Urban Land Use

Cities across the world are complex mosaics of economic, social, political, and recreational land uses. How and where these land use activities are organizationally patterned reflect not only a city's primary function (e.g., an “economic engine” in an industrial economy or a “cultural/administrative” center in an agrarian economy) but also at least two other overarching forces—accessibility and territoriality/congregation/segregation. In general, the utility of a designated place or location within a city is defined by its potential usefulness, which, in turn, is often a function of its accessibility. Activities that tend to be land intensive have a propensity for high levels of interaction and serve a necessary and functional purpose that requires accessible locations. Alternatively, low-accessible locations are occupied by those land use activities that are characteristically land extensive (activities that require the use of large tracts of land) and functionally peripheral and independent (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Economic competition, accessibility, and the resultant urban land use patterns in relationship to the central business district (CBD)

Source: Author.

At the same time, land use activities are often organized in clearly demarcated geographic territories so as to define and preserve “group” membership and identity. Typically, this involves the use of both inclusionary and exclusionary practices in an effort to create homogeneous groupings by housing, retail/commercial establishments, professional services, and industry. Of particular significance is the occurrence of congregation—a voluntary territorial and residential clustering of specific groups of people (i.e., language, religion, race, lifestyle, among others) that engenders a sense of place unity as defined by a common electoral power base, a system of reciprocal support, and cultural preservation. However, there also exists an involuntary form of congregation (segregation) that results in territorial and residential clustering involving discrimination and the spatial separation of specific groups of people. In this way, both accessibility and territoriality/congregation/segregation are important place-defining forces that shape the internal structure of cities worldwide and their urban land use patterns. This entry discusses four urban land use models: (1) the concentric zone model, (2) the sector model, (3) the multiple-nuclei model, and (4) the peripheral model, as well as the application of these models.