ConceptsfromChapter7.docVIP

Chapter 7: Cities as Retail and Service Centers Chapter Objectives To explain the concepts of marketing threshold, range, and hierarchy in the world economy To introduce central place theory and the mercantile model of settlement To help to appreciate empirical regularities of the central place concept To explore the market arrangements of different cultures of the world To acquaint you with some practical applications of central place theory To introduce the computerized smart city Introduction Central place theory deals with relationships between market centers and consumers within regions. The affected region can range from proximate market relationships to a global urban hierarchy generated by industrial restructuring. The smart city concept rests of cooperation in a multi county region in which government, industry, educators, and citizenry act to enhance their development as opposed to individual groups acting in unison. Central Place and their Hinterlands The concentration of large population in cities is essentially the result of the spatial organization of secondary and tertiary activities that can be conducted more profitably when clustered together rather than dispersed. Location patterns of cities consist of three elements: A lined pattern of transportation centers that grow along transport routes and at junctions of different types of transportation; A pattern of specialized-function centers which develop, singly or in clusters, around a localized physical resource; and A uniform pattern of centers that exchange goods and services with their hinterlands, referred to a central places. No single location theory applies to all three components of settlement patterns, but central place theory has been developed to explain settlement-forming trade among cities in their hinterlands. Central places serve a larger geographic area than themselves, called their hinterland, tributary area, trade or market area, or urban field. Geographers often use a median or l