Central Places: Theory and Applications

1. Central Places:Theory and Applications Keller kellek@danbury.k12.ct.us

3. Walter Christaller Die Zentralen Orte in Suddeutschland Central Places in Southern Germany Originally published in 1933, translated into English in 1966

4. CENTRAL PLACE THEORY

12. CENTRAL More small places than big places Ratio of big places to small places relatively constant PLACE Big places farther apart than small places THEORY

13. CENTRAL PLACE A settlement whose livelihood depends on the sale of goods and services to people in the surrounding area

16. Settlement Sizes • Hamlet • Village • Town • City • Metropolis

24. CENTRAL PLACE THEORY

25. POSTULATES or OUTCOMES“Then . . . “

26. PREMISES or ASSUMPTIONS“If . . . “ • Isotropic Surface • “featureless plain” with no barriers to movement • Even Population Distribution • similar in purchasing power and behavior • Homo Economicus • “economic man” with purely economic motives • Integrity of the Law of Supply and Demand • customers needed for a business to stay open

27. POSTULATES or OUTCOMES“Then . . . “ • There will be a regular spatial order in the number of central places of different population sizes. • Few large places • Many small places • There will be a regular spatial order in the spacing of central places of different population sizes. • Large places relatively farther apart • Small places relatively closer together

28. Grocery Stores Gas Stations Jewelry Stores Book Stores Hair Stylists Auto Dealerships Houses of Worship Schools Doctors Dentists Museums Concert Halls Central Place FunctionsCategories of like services found in a central place

29. Higher-Order FunctionsHigher-Order Central Places • Provision of higher-order goods and services • Trade in goods and services that are more valuable and infrequently demanded • Because the goods and services are more valuable, people are willing to travel farther to shop. • Higher-order goods and services are available in higher-order central places.

30. Lower-Order FunctionsLower-Order Central Places • Provision of lower-order goods and services • Trade in goods and services that are less valuable and frequently demanded. • Because the goods and services are less valuable, people are willing to travel only short distances to shop. • Lower-order goods and services are available in lower-order central places.

31. Would you travel farther to buy a new car or the week’s groceries? Would you travel farther to see your family physician or a heart specialist? To see a heart specialist To buy a new car Would you travel farther to go to elementary school or to go to high school? To go to high school

32. City: College Town: High School A Hierarchy of Educational Services Village: Elementary School Hamlet: No Schools

33. Stock Exchange Sports Stadium Regional Shopping Mall Major Department Store Income Tax Service Convenience Store Gas Station

34. How big is the trade area of a service center? It depends on . . . - How far a consumer is willing to travel for the service- How many customers a service needs

35. Threshold: the minimum number of people needed to support a central place function With fewer customers a store cannot afford to stay in business. Range: the maximum distance beyond which a person will not travel to purchase a good or service Beyond a certain distance people cannot afford the travel costs. Each central place function has a:

40. A WALK ACROSS FRANCE by Miles Morland “We never knew whether or not a village would have a shop or a restaurant, but we were developing a system. We used to look up the population on the map. The IGN puts this in tiny figures next to the village name. Our system went like this:

42. Tests of Central Place Theory • J. E. Brush: The Hierarchy of Central Places in Southwestern Wisconsin • B. J. L. Berry, Trading Centers in Haakon County, South Dakota • R. C. Mayfield, A Central Place Hierarchy in Northern India • Y. Watanabe, The Service Pattern in the Shinjo Basin, Yamagata Prefecture • P. Woroby, Functional Ranks and Locational Patterns of Service Centers in Saskatchewan

43. Villages become towns,and towns become cities. The ‘Tween Places

44. Central Places ofIntermetropolitan Corridors Half-way between Washington and Richmond? • Fredericksburg Half-way between Richmond and Norfolk? • Williamsburg Half-way between Washington and Baltimore? • Columbia

45. Why do we not ever see a perfect central place hierarchy? • Physical geography is important! Topography and hydrography interfere. • Consumer behavior is determined by more than economic considerations. • The automobile has made long-distance travel popular (cheap and easy). • People make multiple-purpose shopping trips, often bypassing the smallest places. • The Internet has made it unnecessary to have customers nearby.

46. The Practical Value ofCentral Place Theory Where would you go for ideas, if . . . .

47. You were Dutch and needed to settle the newly drained polders of the Zuider Zee? You were Brazilian and needed to settle people on the Amazon frontier? Central Place Theory Central Place Theory You were an archaeologist and wanted to know where to dig next? Central Place Theory

48. A new hospital? A new high school? A new mall? A new café? A new grocery store? A new Starbucks? A new McDonalds? A new baseball team? How could central place theory help you to choose a location for:

49. HGIA Kuby Chapter 9 Online Activity

50. Basic CPT with my students…