Unit 5 - Urban Hierachies Flashcards
4 main principles to the central place theory
People prefer convenience.
People want to pay the cheapest price for goods.
Businesses want to make as much profit as possible.
People prefer to pay minimum traveling costs when making a purchase.
Central place
An urban settlement that provides goods and services to the surrounding population.
Threshold population
The minimum number of people required to support a business or service.
Sphere of influence
The area from which a business draws its customers.
Also known as the catchment area, it’s the area people travel from to use a shop.
Range
The maximum distance a person will travel to buy goods.
Convenience goods
Goods needed everyday and are fairly cheap.
Very widely distributed and brought frequently with minimum emotional investment.
Comparison goods
Bought less frequently and a great deal of time,effort and energy are invested in buying these goods.
Comparison goods stores need a high threshold population.
Low-order good/services
Cheaper convenience goods needed on a everyday basis, located in local convenience outlets
Eg. Bread and milk.
High-order goods/services
More specialised expensive goods and services. Needed less frequently and located only in larger centers.
Eg. Television or radio.
Services
Activities provided to meet people’s needs.
Eg. Shops, schools and banks.
Low order functions
Goods or services, usually inexpensive, that people buy on a regular, daily basis.
High order functions
Goods or services, usually expensive, that people buy only occasionally.
Low and high order functions and services
There is a direct correlation between population size and range of services offered by settlements.
Larger settlements offer a wider variety of services within a broader range than smaller settlements.
Lower and higher order centers
Urban settlements are arranged in a hierarchy (system of ranking) according to size and function.
Lower order centers - smaller towns
Higher order centers - larger cities
South African geographer
Professor RJ Davies, used ideas of central place theory to classify SAs cities into an urban hierarchy.
1967 - classified urban settlements into 8 hierarchical categories.
Davies hierarchical ordering
Primate metropolitan area -Joburg Major metropolitan area -Cape Town Metropolitan area -Bloemfontein Major country town -Oudtshoorn Country town -Upington Minor country town -Bredasdorp Local service centre -Barrydale Low-Oder service centre -Wilderness
Hierarchy
A number of levels ranging from low to high.
Each level offers a similar set of functions.
Each level will be ranked above one another.
Central place theory
German Walter Christaller developed the central place theory in 1933.
Central place theory explained the number, location, size, distribution and function of urban settlements.
Smaller the settlement, smaller the threshold population, smaller the range and smaller the sphere of influence.
More smaller settlement than larger settlements.
Larger the population of settlement, more able that population is to support a larger variety of services and functions.
Settlements - population from small to large.
Rural:
Isolated farmstead
Hamlet
Village
Urban: Town City Metropolis Conurbation Megalopolis World city
Conurbation
A continuous urban area.
A large interlinked built up area consisting of previously separated cities and towns that developed into one urban settlement.
Metropolis
Formed when conurbations join together.
A large town or city that has a stature in terms of governance, religion or culture.
Isolated farmstead
Smallest settlement type and made up of single farmhouses.
Village
Rural settlement, smaller than town but larger than a hamlet, consists of a cluster of buildings.
Hamlet
Rural settlement that is too small to be classified as a village.
World city
Large city with international function
