1. Christaller – Central Place Theory
(C) Recognized the economic relationships between cities and their hinterlands (areas further away)

2. Central Place Theory
Central Place Theory is a spatial theory in urban geography that attempts to explain the reasons behind the distribution patterns, size, and number of cities and towns around the world.
Studied for
Historical
Reasons
Studied for
Locational
Patterns

3. In a nutshell…
(C) concluded that people gather together in the cities to share goods and ideas and that they exist for purely economic reasons.
Central Place
1. People will purchase goods the closest it’s being offered.
2. Whenever demand for a certain good is high, it will be offered in close proximities to the population

5. Central Place Theory Nested hexagonal market areas
predicted by Central Place Theory
DISCUSSION:
* What type of landscape and population density does this theory / model presume?
Spatial model of settlements (central places) for a nested hierarchy of market areas

6. Central Place Theory • Geographic assumptions (Christaller, 1930s)
- featureless landscape on infinite plane
- uniform population distribution
• Behavioral (economic) assumptions
- consumers shop at closest place possible
- consumers do not go beyond the range of the good
- market areas equal or exceed threshold of good
• Hexagonal market areas are most efficient
- non-overlapping circles leave areas unserved
- higher-order central places also provide
lower-order functions
DISCUSSION:
* What is an example where your behavior conforms to the assumptions above?
* What is an example where your behavior does not conform to the assumptions above?

7. Central Place Theory in action on a flat, featureless plain (e. g
Central Place Theory in action on a flat, featureless plain (e.g., Northern Germany)
… and in a landscape with “locational biases” introduced by physical features

9. Take Me Out to the Ball Game

10. The Rank-Size Rule of City Populations
Name Major Populated Cities in the World

11. Urban Geography – Urban Systems
DISCUSSION:
* Can you detect the urban hierarchy in the population distribution map in this slide?
* Why does the pattern in the western half of the United States differ from the pattern in the eastern half?

12. Ranking of Census MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) of U.S., 2005
MSAs with populations over 2 million (right)
24 more MSAs have pops between 1 and 2 million
47 more (1 in CO) between 500,000 and 1 million
74 more (2 in CO) between 250,000 and 500,000
169 more (3 in CO) bet. 100,000 and 250,000

13. Rank Size Rule
In 1949, George Zipf devised his theory of rank-size rule to explain the size cities in a country. He explained that the second and subsequently smaller cities should represent a proportion of the largest city. For example, if the largest city in a country contained one million citizens, Zipf stated that the second city would contain one-half as many as the first, or 500,000.

14. Hierarchy of World Cities
Fig : London, New York, and Tokyo are the dominant world cities in the global economy. Other major and secondary world cities play lesser roles.

15. Primate City
The largest settlement in a country, if it has more than twice as many people as the second – ranking settlement
With the New York City metropolitan area population at approximately 21 million, second ranked Los Angeles at 16 million, and even third ranked Chicago at 9 million, America lacks a primate city.

16. Primate City One dominate city in a country or region.
There is usually not an obvious second city
Example - Paris France million next city Marseille million

17. Rank-Size Distribution
The country’s nth-largest city is 1/n the population of the largest city.
2nd largest city is ½
The 4th largest city is ¼
The 7th largest city is 1/7
A regular hierarchy of cities (straight line) is considered well-off economically with services distributed throughout the country.

18. Rank-Size Distribution of Cities
Fig. 12-9: Cities in the U.S. closely follow the rank-size distribution, as indicated by the almost straight line on this log scale. In Romania, there are few settlements in two size ranges.

19. Pair Up Rank Size

20. CBD – Central Business District

21. Connectivity of Urban Systems
Spain’s national urban system
National metropolises have greater connectivity than regional metropolises or small cities

22. Top Ten Cities,1950 (estimated from various sources)
World Urban System
Plot these cities to see where the world’s ten largest cities were located in Symbolize each with a circle .
Top Ten Cities,1950 (estimated from various sources)
City Pop (in millions) Lat Long
New York, USA N 74 W
London, UK N 0
Tokyo, Japan N 135 E
Paris, France N E
Moscow, USSR N 37 E
Shanghai, China N 121 E
Essen (Ruhr), Germany N E
Buenos Aires, Argentina S 58 W
Chicago, USA N 87 W
Calcutta (Kolkata), India N 88 E

23. Business-Service Cities in the U.S.
Fig : Below the world cities in the hierarchy of U.S. cities are command and control centers, specialized producer-service centers, and dependent centers.

24. Economic Base of U.S. Cities
Fig : Cities that have a high proportion of their labor force engaged in the specified economic activity shown.