Regional / Local social economical spatial patterns Flashcards
(17 cards)
What does Rural vs Urban truly means?
Rural and Urban might have different meanings according to the region we are referring to. It usually refers to a way of life of a certain area. Rural areas focus more on farming activities while Urban areas relate to a commercial space/economic activity.
What is the meaning of Hinterland?
Hinterland is usually used to refer to a rural area under the influence of another powerful region or URBAN SETTLEMENT. It originally meant the area within a certain territory and away from the coast.
Describe the local settlement model by Von Thunen.
Thunen uses concentric rings to economically and visually explain how different areas of the city should be organized. It focuses its attention on the timing of decomposition of dairy to place it more centraly compared to agricultural areas. It takes as an assumption to all land is equally fertile + transportation cost increases with distance.
What does Weber’s Least Cost Theory refer to?
The Least Cost Theory by Weber explains the most beneficial positioning of an industry. This will depend on the type of material (heavy or not) and how it influences the transportation cost. If the material can be found everywhere, it makes more sense for the industry to place it closer to the market. Otherwise, closer to the source.
What elements does the Least Cost Theory account for?
The Least Cost Theory takes into account transportation and its costs, Labour and Agglomeration factors (benefits of clustering industries together)
What is the main concept of the Central Place Theory?
The Central Place Theory developed by Christaller indicates that there are Central Places that serve surroundings areas and that each one of them has a order/hierarchy/importance.
What are some common assumptions of the Central Place Theory?
1) All areas have no physical or economical boundaries
2) Individuals are equally distributed and act rationally
What Threshold means in the Central Place Theory?
Threshold means the minimum quantity of people for a service to exist. Eg. University requires a lot of people and needs to be placed in a big university.
What does Range mean in the Central Place Theory?
Range means the maximum distance that a person is willing to travel to reach a good or service.
Why do some services locate close to each other and other services are more spread? Use the Central Place Theory.
According to the Central Place Theory individuals prefer convenience in their services choice. This means, when we have a high traffic area that might imply more time for the costumer…services such as Subway would have more than one store to ease the reaching time (auto traffic) but also the efficiency of the store (spreading people being served). In areas where it is easier to move and there is less traffic=less moving time, subways can be located farther away.
What does August Losch add to the central place theory?
August Losch does not necessarily consider the placement of cities as hexagons but he accounts for demand, average price of the product, maximum willingness to travel and others. He makes the design more realistic considering high-level goods and low-level goods.
Why is the average cost important in the model presented by August Losch?
Depending on their high-level good or low-level good and their respective price, a company directly influences the demand for their product. This is one of the elements together with distance that influence purchasing behaviour.
How should we adapt the Central Place Theory to today?
Today, we have to account for Global and sub-global level but also a stronger fluidity of economic boundaries.
What theories substitute the Central Place Theory and why?
The Central Place Theory today is substituted by the Central Flow Theory which includes cities across continents. This is possible thanks to the network systems and transport.
Which criteria can we use to describe the shape of urban areas?
To describe Urban areas, we can make usage of 1) Complexity 2) Centrality 3) Compactness (dispersed or clear border) 4) Porosity (diff landscapes within one location)
What is a Functional region?
A functional region is a central settlement that is known for a specific region. Ex. Metropol region.
What defines higher or lower purchasing power when we talk about the shape of the urban settlement?
High purchasing power = complex and less dense > people have more money to buy their own space and be as complex as needed.
Low purchasing power = density and compactness > less money and having to adapt to local housing situation.
