Central Places Theory

Central places theory takes its origin from the work of the German geographer Walter Christaller who studied the urban system of Southern Germany during the 1930s. He was mainly looking for a relationship between the size, the number and the geographic distribution of cities. Although his work provided more than a theoretical framework, since he applied his theory to Southern Germany, the theoretical part had the most impacts on geography. His observations enabled the elaboration of an important theory of spatial structure and order, mandatory in the study of urban, economic and transport geography.

Central places theory tries to explain the spatial distribution of urbanization. This pattern is best understood by a central place and its market area. The central place is specialized in selling various goods and services, and the market area is a sphere of the settlement of consumers traveling to the central place, which is a part of hierarchy with other central places. A central place has the main function to supply goods and services to the surrounding population. Its influence is undertaken with its market area and the size of this market area will determine the nature of the spatial order.

Central place theory, as a model of regional spatial structure, has been subject of numerous criticisms. Many contradict the basic hierarchical rules, partly because the theory relates only to the service sector. Of course, settlements may develop due to other factors such as the location of natural resources. The Christaller model holds such factors constant assuming an even plain and a uniform distribution of natural resources. As such, central place theory cannot provide an all-inclusive general theory and there is a need to introduce other theories to explain the agglomerations of many areas. The theory also assumes a uniform distribution of population. This rarely occurs in practice since factors such as soil fertility and climate vary from a place to another and distort the structure. Also, the domination of a large center which may create a “shadow effect”, discouraging the growth of smaller centers. Central place theory is probably the most researched and well-known model of the regional spatial structure of a system of cities. It is a purely deductive theory of a highly simplified and abstract nature developed on the basis of very idealized assumptions. It relates only to the service element of regional structure, failing to explain distortions in the hierarchy caused by the location of primary and manufacturing industry, which tends to group into cluster or agglomerations due to resource location. The theory is essentially static, explaining the existence of a regional spatial structure but failing to explain how that structure has evolved and it might change in the future. It will serve a useful role identifying important concepts such as the interdependence of a city and region, a hierarchy of functions and centers, and market range and threshold populations.