Transcript CENTRAL PLACE THEORY

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 – Amount of draw to a particular
place
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
?
Unmet demand for
same good or
service
 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 McDonald’s
According to your text book McDonald’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
Ikea
Ikea
Ikea - Range?
Ikea - Threshold?