Central place theory

central place theory, nesting principles

5. A Central Place is a settlement which provides one
or more services for the population living around it.
Simple basic services(e.g. grocery stores) are said
to be of lower order while specialized services
(e.g. universities) are said to be high order.
Having a high order service implies there are low
order services around it, but not vice versa.
Settlements which provides low order services are
said to be low order settlements.
Settlements which provides high order services are
said to be high order settlements.
The sphere of influence is the area under the
influence of the central place.

6. Urban hierarchy is based on the functions available
in a city.
Is also related to population as well as functions and
services
Functions and services attract people from the
urban areas as well as the hinterlands
Every urban center has an economic reach
Central places compete with each other to provide
goods and services
Economic reach is a measure of centrality
Centrality is crucial to the development of urban
places and their service areas
Hinterland refers to the area surrounding a service
from which consumers are drawn

7. The theory consists of two basic concepts
Range is the average maximum distance people
are will travel to use a service
Threshold is the minimum number of people
required to support the service

8. Christaller attempted to design a model
that would show how and where central
places in the urban hierarchy would be
functionally and spatially distributed

9. Hamlet: fewest goods and services
available
Village: includes the region of the hamlet
and some additional goods and services
Town: includes the region of the village and
hamlet and provides some additional
goods and services
City: includes the region of the village,
hamlet and town and provides additional
goods and services

11. The landscape is an isotropic surface
The settlement distribution is uniform with
respect to resources
The distribution of population and their
income level are almost the same
Both the purchaser and seller are rational or
economic person who try to optimize their
profit
Hexagonal arrangement of central places
(WHY?)

13. The larger the settlement, the less there
are of them and the farther apart they
are
The less there are of a settlement, the
larger the hinterland, or sphere of
influence, of its goods and services
Places of the same size will be spaced
the same distance apart (√3x7)km or
12km apart

14. Three ways:
K=3 Marketing principle
K=4 Transportation principle
K=7 Administrative principle
The different layouts predicted by
Christaller have K-values which show how
much the sphere of influence of the
central place takes in

15. According to marketing principle K=3
The market area of a higher order place occupies
1/3
rd
of the market area of each of the consecutive
lower order place which lies on its neighbour.
The lower size nodes (6 in no. and 2
nd
larger
circle)are located at the corner of a largest
hexagon around the high-order settlement.
It serves 1/3
rd
(6 settlements)+1=3 times its own
population and area
Thus with one at the highest seventh order the no.
are 1, 2, 6, 18, 54, 162 and 486

17. In Christaller’s K=4 model. The criterion is to
minimize the length of roads to join all adjacent
pairs of central places.
It serves ½ (of 6 settlements)+1 =4 times the
population area of a lower order Centre
The no. of settlements is thus greater than in K=3
(in the ratio 1, 2, 8, 32, 128, 512 and 2048)

19. Settlements are nested according to seven (K=7)
The market areas of the smaller settlements are
completely enclosed within the market area of the
larger settlements
Efficient administration is the control principle in this
hierarchy
Sequence-1, 6, 42, 294,1058, 14406 & 100842
settlements

21. An isotropic surface is ideal rarely found in
the world
The behaviour of consumers and sellers is
not always rational
The hexagonal pattern of central places is
rarely found in real life
This theory is primarily suitable for agriculture
regions and it doesn’t account for the
impact of industrial agglomerations and
govt. policies
The fixed value of ‘K’ shows poor approx.
with reality