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

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

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

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

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?

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

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

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

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?

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

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.

Hierarchy of World Cities Fig. 12-14: London, New York, and Tokyo are the dominant world cities in the global economy. Other major and secondary world cities play lesser roles.

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.

Primate City One dominate city in a country or region. There is usually not an obvious second city Example - Paris France - 8.7 million next city Marseille - 1.2 million

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.

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.

Pair Up Rank Size

CBD – Central Business District http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SaaQq5MC9M

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

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 1950. Symbolize each with a circle . Top Ten Cities,1950 (estimated from various sources) City Pop (in millions) Lat Long New York, USA 12.3 40 N 74 W London, UK 8.7 52 N 0 Tokyo, Japan 6.9 35 N 135 E Paris, France 5.4 49 N 2 E Moscow, USSR 5.4 56 N 37 E Shanghai, China 5.3 31 N 121 E Essen (Ruhr), Germany 5.3 51 N 7 E Buenos Aires, Argentina 5.0 34 S 58 W Chicago, USA 4.9 41 N 87 W Calcutta (Kolkata), India 4.4 22 N 88 E

Business-Service Cities in the U.S. Fig. 12-15: Below the world cities in the hierarchy of U.S. cities are command and control centers, specialized producer-service centers, and dependent centers.

Economic Base of U.S. Cities Fig. 12-16: Cities that have a high proportion of their labor force engaged in the specified economic activity shown.