Central Business District, Models of Urban Structure

and SprawlChapter 13 sections 1, 2 and

9

Terms/Concepts• Central Business District• Concentric Zone Model• Sector Model• Multiple Nuclei Model• Peripheral Model• Sprawl

Explaining the City• Cities are ever changing but

sociologist, economist, and geographers try to develop models to explain them– Not all models apply to all cities and

cities may actually be a combination of many models

Central Business District• Central business district (CBD)– Best-known and most visually distinctive area

of most central cities– AKA “downtown”– Usually one of the oldest districts in the city– Original site of the settlement– Visually distinct– Is the easiest part of the city to reach from the

rest of the region (accessibility)– Focal point of region’s transportation network

Concentric Zone Model• Concentric Zone Model- city grows outward from

a central area in a series of five concentric rings– 1. Central Business District (CBD)– 2. Zone of Transition

• Industry and poorer quality housing– 3. Zone of independent workers’ homes

• Modest houses occupied by stable, working-class families– 4. Zone of better residences

• Mores spacious homes for middle-class families– 5. Commuter’s zone

• Work in the center choose to live outside the city

Sector Model• Sector Model- city develops in a

series of sectors or wedges that radiate out from the central business district

Multi-Nuclei Model• Multi-Nuclei Model- social groups are

arranged around a collection of nodes of activities– Cities are complex and include more

than one center around which activities revolve

– Some activities are attracted to particular nodes while others are not

The Peripheral Model• Peripheral Model- consists of an inner

city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road– Has led to sprawl – progressive spread

of development of new housing sites over the landscape

Important points regarding models

• Human geographers have developed tools for describing cities

• These models focus on different types of urban land use and their locations relative to the CBD

• There are different models, but they contain many similar elements

• Urban land use has changed since the models were developed and continue to change today

• The models may need to be adjusted in order to reflect current land use in urban areas

Terms/Concepts• Central Business District• Concentric Zone Model• Sector Model• Multiple Nuclei Model• Peripheral Model• Sprawl