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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central place theory | 2/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_place_theory | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T16:01:41.400198+00:00 | kb-cron |
According to K = 4 transport principle, the market area of a higher-order place includes a half of the market area of each of the six neighbouring lower-order places, as they are located on the edges of hexagons around the high-order settlements. This generates a hierarchy of central places which results in the most efficient transport network. There are maximum central places possible located on the main transport routes connecting the higher order centre. The transportation principle involves the minimisation of the length of roads connecting central places at all hierarchy levels. In this system of nesting, the lower order centres are all located along the roads linking the higher order centres. This alignment of places along a road leads to minimisation of road length. However, for each higher order centre, there are now four centres of immediate lower order, as opposed to three centres under the marketing principle.
=== K = 7 administrative principle ===
According to K = 7 administrative principle (or political-social principle), settlements are nested according to sevens. The market areas of the smaller settlements are completely enclosed within the market area of the larger settlement. Since tributary areas cannot be split administratively, they must be allocated exclusively to a single higher-order place. Efficient administration is the control principle in this hierarchy.
== Evaluation == The validity of the place theory may vary with local factors, such as climate, topography, history of development, technological improvement and personal preference of consumers and suppliers. However, it is still possible to discern Christaller patterns in most distributions of urban centres, even though these patterns will often be distorted by the terrain or imperfect because of suboptimal (with regard to the optimal distribution of centres) historical development decisions. Economic status of consumers in an area is also important. Consumers of higher economic status tend to be more mobile and therefore bypass centres providing only lower order goods. The application of central place theory must be tempered by an awareness of such factors when planning shopping centre space location. Purchasing power and density affect the spacing of centres and hierarchical arrangements. Sufficient densities will allow, for example, a grocery store, a lower order function, to survive in an isolated location. Factors shaping the extent of market areas:
Land use: industrial areas can provide little in the way of a consuming population Poor accessibility: this can limit the extent of a centre's market area Competition: this limits the extent of market areas in all directions Technology: high mobility afforded by the automobile allows overlapping of market areas Market area studies provide another technique for using central place theory as a retail location planning tool. The hierarchy of shopping centres has been widely used within the planning of "new towns". In this new town, the hierarchy of business centres is evident. One main shopping centre provides mostly durable goods (higher order); district and local shopping centres supply, increasingly, convenience (lower order) goods. These centres provided for in the new town plan are not free from outside competition. The impacts of surrounding existing centres on the new town centres cannot be ignored.
== Examples ==
The newly reclaimed polders of the Netherlands provide an isotropic plane on which settlements have developed and in certain areas 6 small towns can be seen surrounding a larger town, especially in the Noord-Oostpolder and Flevoland. The Fens of East Anglia in the UK also provide a large expanse of flat land with no natural barriers to settlement development. Cambridge is a good example of a K=4 Transport Model Central Place, although it is surrounded by 7, rather than 6, settlements. Each satellite is 10–15 miles from Cambridge and each lies on a major road leading out of Cambridge:
Ely - A10 north Newmarket - A1303 (now bypassed by A14/A11) northeast Haverhill - A1307 southeast Saffron Walden - A1301 south Royston - A10 southwest St Neots - A428 west St Ives - A14 northwest As all of the satellite settlements are on transport links, this is a good example of a K=4 CPT model (although in this case it is K=4.5 due to 7 rather than 6 settlements). Another example of the use of CPT was in the delineation of Medical Care Regions in California. A hierarchy of primary, secondary and tertiary care cities was described, and the population size and income needed to support each medical care specialty in California determined.
== Criticism == The central place theory has been criticized for being static; it does not incorporate the temporal aspect in the development of central places. Furthermore, the theory holds up well when it comes to agricultural areas, but not industrial or postindustrial areas due to their diversified nature of various services or their varied distribution of natural resources.
== Newer developments: a dynamic concept for CPT == Newer theoretical developments have shown that it is possible to overcome the static aspect of CPT. Veneris (1984) developed a theoretical model which starts with (a) a system of evenly distributed ("medieval") towns; (b) new economic activities are located in some towns thus causing differentiation and evolution into a hierarchical ("industrial") city system; (c) further differentiation leads into a post-hierarchical ("postindustrial") city system. This evolution can be modelled by means of the three major CPT theories: stage (a) is a system of von Thünen "isolated states"; stage (b) is a Christallerian hierarchical system; stage (c) is a Löschian post-hierarchical system. Furthermore, stage (b) corresponds to Christopher Alexander's "tree" city, while (c) is similar to his "lattice" system (following his dictum "the city is not a tree").