Central Place Theory

About seventy years have now passed since Walter Christaller established the foundations of Central Place Theory in his book entitled Die zentralen Orte in Süddeutschland. The Central Place Theory has played an important role in the explanation of urban system. It attempts to explain the size, number, and spatial distribution of settlement in the belief that some ordering principles govern the distribution.

The Central Place Theory posits the following: (i) that the basic function of a city is to be a central place which provides goods and services for a surrounding tributary area; (ii) that the centrality of a city is a summary measure of the degree to which it is such a service center; (iii)that higher order places offer more goods, have more establishments and business types, larger populations, tributary areas and tributary populations, do greater volumes of business, and are more widely spaced than lower order places; (iv) that low order places provide only low order goods to low order tributary areas; (v) that central places fall into a hierarchy comprising discrete groups of centers; and (vi) that the hierarchy may be organized according to marketing, traffic, and separation principles (Berry and Pred, 1965: 3).

The central place is specialized in selling various goods and services. As such, the city, which serves as a central place, has a number of smaller towns at an equal distance away from it, and is located at the center of minimum aggregate travel of its tributary area.

The more central the place is, the higher is its “order”. High order centers (e.g., universities) provide highly specialized goods and services while low order ones (grocery stores) offer simple basic goods and services, which require frequent purchasing with little consumer travel.

High order centers perform all the functions of low order centers plus a group of central functions that differentiates them and sets them above the lower order. This implies that there are low order goods and services in high order centers but not high order goods and services in low order centers. A result is a “nesting” pattern of lower order trade areas within the trade area of higher order centers, plus a hierarchy of routes joining the centers.
Based on the Central Place Theory, the larger the settlements, the lesser their number; the bigger a settlement, the farther away a similar size settlement is; the larger the settlement, the higher the order of its services; and the range (or the maximum travel distance of a consumer) increases as the population increases.

The conurbation as shown in the figure is the largest settlement, so has the largest amount of services and therefore there are less of them. The towns, on the other hand, have much less services and there are more of them.

The Central Place Theory assumes that all areas have an isotropic surface, an evenly distributed population and resources, and similar purchasing power of consumers. It points out that to prevent spheres of influence to overlap or have gaps, the best shape is a hexagon. The breaking point is where the consumer is equidistant from two/more similar services.

References:

Barlowe, Raleigh. Land Resource Economics: The Political Economy of Rural and Urban Resource Use. (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1958).

Berry, Brian and Allen Pred. Central Place Studies. (USA: Regional Science Research Institute, 1965).

mama.instate.edu

www.revision.notes.co.uk

www.personal umich.edu

von Thunen’s Theory

A German landowner and economist, Johann Heinrich von Thunen developed a model which attempts to analyze the relationship between differences in spatial location and land utilization patterns. The von Thunen’s Model illustrates the effects of location relative to market, and transportation facilities and costs, on land utilization practices.

According to von Thunen, transportation costs include not only the transfer of produce to market, but also the time, effort, and inconvenience associated with moving workers and supplies to and from various production sites. With this, he argued that the first zone would be used for garden plots and other intensive uses which call for considerable care and travel on the part of the villagers. The second and third zones were devoted to uses involving heavy, bulky, and hard-to-transport commodities while those uses involving more easily transported products were located at even greater distances from the city.

Nowadays, some of the von Thunen’s assumptions do not hold true due to modern transportation facilities. But it is still advantageous to locate a production area near the market wherein transportation costs can be reduced at the minimum level or better yet, none at all.

References:

Barlowe, Raleigh. Land Resource Economics: The Political Economy of Rural and Urban Resource Use. (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1958).

Berry, Brian and Allen Pred. Central Place Studies. (USA: Regional Science Research Institute, 1965).

mama.instate.edu

www.revision.notes.co.uk

www.personal umich.edu

On Non-motorized Transport

Non-motorized transport is indispensable, particularly in an era of economic and environmental crises. The use of non-motorized means of transportation such as walking and cycling provides a lot of socio-economic and environmental benefits, especially in developing countries such as the Philippines. It creates health consciousness among people, enhances physical fitness, offers affordable mobility, reduces traffic congestion, and does not contribute to further environmental pollution, among others.

