORY

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A. Site Situation

1. site refers to the physical characteristics of a
   location
2. situation refers to the relative location in
   terms of spatial interconnection interdependence

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B. Types of Settlement Patterns

• Nucleated settlements clustered around a
  central nodal point (defense, close to water,
  transportation routes)
• Linear settlements geographically restricted by
  mountains, hills, valleys or riversor along
  roads
• Dispersed settlements lot of land is required,
  such as farming regions

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Settlement types A? B? C?
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C. Functional Structure of Cities

• Three basic types of cities
• Central places functioning primarily as service
  centers for local hinterlands.
• Transportation centers performing break-of-bulk
  functions for larger regions
• Specialized-function cities dominated by one
  activity such as mining, manufacturing, or
  recreation

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Economic Base Theory

• Basic Sector local businesses that are
  dependent upon sales outside the city
• Non-basic Sector businesses dependent upon
  local business conditions (grocery store, barber,
  drycleaners, restaurants)
• multiplier effect increase in basic jobs
  increases non-basic jobs

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• D. WORLD CITIES MEGACITIES
• World cities play a key role in the global
  economy (London, New York, Tokyo)
• most have extremely large populations
• some do not Milan (center of fashion)
  Geneva (UN agencies)
• Megacities over 10 million
• over ½ of 20 largest cities today are in
  developing world
• Problems of megacities
• migration from the countryside, slums (barrios
  or favelas), informal economies, poverty, crime,
  child labor, orphans, water supply

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• HOW URBANIZED IS THE WORLD TODAY?
• pop urban
• Africa 38
• Asia 38
• L America 75
• N America 77
• Europe 75
• Oceania 70
• 1. The developing world of Africa Asia are more
  rural
• 2. Regions that industrialized first have more
  medium-sized towns (Europe)
• 3. MOST URBANIZED region W. Europe Belgium,
  Netherlands, U.K. are gt90 urbanized

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1950 1950 1950 1975 1975 1975 2003 2003 2003 2015 2015 2015
Urban Area Popu-lation Urban Area Popu-lation Urban Area Popu-lation Urban Area Popu-lation
1 New York, 12.3 1 Tokyo, Japan 26.6 1 Tokyo, Japan 35.0 1 Tokyo, Japan 36.2
2 Tokyo, Japan 11.3 2 New York, USA 15.9 2 Mexico City, Mexico 18.7 2 Mumbai, India 22.6
3 Shanghai, China 11.4 3 New York, USA 18.3 3 Delhi, India 20.9
4 Mexico City 10.7 4 Sao Paulo, Brazil 17.9 4 Mexico City, Mexico 20.6
5 Mumbai, India 17.4 5 Sao Paulo, Brazil 20.0
6 Delhi, India 14.1 6 New York, USA 19.7
7 Calcutta, India 13.8 7 Dhaka, Bangladesh 17.9
8 Buenos Aires 13.0 8 Jakarta, Indonesia 17.5
9 Shanghai, China 12.8 9 Lagos, Nigeria 17.0
10 Jakarta, Indonesia 12.3 10 Calcutta, India 16.8
11 Los Angeles, USAb 12.0 11 Karachi, Pakistan 16.2
12 Dhaka, Bangladesh 11.6 12 Buenos Aires, Argentina 14.6
13 Osaka-Kobe, Japan 11.2 13 Cairo, Egypt 13.1
14 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 11.2 14 Los Angeles, USAb 12.9
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E. Walter ChristallersCentral Place Theory

• nested hexagons show a hierarchal ranking of
  market areas
• hinterland rural area outside urban areas

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Why Hexagons for Market Areas?
Hexagons dont leave gaps between market areas
its edges arent equidistant from the center
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2. range of services maximum distance consumers
are willing to travel to obtain a product or
service luxury items longer range 3.
threshold minimum number of consumers needed to
support a business
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Hamlets

• provides some basic services

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Towns

• Larger than a village and has a higher level of
  specialization

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Cities

• Cities have more specialization and a larger
  hinterland than a town
• A city has suburbs while a town has outskirts

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Market-Area Analysis

• Retailers and other service providers make use of
  market-area studies to determine whether locating
  in the market would be profitable

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Supermarket and Convenience Store Market Areas
Market area, range, and threshold for Kroger
supermarkets (left) and UDF convenience stores in
Dayton, Ohio. Supermarkets have much larger areas
and ranges than convenience stores.
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F. Central Place Assumptions

1. orderly hierarchy of central places
2. places of the same size equally spaced apart
3. larger cities spaced farther apart

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Rank-Size Rule

• inverse relationship between size of a city its
  urban rank
• Under the rank-size rule
• - town 1/2 the size city
• - village 1/3 size
• - hamlet ¼ size