Name: KEY________________________________________
AP
PREP
Models of Urban Structure
Period: ________
Date: _________
Urbanization in the
Modern World
Fill in the blanks to complete the definition or sentence. Note: All of the following information in
addition to your reading is important, not just the blanks you fill in.
Urban Definitions and Terminology
• The price of LAND is highest in the DOWNTOWN & declines outward; majority of the U.S is in the SUBURBS.
• The CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT (CBD) (or “downtown”) is the core of the city.
• An URBAN ZONE is a sector of a city within which land use is relatively uniform (e.g., an industrial or
residential zone); the CENTRAL CITY is the part of an urban area that lies within the outer ring of residential
SUBURBS; these urban regions or zones make up the METROPOLIS.
• The term HINTERLAND means the “land behind” the city (the surrounding SERVICE AREA).
Models of Urban Structure
• Cities exhibit FUNCTIONAL structure – they are spatially organized for commerce, production, education, etc…
• CONCENTRIC ZONE Model (A) - Ernest Burgess (1920s Chicago); 1) CBD, 2) Zone of TRANSITION
(residential deterioration & light ind.), 3) BLUE-COLLAR workers, 4) MIDDLE-CLASS, 5) outer SUBURBAN
ring (WHITE-COLLAR workers); it is DYNAMIC - as the city grows, the inner rings encroach on the outer ones.
• SECTOR Model (B) - Homer Hoyt (1939); criticized the Burgess Model as too simple & inaccurate; urban
growth creates a PIE-shaped urban structure (e.g. low RENT areas could extend from the CBD to the outer edge
of the city); the same is true for high-rent, transportation, and industry.
• MULTIPLE NUCLEI Model (C) - Chauncy Harris & Edward Ullman (1945); claimed the CBD was losing its
dominant position as the nucleus of the urban area; separate nuclei become SPECILAIZED and differentiated, not
located in relation to any distance attribute (urban regions have their subsidiary, yet competing, “nuclei”).
• URBAN REALMS Model - parts of giant CONURBATIONS; self-sufficient (focused on their own CBDs).
• EDGE CITIES - proposed by Joel Garreau; several rules apply: must have substantial OFFICE & RETAIL
space; the population must rise every MORNING and drop every AFTERNOON (more jobs than homes);
known as a single END DESTINATION (the place "has it all"); must not have been anything like a "CITY" in
1960s; 3rd wave: 1) SUBURBANIZATION after WWII, 2) “MALLING” of US (moving marketplace to
suburbs in 1960s & 70s), 3) EDGE CITIES (jobs moved to suburbs in 1980s & 90s).
Rank-Size Rule
• First proposed by George Zipf (1949); the rank-size rule applies when a country doesn’t have a dominant
PRIMATE city; most LDCs (LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES) have a high degree of primacy (meaning
they are more dependent on the city’s CBD).
• The population of a city or town will be INVERSELY proportional to its rank; Pn=P1/n (P1=pop. of largest
city, n = rank of city in the urban HIERARCHY).
• Ex) If the largest city [1] = 12 million people, how many people will be in the 2nd? 3rd? 4th?,…
6 MILLION, 4 MILLION, 3 MILLION, …
Central Places
• BASIC SECTOR – work produces goods for export and generates an inflow of money (e.g.factories).
• NONBASIC SECTOR - responsible for the functioning of the city itself (e.g. teachers, office clerks,…)
• ECONOMIC BASE - ratio of basic to nonbasic workers; MULTIPLIER EFFECT – more nonbasic
• EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE – the number of people employed in the basic & nonbasic sectors.
• FUNCTIONAL SPECIALIZATION – some cities are dominated by one particular activity; U.S. cities were closely
identified w/ certain products. Identify TWO:
PITTSBURGH- STEEL; DETROIT – AUTOMOBILES,…
• As urban centers GROW, they lose their functional specialization; rarely occurs today. Identify TWO:
LAS VEGAS – GAMBLING, HOUSTON – AEROSPACE, ORLANDO – VACATIONING,…
• All urban centers have a certain economic REACH (range) that can be used as a measure of its CENTRALITY.
• Walter Christaller (1933); CENTRAL PLACE THEORY; how & where cities are functionally & spatially located.
• Assumptions: FLAT terrain, no physical BARRIERS, soil FERTILITY is uniform, even distribution of human
POPULATION and PURCHASING power, uniform TRANSPORT network, constant range of SALE.
• Central GOODS and SERVICES = provided only at a central place, or city (available to consumers in a surrounding
region); THREHOLD = minimum market needed (just enough money is brought in to break even).
• RANGE OF SALE = maximum distance people will travel for a good or service (economic reach).
• COMPLEMENTARY REGION = an exclusive hinterland w/ a monopoly on a certain good or service.
• Logically, the complementary region would be circular, but problems arise (unserved or overlapping areas);
HEXAGONS fit perfectly; a NESTING pattern (region-w/in-region) emerges that relates to scale.