Blackwell Reference Online

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Ecological models of urban form describe and explain the spatial patterns taken by the distribution of people, buildings, and activities across a city's terrain. This orderly set of spatial arrangements is known as the city's land use pattern or spatial form. Through the years ecological researchers have identified three major models of the geometry of city form: concentric zone, sector, and multiple nuclei. While the three models are conceptually distinct, in the actual development of most cities various elements from the three models become uniquely combined into a spatial pattern that gives each city its own individual spatial geometry. Each of the three models was developed to explain urban morphology in industrial cities of the twentieth century. The concentric zone model was presented by Ernest Burgess in 1925. The sector ( Hoyt 1939 ) and multiple nuclei ( Harris & Ullman 1945 ) models were presented later as alternatives to the concentric zone model. Through time the three have become intellectually linked and widely considered as “the classic models of urban land use.” They are “classic” in the sense that the three models have stood the test of time and have proven to be catalysts of research on cities in both developed and developing societies. The three models share common assumptions: (1) that the city is growing in population and expanding in economic activities; ... log in or subscribe to read full text