Concentric Models

							BURGESS Model
   Urban Land Use Model
Chicago in
   1920s
   Concentric model

• It was put forward by Ernest W. Burgess (sociologist)
  and his associates in 1920s.

• It was based on empirical research in a number of
  American cities, like Chicago.

• Main ideas of the model:

 Ecological            Residential
                                           Spatial pattern
approach to           segregation +
                                           of various land
explain land              Social
                                              use zones
 use pattern           segregation
ECOLOGICAL Concepts
   of the model
• Burgess adopted the concepts used by plant
  ecologists (ideas of competition, dominance,
  invasion and succession)
• within the city, people competes for limited
  space (COMPETITION)
• those who are best able to pay (DOMINANCE)
  achieve the most desirable locations
  (INVASION and SUCCESSION).
• those individuals and functions with the lowest
  level of economic competence have the least
  choice, occupying the poorest locations.
How did Burgess explain
 land uses in Chicago?
• The CBD, the most accessible location attracted all sorts of commercial
  activities
• Shortage of land induced keen competition
• The location was dominated by those activities with high rental
  capacity
     How did Burgess explain
      land uses in Chicago?
• This is caused by growth of city economy & arrival of new
  migrants to the city.
• As the city grew, the CBD would exert pressure on the zone
  immediately surrounding it i.e. the zone of transition
• Outward expansion of the CBD would invade nearby residential
  areas causing them to expand outwards.
 How did Burgess explain
  land uses in Chicago?
 The process was thought to continue with each successive
  neighbourhood moving further from the CBD.
 New immigrants would move into the cheapest residential areas
  of the city. When they became economically established, they
  would migrate outwards.
 Thus lower residential class moved to adjacent neighbourhoods
  and more affluent residents moved further outwards.
      Bid-rent
  mechanism APPLIES
• land value decreases with increasing distance.

• the highest land value is at the city centre because of
  keenest competition.
  functional zoning and
  residential segregation
• = within different areas of the city, different single functions
  formed the dominant element.
Concentric Model
            C.B.D.
            Transition Zone
            Low class
            residential
            Middle class
            residential
            Commuter’s
            zone
                        CBD

• at the heart of the city

• forms the commercial, social and cultural hub.

• the most accessible, at the focus of urban transport
  network
Chicago’s
inner city
“slums”
1920s




Chicago’s
Gold Coast
1930s
    Zone in transition
•   Surrounds the CBD
•   an area of ‘blight’, also called the twilight zone.
•   An area of mixed land uses – wholesale, light
    manufacturing, residential
•   Provides cheap housing for each new immigrant
    wave
•   the zone often characterized by slums, immigrant
    ghettoes, unstable and low social groups and crime.
•   poorest residential areas.
    Zone of workingmen’s
            homes
•    surrounds the transition zone
•    has some of the older, often terraced housing
     areas of the city
•    occupied by workers who have left the transition
     zone but who still require ready access to their
     places of work in the inner zone. They left
     transition zone because they want better living
     conditions.
•    2nd generation immigrants form an important
     element of the pop. in this zone.
Zone of better residence
 (middle-class housing)
•   usually single-family dwellings in semi-detached or
    detached houses

•   also some light industry in this zone, often in
    industrial estates.
    Commuter Zone
•   lies beyond the continuous built-up area of the town,
    at the fringe of the urban area.
•   consists of discontinuous urban settlement
    interspersed with recreational facilities, woodland,
    pastures.
•   is the zone of high class residential properties
    where people can afford the high costs of
    commuting.
             Discussion

• Can you apply the ecological concepts suggested by
  Burgess to explain the land use changes in Hong Kong?
Socio-economic
characteristics
            Socio-economic
                status
        Near city centre                  Towards the periphery
People of lower socio-               People of higher socio-economic
economic status usually have         status usually have higher income
lower income due to lower skills     (more affluent) due to more
and poorer education so they         professional occupation and their
occupy some less favourable          higher educational background.
sites, e.g. the slums in the inner   as they look for better living
city or squatter areas at the        environment and higher quality
edge of the inner city               of life.


Conclusion: Positive correlation between socio-economic status of
households with distance from the CBD.
       Ethnic groups in a
              city
• Ethnic groups are new immigrants from other foreign countries,
  e.g. the Chinese, the Italians, the Japanese in some US cities

• Ethnic groups tend to cluster toegther as:
  • They can cooperate, unite together or defend themselves when
    encounter any problems in the neighbourhood
  • They can feel less isolated from the city in order to integrate
    themselves into the community

• They usually have lower social status / bargaining power to
  compete for a favourable site  occupy the inner city areas

• Examples: China town (Leicester Square) in London, Little Sicily
  in Chicago
              Family structure
                         Near city centre       Far away from city centre
                                                    (Peripheral areas)

Family size          Small families occupy      Big families as they need
                     less space as they can     more space for children
                      afford the small flats     so they look for larger
                         near city centre       space of lower land rent


Family average age   Old people usually have       Young family have
                         lower mobility             higher mobility
Family structure       Young professional
                     (yuppies) lives close to
                      city centre to look for
                     entertainment, e.g. rise
                         of Soho District
        Early stage of
        urbanization



• People tended to reside near the CBD to minimize the
  distance travelled so as the transport cost
               suburbanization


• As real incomes have risen and better      • Occupied by wealthier people who
  transportation has increased mobility,
  this allows the separation of home and       could afford the higher transport cost
  workplaces.                                  when moving out of the city centre.

• Wealthy people moved out of the inner      • Wealthy people can occupy larger
  city which was later Invaded by poorer       amount of cheaper residential land on
  ethnic minorities due to rising              the periphery where they live in
  immigrants to the city.                      detached dwellings and pay the high
                                               commuting costs to city centre.
• To offset high land value in these near-
  city locations, they use only small
  amount of land by living in high density
  apartments which make maximum use
  of expensive land.
         Results of
      suburbanization
• social segregation = creating particular groups or
  classes which segregate themselves from other
  groups.
• poor people living close to the city centre on high
  value land, while more wealthy people live on the
  periphery where land is generally cheaper.
• As reflected by the quality of housing
• different in life styles + quality of life, income
  and social status
         Weaknesses of
         burgess model
• Concentric zones are not homogenous but
  heterogeneous

• therefore, they are not distinctive and inevitably
  distorted by major transport axes and topography
  features.
                Criticisms

• Limited universality: it is limited “to a particular
  situation, at a particular time in a particular country”
  (Carter, 1976)

• The setting of the model was based on a particular
  historical & cultural context.

• It is most relevant to American cities in the 1920s but
  is less relevant to other times and other cities especially
  in ELDCs.
                   Criticisms
• The decline of the CBD       • it has allowed many
  and the emergence of           centres of employment to
  suburban business centres      grow outside the CBD due
                                 to increased mobility
• Increasing level of public
  intervention                 • large plots of land are only
                                 available in the urban
• Transport innovation           fringe, thus lower class
                                 residential areas are found
                                 in the outer zone due to
                                 inefficient transport.
                               • It enables low class
                                 residents to move away
                                 from their place of work.
               Criticisms

• Use for understanding residential pattern better than
  commercial and industrial land uses
         Contributions
• It was the first attempt to analyse the internal
  morphology of town
• Burgess model has invaluable contribution for
  residential land use of a city. It suggests a process of
  urban growth that might give rise to these.
• It provides a good conceptual framework for more
  detailed study of the complex urban land use.