City has an intrinsic relationship with its periphery or surrounding area. An urban geographer must determine the spatial extent up to which the city influences social, economic and cultural landscape to make effective policies for development. Therefore, we should know the methods of demarcation of Umland. However, let us first understand the meaning of Umland. … Read more
Central Business District (CBD) refers to the core of the urban area which contains intensive commercial land-use. It is the most important area of the structure of a city. The tallest non-residential buildings of the city are located in CBD. It acts as a growth pole of the city where most of economic and corporate … Read more
We often hear about cities and towns and want to visit them for different reasons such as employment, entertainment, leisure etc. Before proceeding for any research in cities, we must have a clear definition of urban areas in India. However, the definition of urban areas vary from one country to another. The definition of urban … Read more
In a narrow sense, urban morphology refers to the study of physical arrangement or structure of town. In a wider sense, it may be defined as a study of relationships of urban landscape with its occupiers in terms of patterns and distribution of socio-economic and political activities. Hence, urban morphology is not only a study … Read more
Mark Jafferson propounded his concept of primate city in 1939. He observed that a region’s regional development revolves around a large city of the region. All other cities are smaller than the largest city. He names the largest city as primate city. Characteristics of Primate City Primate city is the largest economically dominant city of … Read more
Many urban geographers have observed the existence of some kind of pattern in size and spacing of cities. Similarly, GK Zipf observed this pattern and propounded rank size rule. Rank Size Rule states that the population of all towns can be expressed in relation to the most populated city of a region. The rank size … Read more
Central place theory is a milestone in the quantitative revolution era. It demonstrated the use of quantitative techniques in spatial and locational studies. However, it has been criticized widely on many grounds. Criticism of central place theory led to development in the field of spatial studies. To understand the relevance of this theory, we must … Read more
Walter Christaller proposed his Central Place Theory in 1933. He aimed to rationalize the distribution of cities over geographic space. He was concerned with the way the settlement of different sizes evolve and are spaced out. It is a theoretical account of size and distribution of settlements within an urban system where marketing is predominant … Read more
Harris and Ullman proposed Multiple Nuclei Model in their paper The Nature of Cities (1945) to explain the morphology of a city. They argued that the land use pattern is much more complex than the model given by Burgress, Hoyt & Davis. They observed that the land use pattern is neither in concentric zones or … Read more
Homer Hoyt and M.R. Davis proposed the sector model of urban morphology in 1939. This model was based on observations from 64 cities in the USA. He modified the Concentric Zone Model by Burgess in combination with the impact of transport routes on urban morphology and came up with their own Wedge or Sector Model. … Read more