Burgess Model (concentric circle model)

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 601.

Main land Uses

Commercial: This is businesses, mainly offices. The main commercial area will normally be in the CBD.

Residential: This is housing and is where people live. Apartment type housing is found near the CBD and bigger houses towards the suburbs.

Industrial: This is factories, traditionally found in the transition zone, they are now more likely to be found in the rural-urban fringe.

Agricultural: This farming and is obviously normally found in rural areas although some cities may have some small urban farms.

Recreational: Any activity that people do in their spare time. This land use may include golf courses, football pitches, museums, sports centres and tennis courts.

Retail: This is shops. Traditionally the main shopping areas have been in the CBD but increasingly shops have been relocating to shopping malls in the rural-urban fringe.

Educational: Any building connected to education e.g. libraries, schools and universities. This land use may be foundanywhere in urban areas.

The Burgess Model was developed in 1925 by the sociologist Ernest Burgess. He based it solely on the US city of Chicago. He noticed a distinctive commercial area in the centre of the city and called this the CBD. He then noticed an area of factories which he called the transition zone followed by steadily improving housing as you moved away from the transition zone.

The model is very simplistic, only based on one city and now largely out of date as periods of deindustrialisation and regeneration have changed many urban land use.