This document outlines Christaller's central place theory, which proposes that settlements develop in a hierarchical pattern to provide goods and services to surrounding areas. It describes the concepts of range, threshold, and sphere of influence. Christaller hypothesized that central places would be spatially distributed in a hexagonal arrangement to optimize access according to different principles (K values) of either marketing, transportation, or administration. However, the theory makes unrealistic assumptions and the predicted patterns are not always reflected in reality due to non-uniform population distributions and other factors.

5.  A Central Place is a settlement which provides one
or more services for the population living around it.
 Simple basic services(e.g. grocery stores) are said
to be of lower order while specialized services
(e.g. universities) are said to be high order.
 Having a high order service implies there are low
order services around it, but not vice versa.
 Settlements which provides low order services are
said to be low order settlements.
 Settlements which provides high order services are
said to be high order settlements.
 The sphere of influence is the area under the
influence of the central place.

6.  Urban hierarchy is based on the functions available
in a city.
 Is also related to population as well as functions and
services
 Functions and services attract people from the
urban areas as well as the hinterlands
 Every urban center has an economic reach
 Central places compete with each other to provide
goods and services
 Economic reach is a measure of centrality
 Centrality is crucial to the development of urban
places and their service areas
 Hinterland refers to the area surrounding a service
from which consumers are drawn

7. The theory consists of two basic concepts
Range is the average maximum distance people
are will travel to use a service
Threshold is the minimum number of people
required to support the service

8.  Christaller attempted to design a model
that would show how and where central
places in the urban hierarchy would be
functionally and spatially distributed

9. Hamlet: fewest goods and services
available
Village: includes the region of the hamlet
and some additional goods and services
Town: includes the region of the village and
hamlet and provides some additional
goods and services
City: includes the region of the village,
hamlet and town and provides additional
goods and services

11.  The landscape is an isotropic surface
 The settlement distribution is uniform with
respect to resources
 The distribution of population and their
income level are almost the same
 Both the purchaser and seller are rational or
economic person who try to optimize their
profit
 Hexagonal arrangement of central places
(WHY?)

13.  The larger the settlement, the less there
are of them and the farther apart they
are
 The less there are of a settlement, the
larger the hinterland, or sphere of
influence, of its goods and services
 Places of the same size will be spaced
the same distance apart (√3x7)km or
12km apart

14. Three ways:
K=3 Marketing principle
K=4 Transportation principle
K=7 Administrative principle
The different layouts predicted by
Christaller have K-values which show how
much the sphere of influence of the
central place takes in

15. According to marketing principle K=3
The market area of a higher order place occupies
1/3rd
of the market area of each of the consecutive
lower order place which lies on its neighbour.
The lower size nodes (6 in no. and 2nd
larger
circle)are located at the corner of a largest
hexagon around the high-order settlement.
It serves 1/3rd
(6 settlements)+1=3 times its own
population and area
Thus with one at the highest seventh order the no.
are 1, 2, 6, 18, 54, 162 and 486

17.  In Christaller’s K=4 model. The criterion is to
minimize the length of roads to join all adjacent
pairs of central places.
 It serves ½ (of 6 settlements)+1 =4 times the
population area of a lower order Centre
 The no. of settlements is thus greater than in K=3
(in the ratio 1, 2, 8, 32, 128, 512 and 2048)

19.  Settlements are nested according to seven (K=7)
 The market areas of the smaller settlements are
completely enclosed within the market area of the
larger settlements
 Efficient administration is the control principle in this
hierarchy
 Sequence-1, 6, 42, 294,1058, 14406 & 100842
settlements

21.  An isotropic surface is ideal rarely found in
the world
 The behaviour of consumers and sellers is
not always rational
 The hexagonal pattern of central places is
rarely found in real life
 This theory is primarily suitable for agriculture
regions and it doesn’t account for the
impact of industrial agglomerations and
govt. policies
 The fixed value of ‘K’ shows poor approx.
with reality