Unit 14: Networks of Cities

Two examples of network flow between cities in the US: internet connectivity (top), and recorded business travel flow (bottom)

Case Study - Box 14.2

OBJECTIVES

• Demonstrate the distinctions between local, national, regional and world cities in the urban hierarchy

• Discuss how markets (and the range and threshold for goods) creates a network of cities

• Explain the regional variations in the global network of cities and how it leads to distinctive regional urban geography

• Examine national networks of primacy and rank-size distribution

• First urban networks were periodic markets with travelling vendors

• With more demand, traders could stay in one location and create fixed markets

• Towns were distributed regularly to provide rural areas access to markets

Regional Networks

A modern roadside market in Jamaica. (Fig 14.1)

Periodic markets seek to either minimize

travel for vendors by bringing them closer

together (A), or maximize demand by

spreading markets across space (B).

(Fig 14.2)

A fixed market in Curaçao. (Fig 14.3)

• Range: distance consumers are willing to travel• Threshold: minimum population to support a

particular business • Complementary region: area surrounding a city

where that city dominates the sale of particular goods

• Theory explained location of agricultural settlements, but the ideas of theory important of understanding relationship in urban networks

Central Place Theory (Walter Christaller)

Market areas in central place systems. (Fig 14.5)

The Galpin model demonstrates a regular distribution of towns surrounded by circular complementary regions, which may overlap.

(Fig 14.4)

• Rank Size distribution (Zipf’s Law) • Regular distribution of big cities• In large countries, like China, India, USA

• Primate Distribution• Imbalanced distribution; focused on 1 city• Disproportionately large and important• 3x the size of the next two biggest cities

• Thailand: Bangkok produces almost half on the national GDP

• Some imperial centers, some colonial hubs

National Networks

Plotting US city population against expected values according to Zipf’s

Law. (Fig 14.6)

• Globalization and World Cities research network collected data on 100 global advanced producer service firms and identified a global urban hierarchy (Fig 14.8)

• London and New York are atop all urban hierarchy schemes as global cities

• New centers of metropolitan modernity are emerging in the Far East

• Dense networks of interpersonal contact and centers of important social capital are vital to international finance

• Research shows global network based on flows—migration, capital and culture• Flows transform the systems

Global Urban Networks

The global urban network according to GAWC. www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/.

(Fig 14.8)

CONCLUSION

• Cities in the urban hierarchy can be differentiated into local, national, regional and world cities

• Markets (and the range and threshold for goods) create a network of cities

• Regional variations in the global network of cities lead to distinctive regional urban geography

• National urban networks dominated by one city display primacy and countries with many large cities follow a rank-size distribution