Central place theory
Teoría de los lugares centrales
- Date
- 1933 · confidence high
- Place
- Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany
- Credited to
- Walter Christaller
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
In his doctoral thesis, Christaller proposed that settlements function as 'central places' providing services to their surrounding area, organised in a hexagonal hierarchy according to the population threshold needed and the maximum range people are willing to travel for each good or service.
It is best observed on flat, homogeneous terrain, such as the Dutch polders or the English Fens; the model loses accuracy in industrial or post-industrial regions and does not account for change over time.
What it led to
- An explanation of city hierarchy and spacing
- Use in planning new towns and commercial and healthcare networks
- A foundation of quantitative urban geography