However, as in any other Asian cities, increasing trends of population, gross domestic product, and level of motorization seem to threaten the current status of non-motorized transport in Metro Manila. Loss of street space for safe, non-motorized vehicle use and changes in urban geography have been evidenced as consequences of transportation plans and policies that encourage motorization. Moreover, the declining use of non-motorized transport has brought about negative effects such as air pollution, inefficient energy use, and unemployment and poor mobility of low-income people.

To address these, the need to formulate plans which put priority on the movement of goods and persons, the development of required regulatory frameworks, and the institutional and organizational capacity to implement such sustainable plans that integrate the concerns of non-motorized transport facilities, becomes urgent. Some cities in Metro Manila, including Makati, Manila and Marikina have already started improving non-motorized transport facilities. To what extent these efforts have contributed to the overall sustainability of urban transport, at least in Metro Manila, is yet to be determined. Collective efforts of other cities in terms of mainstreaming non-motorized transport facilities planning have to be established.

Population Growth and Human Capital

The relationship of population growth and human capital can be both optimistic and pessimistic. Optimistically, it can be said that population growth in a given area would mean more human capital, provided that such human capital is productive. In other words, the growing population should add up to the labor force. The challenge therefore is how to ensure that the growing population effectively contributes to the development of a certain area, or of the nation as a whole. Said challenge can be addressed primarily with efforts and investments geared toward quality health and nutrition, as well as education and other essential services.

Pessimistically, failure of the government or the public at large to address such challenge would entail problems of unemployment and declining quality of human resources. Without corresponding inputs or investments to make the growing population economically independent and productive, the result would be a weak human capital, mainly affecting individual and nationwide economic status.

Population Growth and the Environment

Population growth has an effect on the environment, and vice versa. Such effects can be viewed in both positive and negative ways. On the positive side, increase in population means increase in the number of stewards looking after the environment. Again, this is more of an ideal situation rather than real.

The real picture is more inclined to the negative side. Population growth is viewed as one of the factors that cause environmental degradation. The demands of the growing population could lead to mismanagement of natural resources. More people demand more resources, and apparently, generate more waste. Accordingly, when natural resources are strained, the integrity of the environment is likewise affected. In such situations, environmental problems, such as pollution, may crop up, resulting into other interrelated problems such as those relating to health and sanitation, which eventually hinder development. As in the case of natural resources, the decline in the environment would have bearing on the quantity and quality of the population.

Population Growth and Natural Resources

Population growth and natural resources are interrelated. The former influences the quantity or availability of the latter. This relationship may be exemplified in two ways. First is in the ability of the growing population to manage and maintain natural resources. As the population grows, then, there would be a great number of people taking care of these natural resources. However, this scenario is one that is ideal.

Second is in the fact that the population depends largely on natural resources, such as freshwaters, croplands, fisheries, and forests, to sustain life. With this, the requirements for these natural resources accelerate as the population escalates. In other words, rapid population growth implies the need to produce more goods and services to accommodate the larger population. Consequently, more natural resources, serving as production inputs are needed to increase production of goods and services needed by the population.

It must be noted that the availability of natural resources also dictates population growth, among other factors. While natural resources have the so-called regenerative capacity, this, however, does not guarantee perpetual support to life. Certainly, mismanagement of natural resources of the growing population could damage said capacity, which in turn, could ultimately lead to decline of both natural resources and the population. As natural resources depletion gets worse, population growth may have the tendency to slow down despite the availability of alternatives to support life.

Major Planning Constraints in Developing Countries

Planning in developing countries such as the Philippines is constrained by some structural, institutional, political, and attitudinal problems. For instance, some local government units in the Philippines, e.g., those 6th class in terms of income, do not or may not have the necessary technical expertise and financial resources to formulate plans, and implement these for the betterment of their locality. This may be the case of LGUs which are not that resourceful and innovative.

Another reason why planning is somewhat difficult in developing countries such as the Philippines is that, as observed, from the national down to the local level, governance is not that good in general. The Philippines for instance is noted for being dominated by corrupt officials with personal vested interests. The goals of planning to ensure that the general welfare of the people is upheld, is most of the time, not achieved because of “inefficient” governance. Nonetheless, there are exceptions to this, where good governance is practiced, where the government works hand in hand with the civil society and the business community to provide better quality of life of the people.