5. Land Use Theories
● Factors affecting the pattern of land use in urban areas with
reference to leading models of city development that claim to
describe the pattern of commercial, industrial and residential land
use.
● Models of urban areas simplify the reality of huge differences
between cities, and show how they have patterns that are
common to many.
7. Mono-centric Urban Land use models
● Monocentric: there is a single central point of the city
● Polycentric: there are multiple ‘centres’ of the city
● All the monocentric models assume that there is a single Central Business District
in the city.
● The most famous of these models are:
1. Burgess’s ‘Concentric Zone Model’ (1925)
2. Hoyt’s ‘Sector Model’ (1939)
3. Harris and Ullman’s ‘Multiple Nuclei Model’ (1945)
9. Concentric Zone Model
• Proposed by:
○ in 1925
○ by Ernest Burgess, sociologist
• Cities grow outwards from the centre in a series of
rings.
10. Concentric Zone Model
Features of Concentric
Zone Model
• 1920’s
• Class conscious society
• Housing segregated
according to income
• Lack of transport
infrastructure
11. Concentric Zone Model
Assumptions
• Older buildings in city centre
• Newer buildings at edge of city
• Land values highest in city centre
• Strong economic and ethnic segregation
• Low income groups lack transport and live close to city centre
12. Central Zone Model
The zones identified are
1. The center with the central business
district,
2. The transition zone of mixed
residential and commercial uses or
the zone of transition,
3. Working class residential homes
(inner suburbs), in later decades
called inner city or zone of
independent working men's home,
4. Better quality middle-class homes
(outer suburbs) or zone of better
housing,
5. Commuter zone, high-class homes on
outskirts of outer suburbs -
homeowner can afford to commute
to central business district.
13. Criticism on Burgess Model
● The theory is based on early twentieth-century rail transport does not
consider
○ ownership private cars that enable commuting from cheaper land
outside city boundaries
● Impact that industry and transport could have on land use not
considered.
● Physical features such as landscape may restrict growth are not
considered
● It is too specific to North American cities; it does not fit to more historic
cities or those that have recently grown or to cities in other countries
15. Hoyt’s Sector Model
● Proposed
○ in 1939
○ by land economist, Homer Hoyt
○ Study 142 American Cities
○ Published “The structure and growth of residential
neighbourhoods in American cities”
● Recognised that they were more complex than simple rings
of land use, and suggested that industrial land use is linked
to transport routes.
● Theoretical explanation in terms of wedge shaped sectors
radiating from the central business districts along
transportation routes
● He also suggested that the location of transport and industry
within the city affects the location of residential districts. This
results in ‘sectors’ of the city with different land uses.
16. Hoyt’s Sector Model
Timeframe
● Late 1930’s
● Income and status divided
society
● Housing areas reflect social
segregation
Assumptions
● Settlement develops along
transport routes
● Towns radiate out from the
CBD
● Low-income and industrial
areas lie next to each other
● Wealthy people choose the
best sites
17. Burgess vs Hoyt
Similarities between Burgess Model and Hyot’s Model
● Follows on from Burgess’s model in that the CBD remains in the
centre of the city because it is the easiest place to access and
therefore there are more potential customers for commercial
businesses, and the sectors are clearly visible in rings radiating out
from the centre.
● The low class residential land is found nearby, with the high class
residential the furthest away.
18. Burgess vs Hoyt
Burgess’s model suggested that cities have zones arranged in a
series of concentric bands that expand outward from the CBD.
Hoyt argued that instead of concentric sets of neighborhoods,
cities are primarily laid out in pie or wedge-shaped zones and
corridors developed from the core of the city to the outskirts.
In the Hoyt Sector Model, the CBD is still in the center, but
expanding outward away from it along transportation lines are
zones used for industry and residential developments.
20. Harris and Ullman’s Multiple Nuclei Model
• Proposed
○ in 1945
○ by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman
○ Published an article “ The nature of cities”
• This model recognises that as cities grow, they swallow
up smaller settlements around the edge. Meanwhile as
the city becomes larger, travel between the outskirts
and CBD becomes impractical and smaller centres
grow throughout the city.
21. Factors for creating different nuclei
Interdependency of certain types of activities and need
for close physical proximity to one another
Natural clustering tendency among certain types of
activities which find it mutually profitable to
congregate together
High rents or high land costs, have the effect of
attracting or repelling uses in the process of
nucleation
22. Multiple Nuclei Model
Assumptions
• Modern cities more complex than suggested by other
theorists
• Each nucleus acts as a growth point
• Growth occurs outwards from each nucleus, until they
all merge into one large urban area
23. Multiple Nuclei Model
• Mixture of Burgess and Hoyt
• Shows some land-uses attract more of the same, for
example industrial areas
• Some land-uses may deter others from locating nearby,
eg; housing is usually located away from industrial areas
24. Criticism on Multiple Nuclei Theory
• Not an exact fit for all cities and towns
• More complicated model
27. Other urban land use models
Los Angeles Polycentric Land Use Model
● Post 1980’s, large modern cities do not grow around a CBD
● They grow in a sprawling fashion with multiples centres and mixed land use cities
● This is because the core of the city is in decline while the periphery is expanding
● “in a sprawling fashion, as a multiplicity of commercial, industrial and residential
areas spread outward without noticeable pattern”
28. Non-Western Models of Urban land use
● Latin American City
● SouthEast Asian City
● Sub-Saharan Africa City
● China City
● Mediterranean City
● North African City
Source:
https://www.geographycasestudy.com/urban-land-use-patterns-and-
models/
29. Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 11: Make Cities and Human
Settlements
1. Inclusive-Gender, age,
disabilities
2. Safe-security
3. Resilient-disasters
4. Sustainable-socially acceptable,
environmentally friendly and
economically viable
