Graduate Project

 

A technique for predicting the urban structure of a region Public Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_projects/x059c8075

Descriptions

Attribute NameValues
Creator
Abstract
  • The two classic theories of the distribution of cities in an urban system are the rank size rule and central place theory. The rank size relationships, as incorporated into G. K. Zipf's Principle of Least Effort, is seen as the result of a balancing of the opposing forces of urban location. Central place theory, as developed by W. Christaller, presents an alternate view of cities as ordered groups of cities with the cities of each group sharing unique characteristics. Because the rank size distribution is a continuous one and central place theory rests on the assumption of discretely distributed clusters of cities of similar population, the two theories are considered to be incompatible. The present paper summarizes the two theories as developed by G. K. Zipf and W. Christaller, discusses the conflicts between the two theories, and develops a semilogarithmic graphing technique that provides a methodology for resolving the conflicts between them. When rank size distributed data are plotted on semilogarithmic graph paper, and the resulting curve approximated by a series of straight lines, groups of cities characteristic of the central place distribution are defined. Linear regressions on these data reveal consistent parameters characteristic of central place distributions. These parameters are dimensionless and have been found to be useful in the comparative analysis of urbanized regions. They may also be useful in the analysis of urban structure and correlated phenomena.
Resource Type
Date Available
Date Issued
Degree Level
Degree Name
Degree Field
Degree Grantor
Commencement Year
Advisor
Academic Affiliation
Rights Statement
Publisher
Peer Reviewed
Language
Digitization Specifications
  • File scanned at 300 ppi (Monochrome) using Capture Perfect 3.0 on a Canon DR-9050C in PDF format. CVista PdfCompressor 4.0 was used for pdf compression and textual OCR.
Replaces

Relationships

Parents:

This work has no parents.

Items