AP Human Geography

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AP Human Geography

• Central Place Theory

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Central Place Theory

• Based on the work of Walter Christaller, a German
  geographer
• In 1933, Christaller wrote his doctoral
  dissertation in geography entitled, The Central
  Places of Southern Germany.
• In it, he proposed CPT

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Central Place Theory Some Basic ideas

• Central places are nodes for the distribution of
  economic goods and services to surrounding
  nonurban populations
• Central places compete against each other this
  competition creates the regular pattern of
  settlements
• Each settlement has a market area, the region
  from which customers are drawn.
• Hexagons rather than circles are used to indicate
  market areas.

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Central Place Theory Contd

• Smaller settlements occur more frequently and are
  closer together, while larger settlements occur
  less frequently and are farther apart.
• Small settlements provide goods and services that
  have small thresholds and ranges large
  settlements provide goods and services that have
  large thresholds ranges.
• The good or service provided in a central place
  has an order (high or low) based on how
  specialized it is.

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Market Area

• The area surrounding a service from which
  customers are attracted is the market area or
  hinterland.
• It is a good example of a nodal or functional
  region- a region with a core, where the
  characteristic is most intense.

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Size of Market Area

• Range- the maximum distance people are willing to
  drive to use a service
• Threshold- the minimum number of people needed to
  support the service (customer base)

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Assumptions

• No topographic barriers
• No difference in soil fertility
• Population purchasing power evenly distributed
• People with similar lifestyles and incomes
• Uniform transportation network
• Purchase of goods services at the nearest center

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What are the advantages of central place theory?

• Does a reasonably good job of describing the
  spatial pattern of urbanization. No economic
  theory explains why there is a hierarchy of urban
  centers.
• Provides a description of the relationship b/ween
  a central place-higher order place and its
  tributary areas-lower order places.
• Does a good job of describing the location of
  trade and service activity.

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The Real World

• Physical barriers, resource distributions, etc.
  create modifications of the spatial pattern.
• Some areas tend to confirm the model
• Christaller stimulated urban and economic
  geography in general and location theory in
  particular.

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Conclusions

• Christallers conclusions
• 1. Towns of the same size are evenly spaced
  because they are in the center of liked-sized
  market areas. Larger towns will be farther apart
  than smaller towns b/cause their market areas are
  larger.
• 2. Distribution of cities, towns, villages in a
  region is related to trade areas, popn size, and
  distance

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Rank Size Rule

• Holds that in a model urban hierarchy, the pop of
  a city or town will be inversely proportional to
  its rank in the hierarchy
• For example, if the largest city has 12 million
  people, the 2nd largest 6 million (1/2) 3rd
  largest 4 million (1/3)
• Rank size rule does not apply to all countries,
  esp. countries w/one dominant city, e.g., France,
  England, Japan, Mexico, etc.

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Primate City Rule

• According to primate city rule, the largest
  settlement has more than twice as many people as
  the second-ranking settlement.
• Examples Paris, France London, United Kingdom
  Mexico City, Mexico, etc.