Urban Economic Geography Central Place Theory Urban Land

Urban Economic Geography ® Central Place Theory ® Urban Land Use/Development/Downtowns Redevelopment ® World Cities Hypothesis & Network

CENTRAL PLACE THEORY

What is it? ®A basic theory describing size distribution of urban locations based upon these locations providing goods and services

Who is Christaller?

Who is Christaller? ® Walter Christaller, a German geographer, originally proposed the Central Place Theory (CPT) in 1933 (trans. 1966). Christaller was studying the urban settlements in Southern Germany and advanced this theory as a means of understanding how urban settlements evolve and are spaced out in relation to each other.

Terms ® Hinterland – Area where a city is the dominant producer of a particular good or service ® Field of Influence – Any location where a city has influence ® Centrality place – Amount of draw to a particular

Terms ® Consumer Range – Distance a consumer will travel for a particular good or service ® Threshold – Minimum population needed to keep a business in operation ® Hierarchy of market centers - Settlements range in size from large cities - with many services to smaller villages and towns with some services, to small hamlets - which offer few services.

Order of Goods ® 1. 2. 3. 4. High Order High Price Low Frequency of Purchase High Threshold Large Consumer Range ® 1. 2. 3. 4. Low Order Low Price High Frequency of Purchase Low Threshold Small Consumer Range

Order of Places The higher order of goods offered the higher order of the place ® Higher order places are more widely spread out ® Hierarchy development ®

Assumptions ® 1. There is an unbounded uniform plain on which there is equal ease of transport in all directions. Transport costs are proportional to distance and there is only one type of transport.

Assumptions ® 2. Population is evenly distributed over the plain.

Assumptions ® 3. Central places (settlements) are located on the plain to provide goods, services, and administrative functions to their hinterlands. Examples of these are hardware shops (goods), dry cleaners (services), and town planning departments (administrative).

Assumptions ® 4. Consumers minimize the distance to be travelled.

Assumptions ® 5. The suppliers of these functions act as economic [agents]; that is, they attempt to maximize their profits by locating on the plain to obtain the largest possible market. Since people visit the nearest centre, suppliers will locate as far away from one another as possible so as to maximize their market areas.

Assumptions ® 6. It is assumed that these higher order centres supply certain functions (higher order functions) which are not offered by lower order centres. They also provide all the functions (lower order functions) that are provided in lower order centres. [i. e. , you can still buy bread and milk in Denver, but international airports do not exist in smaller towns and cities, like Parker. ]

Assumptions ® 7. All consumers have the same income and the same demand for goods and services.

Relax Assumptions: 1. Population income variation--wealthy vs. non -wealthy areas, wealthy areas do not usually need as large of a threshold 2. Variation in transport surfaces 3. Consumer Behaviour/Individual Preferences 4. Profits

Shape of Hinterlands ® The model in CPT is explained using geometric shapes, such as hexagons and triangles

R R M R T T M M R T M R ? T T M Unmet demand for M same good or R service R T T M R T

® Is Central Place Theory applicable in the real world or is it just a theory? ® Any contemporary real world examples of the patterns seen in CPT? There are, however, some near perfect examples of Christaller’s theory to be found in the Canadian prairies and the Netherlands. Also Iowa and Wisconsin.

A GENERAL GRAPH CONCERNING FUNCTIONS !

Why doesn’t this always work? - Large areas of flat land rarely exist Transport has changed since his day People/wealth are not evenly distributed Folks don’t always choose the central place! Purchasing power/needs not all the same Governments have control over location of industry/towns - Perfect competition = unreal - Places don’t stay the same forever - Does not fit industrial areas

Market, - city, town, village, hamlet Market area / hinterland

Consumers near center obtain services from local establishments. The closer to the periphery the greater the % of customers who will chose to obtain services from other nodes (cities). People are equally likely to use the service, or go elsewhere.

Fast Food Mc. Donald’s ® According to your text book Mc. Donald’s has a range of 3 miles. ® The typical threshold is 10, 000 people.

Movie Theaters

Movie Theaters: Range?

Movie Theaters: Threshold - about 500 a night or 150, 000

Ikea

Ikea - Range?

Ikea - Threshold?