Development of Cities Why are cities located in certain areas?
Site and Situation Site * absolute location of a city * a city’s static location, often chosen for trade, defense, or religion. Situation * relative location of a city * a city’s place in the region and the world around it.
Concept Caching: Mount Vesuvius Where Are Cities Located, and Why? Urban geographers discovered that every city and town has a trade area, an adjacent region within which its influence is dominant. Three key components arise frequently in urban geography: population, trade area, and distance.
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Central Place Theory Walter Christaller developed a model to predict how and where central places in the urban hierarchy (hamlets, villages, towns, and cities) would be functionally and spatially distributed. Assumed: 1. surface is flat with no physical barriers 2. soil fertility is the same everywhere 3. population and purchasing power are evenly distributed 4. region has uniform transportation network 5. from any given place, a good or service could be sold in all directions out to a certain distance
The market areas of settlements (hinterlands) overlap one another at different scales. Large settlements have larger market areas but they are few in number. Consumers are willing to travel longer distances to access services. Small settlements have smaller, more numerous market areas which are closer to consumers.
Hexagonal Hinterlands C = city T = town V = village H = hamlet
Why hexagons are used in theory to delineate market areas. (a)Circles are equidistant from center to edge, but they overlap or leave gaps. (b)Squares nest together without gaps, but their sides are not equidistant from the center. (c)Geographers use hexagons to depict the market area of a good or service, because hexagons offer a compromise between the geometric properties of circles and squares.
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Convenience stores Market area, range, and threshold for Kroger supermarkets (left) and United Dairy Farmers (UDF) convenience stores (right) in the Dayton, Ohio, metropolitan area. Fewer stores are in the southwest and northeast, which are predominantly industrial areas, and in the west, which contains lower-income residents. Compared to Kroger supermarkets, UDF stores are more numerous and have smaller market areas, ranges, and thresholds.
Rank-Size Rule: in a model urban hierarchy, the population of the city or town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy. For example: largest city = 12 million 2 nd largest = 6 million 3 rd largest = 4 million 4 th largest = 3 million Example: Most US Cities
Primate City The leading city of a country. The city is disproportionately larger than the rest of the cities in the country. For example: London, UK Mexico City, Mexico Paris, France - the rank-size rule does not work for a country with a primate city
burger-chain-reigns-supreme/ burger-chain-reigns-supreme/
A. Central place theory explains the spacing and relative size of urban areas based on: 1. urban ecology 2. natural resources 3. government planning 4. behavior of consumers 5. cultural differences
B. The number of functions in a central place is dependent on all of the following except the: 1. size of the market area 2. total number of central places in the urban system 3. population of the market area 4. population of the central place 5. distance to a place with similar features
C. A hinterland is the ______ of each settlement. 1. economic reach 2. total population 3. quality of agricultural land 4. aggregate purchasing power 5. working population
D. The first urban development hearth originated in: 1. Southeast Asia 2. North Africa 3. Central America 4. Southwest Asia 5. Southern Africa
E. The largest number of urban dwellers today are located in: 1. Asia 2. Africa 3. Europe 4. South America 5. North America
A. Central place theory explains the spacing and relative size of urban areas based on: 1. urban ecology 2. natural resources 3. government planning 4. behavior of consumers 5. cultural differences
B. The number of functions in a central place is dependent on all of the following except the: 1. size of the market area 2. total number of central places in the urban system 3. population of the market area 4. population of the central place 5. distance to a place with similar features
C. A hinterland is the ______ of each settlement. 1. economic reach 2. total population 3. quality of agricultural land 4. aggregate purchasing power 5. working population
D. The first urban development hearth originated in: 1. Southeast Asia 2. North Africa 3. Central America 4. Southwest Asia 5. Southern Africa
E. The largest number of urban dwellers today are located in: 1. Asia 2. Africa 3. Europe 4. South America 5. North America