Urban land-use models provide valuable tools for studying the internal structure of cities, but their applicability to large cities of the world has been undermined by physical and historical elements as well as modern-city development.

In what ways are Burgess’s and Hoyt’s urban land-use models similar to each order? Using large cities in different parts of the world as examples, explain how these models fail to generalize their land-use patterns. To what extent are these models useful to town planners?

• Similarities of the two models

• Deviation of the land-use patterns of some cities from these models

• Usefulness of the models to urban planners

Similarities of the two models

Burgess Hoyt

Similarities of the two models• Both models focus on importance of

accessibility• Centrally-located Central Business

District• Clear-cut boundaries between land-use

zones• Study of ground-floor function instead

of the three-dimensional study• Residential segregation according to

socio-economic status

Similarities of the two models• Lower-income group located near the

factory zone• Higher-income group located distant

from lower-income group and factory zone

Deviation of the land-use patterns of some cities from these models• Both models base on cities developed on

uniform/flat land surface• Relief affects the shape, expansion and

land-use zoning of cities (e.g. Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro)

• Hilly areas make transport development difficult and are unattractive to industrial / commercial land uses, but sometimes attract housing (squatter on cheap/illegal land; luxurious housing with good view)

• Waterfront location attract water transport facilities (wharves, terminals, piers), port industries for their accessibility and high income housing for their scenic value.

• Cities with a long history of development (e.g. Chinese and European cities) usually consist mixed land uses (commercial-residential) rather than clear-cut land use zones

• Old city core(historical buildings serving as cultural/religious/parliamentary centre) in addition to modern C.B.D.

• Cities with colonial history (e.g. South-east Asian cities) – co-existence of indigenous sector and western sector (commercial, industrial and residential land uses)

• Modern developments – offices/ commercial buildings/industrial estates located in different parts of the city

• Polycentric replaces monocentric patterns (multiple-nuclei development – secondary commercial centres, industrial and residential suburbs)

• Cities engulfing small towns in their neighbourhood and merging of cities as a result of suburbanization, forming an extensive urban area (mega city / extended metropolitan region) with multiple centres and a complex of land use zones

• Modern housing replacing older / shanty parts of the city as a result of urban redevelopment programmes

• High-income housing often locate close to high-technology industrial area (where pollution is carefully-controlled)

Usefulness of the models to urban planners

• Objectives of urban planning:• Improvement of living conditions,

traffic flow and socio-economic development in cities

• Need for land-use zoning – orderly arrangement of business, industrial and residential areas (land use designated prior to development)

Consideration of:• Accessibility / distance-decay mechanism

– sites near city centre or nodal points for commercial function

• Different requirements of various land users:– City centre – the most expensive site for

commercialfunctions– Zones of better environmental quality fo

r higher-income housing– Manufacturing – areas with extensive ch

eap land and good accessibility

-lower income housing – close to manufacturing / zones of lesser environmental quality

• Redevelopment of inner city areas – high-density housing, factory areas mixed with lower income housing

• Improvement of intra-urban transport network (road and mass-transit systems) to facilities the flow of goods and people between different functional zones

How are urban centres classified and spatially organised according to Christaller’s theory? Using the urban network of a selected region, describe the spatial pattern of towns and cities. Discuss how the spatial pattern can be explained in terms of local physical and economic conditions

hamlet village town

Urban hierarchy

Population

No. of Function

Village

City

Town

Urban Hierarchy

• Classification of urban centres based on CPT

• Urban network/spatial pattern of selected region

• Explanation of the spatial pattern

Classification of urban centres based on CPT

• According to Christaller, urban centres are treated as central places that provided goods and services to surrounding hinterlands. The functions of the centres according to the market threshold and the range of goods govern the size of urban settlement. An urban hierarchy is formed relating to the orders of goods offered by the urban centre.

The order of a function is governed by:• The market threshold. The higher the

order, the larger will be the threshold population

• The range of goods. The higher the order, the longer the distance of the customers will go to buy the goods

• A functional hierarchy is established– The larger urban centres will have more

and higher order functions than small centres

The spatial characteristics of the urban hierarchy will be:

(a) Centres of a given order tend to have hinterlands of similar area. Lower order centres have small hinterland, while higher order centres serve large areas. The increase in hinterland area from one to the next is by a constant ratio of k-value

(b) Centres of a similar order or class size are scattered evenly across the countryside. Lower order centres are close together, while higher cebtres are more widely spaced. The increase in distance apart of successively higher order centres is by a constant value of √3 times the spacing of the next lower order centres

this illustrates the concept that urban networks are not just haphazard arrangements of settlements scattered at random across the countryside, but rather are orderly systems in which there is some pattern and regularity in the size and spacing of centres.

Urban network/spatial pattern of selected region

Description of the spatial pattern• Identify the orders of urban settlements ac

cording to the chief functions and population size

• A discussion on the overall pattern:uniformly spaced : even distribution of urban centres over the tributary area or irregularly spaced?

whether a continuum or discrete classes of central place in the region?or clear-cut dominance of certain head-linked cities over the other smaller towns?

Explanation of the spatial patternThe physical conditions:• Relief : clustering of settlement on the plai

n and dispersion over the hills• Fertility of the land governs the distributio

n of the productive hinterlands• Drainage pattern governs the communicat

ionThe economic conditions:• Communication routeways• Population distribution

• Difference in patterns of employment within the studied region: whether there are market towns or industrial towns

• Industrial agglomerations increasing population concentrations and functions over the head-linked cities may lead to tendency of metropolitan primacy

• Other factors may be of importance:– Government policies / region planning– Political boundary/parish boundaries