Christaller and “big data”: recalibrating central place theory via the geoweb

Abstract

This paper utilizes central place theory (CPT) to navigate the "deluge" brought about by big data. While originating in the 1930s, CPT is a theoretical monument of 1960s spatial science. CPT aims to understand settlement geographies based on consumption behavior, and often presented as a singular, outdated, rationalist theory. After critically reviewing the history of CPT, we assess the microfoundations of Christaller's CPT-the threshold and range of goodsfor various central functions in Louisville, Kentucky. The microfoundations are estimated through data from social media platforms Foursquare and Twitter. These sources alleviate many of the operationalization issues that traditionally hamper empirical use of CPT. The empirical application of CPT reveals that: i) Central functions have typical ranges and thresholds relating central places to population spread; ii) Central functions cluster based on an approximate hierarchical structure. The findings indicate the ongoing importance of CPT in shaping urban-economic geographies.

Polycentric urban development and urban amenities: Evidence from Chinese cities

“…Despite the fact that Central Place Theory has continuously been revisited and reconstructed (e.g. Buursink, 1975, and more recently Van Meeteren and Poorthuis, 2018), there are two critical notations related to this study.…”

“…Christaller ([1933] 1966: 43, 50) explicitly mentions that people do not always go to the nearest center due to multipurpose shopping. Furthermore, a recent study completed by Van Meeteren and Poorthuis (2018), with similar volunteered geographical information data, relaxed the assumption that customers frequent the nearest urban center as well.…”

Fostering and Planning a Smart Governance Strategy for Evaluating the Urban Polarities of the Sardinian Island (Italy)

“…This situation is because the characteristics of the geographical and spatial structure of an island have, by their nature, a precise boundary (the system of an island is closed and isolated) that allows the analysis of the urban system within it, stressing the concept of main and secondary hubs. Moreover, if, over the years, the literature changed the forms of use of central place theory [60][61][62][63][64][65][66] and their application to specific contexts [67][68][69][70][71], the concept of central localization is still applied to urban planning, correlating the spatial distribution of settlements with, for example, public structures [72][73][74], industries [75,76], and the tourism sector [77][78][79][80][81][82]. Furthermore, the study correlated the optimal localisation strategy with the economic demand of defined geographical areas.…”

“…Furthermore, the study correlated the optimal localisation strategy with the economic demand of defined geographical areas. Thus, Van Meeteren and Poorthuis [68] propose the study of settlement geographies through the analysis of social media by adopting as the basis of research the theory of central places to demonstrate how, today, through the data collected by computer analysis, it is possible to shape the geographical economic-urban areas [68]. The model was also applied to insular contexts, mainly using an economic approach to enhance the area through the location of the main tourist polarities [83][84][85][86].…”

How to Draw a Neighborhood? The Potential of Big Data, Regionalization, and Community Detection for Understanding the Heterogeneous Nature of Urban Neighborhoods

“…In this sense, tweets are used as a source of interaction data that reflect (however partially) each user's activity space (Schönfelder and Axhausen ) in much the same way as can be done with mobile phone data (Ahas et al ) or other data sources that contain traces of people's spatio‐temporal activities (Axhausen ). Social media data has already seen extensive use in this vain, from tweets (Shelton, Poorthuis, and Zook ; van Meeteren and Poorthuis ) to Foursquare check‐ins (Hristova et al ), and Instagram photos (Boy and Uitermark ).…”