The Size and Spacing of Cities

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4491963
AutoresCharles T Stewart (autor correspondente)
Ano1958
Volume48
Fascículo2
Páginas222
Data de publicação1958-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoGeographical Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0016-7428 • E-ISSN: 1931-0846
EditoraJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/212132
OpenAlexW2314773435
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas53

T I wHE regular spacing of towns has often been noted. The distance between any two adjacent towns in the same size class fits fairly well the formula (P1P2)/D = A, in which Pi and P2 stand for the populations of the two towns and D for the distance between them and A is a constant for any given region. The distribution of towns by size has also been shown to follow an empirical rule, the so-called Rank-Size Rule. In Zipf's version' the rule states that if all towns in a region are arranged in descending order by population, the size of the rth town is i/r the size of the largest town, according to the series i, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, . . . i/r. More analytical work, notably that of Christaller and L6sch,2 based on function rather than on population, seeks to demonstrate a regularity in the town hierarchy, both in the relative numbers of towns serving as local, regional, and interregional centers and in the consequent ratios of the distance between towns in the several stages of subordination and superordination of function. The rank-size rule is an empirical finding, not a logical structure. Nevertheless, its partial verification suggests an underlying logical basis.3 On the other hand, the doctrine that there is a typical town-size pyramid is principally an analytical schema. Christaller purports to find verification, but his data have been challenged; Losch is satisfied with Christaller's evidence for only one of the seven functional classes that Christaller distinguishes and in his own research fails to find convincing evidence of clustering of town sizes to correspond to a limited number of discrete functional constellations. There is no coincidence, even theoretically, between the rank-size rule for cities and a functional size-class hierarchy of the type postulated by Christaller and L6sch. The former yields a smooth descending curve of town sizes; the latter a ladder of successively lower size classes of towns, grouped around a limited number of discrete normal values corresponding to discrete functional constellations. Even a gross coincidence of the two distributions of

Economic geography · Geography · Regional Economic and Spatial Analysis · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis · Spatial and Panel Data Analysis