Central Place Theory, Essay Example

Introduction

Central place theory is a geographical theory that was advanced in German, seeking to explain the human settlements in town and urban areas in terms of their number, their location and their sizes. It is a group of ideas explaining the functions and spacing of various patterns of human settlements. It explains the reasons behind the differences of cities around the world in reference to their distribution and their sizes. It was first introduced in German by the scholar Christaller, who explained that all settlements just act as central places to provide goods and services to the surrounding community (Lewis 1990).

This theory tends to explain the relationships between settlements, showing how one settlement relates with another settlement and how all the settlements relate with each other as a whole. The central place is where goods and services are bought from and populations tend to settle in areas near them so that they will be able to acquire the goods and services easily. The central place, as a source of goods and services controls a certain amount of a market area and the populations tend to settle around that place. The size of the settlement is determined by the type and amount of goods offered by the central zone, with central zones offering less goods and services attracting less populations hence a smaller town than central places offering more goods and services.

Ordering of the Central Place Theory

The central place is usually place in at the corners of an imaginary triangle of the settlement. This place serves consumers who are distributed evenly near the central place. As these central places grow and have an increase in the number of consumers they serve increase, they form hexagonal shapes, which are the traditional shapes of many models of central place in different parts of the world. To add on that, the central place has three principles (orders). The first principle is the marketing principle. In the system, markets placed in a certain level in the hierarch of the central place are bigger than the next lower ones by three times with different level of markets following the same progression of three (Benson, 1953). This means that when there are four cities, there would be twelve towns, thirty six villages and one hundred and eight hamlets.

The second principle is the principle of transportation. The areas in a higher central place in the hierarchy of the central place are bigger by four times than next lower order.

The last principle is the principle of administration, in which the difference between the highest and the lowest order increase by a factor of seven. The area of trade of the highest order covers completely the area of trade covered by the lowest order, hence implying that the market of the highest order covers a larger area than the market of the lowest order.

The major purpose of the market town in the central place theory is to provide goods and services to the market area surrounding it. These towns are placed at the centre, hence at times called the central place. Settlements providing goods and services which are more than the other settlements are called central places of a higher order. Central places of a lower order usually have a small area of provision of their goods and services hence they mostly deal with goods and services that are purchased with a higher frequency than those of a higher order. Places of lower order are more in number than places of higher order.

An assumption by the theory is that the central places are distributed on a population which is uniform in its density and its purchasing power. There is movement across the settlements which is uniform and the cost of transport increase linearly and the consumers act intelligently to reduce the cost of transportation by seeking the goods and services they desire in the nearest places possible.

Community Sizes in the Central Place System

Communities in the central place system are classified into five different groups depending on their sizes. These groups are the hamlet, the village, the town, a city and the regional town.

Hamlet

Hamlet is a rural settlement, without a church and is smaller than a village. An example is Cape Dorset, in the Nunavut territory in Canada. A small aggregation of settlements around a mill can be classified as a Hamlet. For a settlement to be classified here, it has to be a very small settlement, containing very few people and no major institutions like churches or schools, but there may be a particular type of an activity, which is common to all the people living there for example a mine. When a hamlet grows bigger and has buildings such as for churches, it becomes a village.

Village

This is a cluster of human settlements in a certain place which is not as large as a town or city but bigger than a Hamlet. A village has its own church in it. Most villages are located in the rural areas though there are also urban villages. Settlements in the village are not scattered or dispersed all over but are close to one another. They are normally permanent with fixed buildings, permanent housing and other structures, though in some instances transient villages can develop.

Historically, villages were formed of communities that practiced subsistence agriculture, but with industrial revolutions, people moved to central places and aggregated and when the number of settlements enlarged, they became villages. Examples of villages are Barnwell in Taber village municipal district, Andrew village in Lamont country and Alberta in the Lac Ste. Anne country. A village grows from a hamlet in the process of urbanization (Joseph & Joyce, 1967) and with time as growth continues grows to become a large city.

Town

It is a settlement consisting of hundred thousands of people but can contain as little as just a few thousands of people. It has more settlements of people and consists of larger markets, with more goods and services offered. Due to the more goods, it attracts more people to settle around the central zone, as they seek to be near the market. Examples of towns in Canada are the Labrador, which is a ghost town now in Quebec.

Cities

A city is defined a place with a big population in which there are a lot of activities concerning commerce, and culture. It is a town with a greater importance and of a bigger size. It has a specific administrative status and also a historical and legal status. Examples are the Penetanguishene, and Victoria Harbour.

Regional capital

These are the cities of the highest order in a country and provide goods of the highest order in a country with hinterland that is very huge. Examples are Paris and California.

Conclusion

In summary, central place theory explained the relationships between different regions and areas of a city, town, village and hamlet and their respective functions.

Reference

Benson, N. (1953). Towns: Their classification, London: Educational Book.

Joseph, C. A., & Joyce, T. A. (1967). The basics of a town, New Yoke: Guilford press.

Lewis, G. F. (1990). An overview of the Central Place Theory, New Yoke: Hope Publishers.
William, L. F. (1994). Geograph, London, Rain shadow Publishers

Wilhelm, L. & Carl, T.(1978) Urbanization: Development of Towns, Canada, Real Book.

Garth, M. T.(1996), Is the central place theory true? Geographical Annual Release, 68(4), 348-390.

Allan, G. B., (1989), Process of Urbanization, London, High Way Books