Classnotes: 26th Jan 2007 - Geographical Models in MEDCs

Please note that the images here were taken from the BBC Bitesize website and you should go and look there for some excellent information and a good revision test on these.

In the second part of the lesson on Friday we looked at the idea of Geographical Models.

What is a Geographical Model?
A 'model' in geography means a simplified version of reality. In this topic we are looking at models of urban land use. Urban = a built up area such as a town or city. Land use = how the land is used (housing, factories, shops and offices etc.). When we use a model we aren't talking about a particular place. Instead we mean that most cities will be like this in general.

We looked at two models. Both are in plan form, meaning that they are a birds-eye view looking down on a typical city. The first is the Burgess Model.

The Burgess Model of Urban Land Use
This model was developed in the 1920s based on Chicago in the USA.
It resembles an archery target, with circles getting larger the further out you are from the centre.
The posh geography word for these zones is 'concentric cicles'.
Each cirlce represents a different type of land use.



Starting from the centre, we have the CBD or Central Business District. This is where all the shops and offices are - think about any typical city centre you have visited.
Next we have the light manufacturing zone. This is small factories, warehouses and maybe some docks if the city is on a river or coast.
Surrounding that we have the low class residential area. This means the lower quality houses, which in the UK usually means terraced houses. Think Coronation Street!
Next we have the medium class residential area. The houses are getting a bit larger now, and probably have gardens etc. (We will come on to the details of this next wee.)
Finally there is the high class residential area. This is where we have the largest and best quality houses.
However, since the 1920s there have been changes to most cities. In the UK most large cities have 'greenbelt' land which means an area of protected land around the edge of a city. It is protected to prevent building on the countryside, so that the city is prevented from 'sprawling out' and so city dwellers have quick access to the countryside. This 'greenbelt area' isn't often shown on most models of urban land use.

But that's not the biggest change! After Burgess made his model, there was a dramatic change to the ways in which people moved about. In the original model, the factory workers were housed near to their jobs in the light manufacturing zone. And the nicest houses were the furthest away from the noisy, congested and polluted centre of the city.

These days, and in fact most of the time since the 1930s, people don't need to live near their jobs. That's because they have a car. Also, products aren't made near where they are sold - instead they are made near transport routes so they can be moved from place to place more easily. So we have to use another model... the Hoyt Model.

The Hoyt Model of Urban Land Use
This time, you can see there are wedge shapes in the diagram.



These wedge shapes represent transport routes (often called 'arterial routes' because they move lots of vehicles, just like your veins and arteries move lots of blood around your body). Notice how the poor residential areas are still near the factories - because they can't afford to move away from the unpleasant conditions of noise, pollution etc. The richer houses now are still as far as possible from the factories, but they do have a good road going through the middle - this is common because it allows them to get into the city centre for work and out to the countryside for recreation, in as little time as possible.

You can read more about these here:
BBC Bitesize
Wikipedia
Geotopics at Geonet
GeographyFieldwork.com