Patterns of Urban Development Flashcards
The concentric Circle Theory was developed by Ernest Burgess in 1925.
Burgess was a sociologist who studied the growth of Chicago. He believed that cities grow in a series of outward rings, and land use is based on distance from downtown.
There were five rings in his theory:
1) the central business district, which houses a concentration of governmental, office, and commercial uses;
2) the industrial zone;
3) the zone of transition, which has a mix of industrial and low-income housing (at one time this ring had high-income, large houses);
4) the zone of middle class housing; and
5) the commuter zone, with higher-income housing.
Burgess’s work was foundational to the concept of a bid rent curve,
a theory explaining land use patterns based on how much people are willing to pay for land, in turn, based on the profits that are likely to receive from maintaining a business on that land.
The CBD, for example, will have the highest number of customers and so the most profit, and is at the steep end of the bid rent curve.
Sector Theory was developed by Homer Hoyt in 1939. Hoyt was in the real estate business in Chicago and was interested in high-end residential development.
Hoyt disagreed with Burgess’ conception of city growth and argued that land uses vary based on transportation routes. The city, as a result, was a series of sectors radiating out from the center of the city.
Multiple Nuclei Theory was developed by Harris and Ullman in 1945.
They argued that cities develop a series of specific land use nuclei. A land use nucleus is formed because of accessibility to natural resources, clustering of similar uses, land prices, and the repelling power of land uses.
Central Place Theory was developed by Walter Christaller in 1933, who used it to explain the size and spacing of cities.
The theory states that there is a minimum market threshold to bring a firm to a city and there is a maximum range of people who are willing to travel to receive goods and services.
Central Place Theory can also be useful as a way of understanding the hierarchy of retail establishments in cities (for example nail salons on every block, a grocery store every 10 blocks, and a large shopping center servicing a much larger area).
