The Concentric zone model also known as the Burgess model is one of the earliest theoretical models to explain urban social structures. It was created by sociologist Ernest Burgess

Ernest Burgess

Ernest Watson Burgess was an urban sociologist born in Tilbury, Ontario. He was educated at Kingfisher College in Oklahoma and continued graduate studies in sociology at the University of Chicago. In 1916, he returned to the University of Chicago, as a faculty member. Burgess was hired as an...

 in 1924.

The model

Based on human ecology

Human ecology

Human ecology is the subdiscipline of ecology that focuses on humans. More broadly, it is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and built environments. The term 'human ecology' first appeared in a sociological study in 1921...

 theories done by Burgess and applied on Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, it was the first to give the explanation of distribution of social groups within urban area

Urban area

An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

s. This concentric ring model depicts urban land use in concentric rings: the Central Business District

Central business district

A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...

 (or CBD) was in the middle of the model, and the city expanded in rings with different land uses. It is effectively an urban version of Von Thunen

Johann Heinrich von Thünen

Johann Heinrich von Thünen was a prominent nineteenth century economist. Von Thünen was a Mecklenburg landowner, who in the first volume of his treatise, The Isolated State , developed the first serious treatment of spatial economics, connecting it with the theory of rent...

's regional land use model developed a century earlier. It contrasts with Homer Hoyt

Homer Hoyt

Homer Hoyt was a land economist, a real estate appraiser, and a real estate consultant. In his long and accomplished life, he conducted path-breaking research on land economics, developed an influential approach to the analysis of neighborhoods and housing markets, refined local area economic...

's sector model

Sector model

The sector model, also known as the Hoyt model, is a model of urban land use proposed in 1939 by economist Homer Hoyt. It is a modification of the concentric zone model of city development. The benefits of the application of this model include the fact it allows for an outward progression of growth...

 and the multiple nuclei model

Multiple nuclei model

The multiple nuclei model is an ecological model put forth by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman in the 1945 article "The Nature of Cities." The model describes the layout of a city. It notes that while a city may have started with a central business district, similar industries with common land-use...

.

The zones identified are:

1. The center was the CBD
2. The transition zone of mixed residential and commercial uses or the Zone of Transition
3. Working class residential homes (inner suburbs), in later decades called inner city
   Inner city
   The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
   
    or Zone of independent working men's home
4. Better quality middle-class homes (Outer Suburbs) or Zone of better Housing
5. Commuters zone

The model is more detailed than the traditional down

Downtown

Downtown is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's core or central business district ....

-mid-uptown divide by which downtown is the CBD, uptown the affluent residential outer ring, and midtown in between.
Burgess's work is based on the bid rent curve

Bid rent theory

The bid rent theory is a geographical economic theory that refers to how the price and demand for real estate changes as the distance from the Central Business District increases. It states that different land users will compete with one another for land close to the city centre...

. This theory states that the concentric circles are based on the amount that people will pay for the land. This value is based on the profits that are obtainable from maintaining a business on that land. The center of the town will have the highest number of customers so it is profitable for retail activities. Manufacturing will pay slightly less for the land as they are only interested in the accessibility for workers, 'goods in' and 'goods out'. Residential land use will take the surrounding land.

Criticisms

The model has been challenged by many contemporary urban geographers. First, the model does not work well with cities outside the United States, in particular with those developed under different historical contexts. Even in the United States, because of changes such as advancement in transportation and information technology and transformation in global economy, cities are no longer organized with clear "zones" (see: Los Angeles School of Urban Analysis

Los Angeles School

The Los Angeles School of Urbanism is an academic movement which emerged during the mid-1980s, loosely based at the University of Southern California and UCLA, which centers urban analysis on Los Angeles, California.-History:...

).

• It describes the peculiar American geography, where the inner city
  Inner city
  The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
  
   is poor while suburb
  Suburb
  The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
  
  s are wealthy; the converse is the norm elsewhere
• It assumes an isotropic plain - an even, unchanging landscape
• Physical features - land may restrict growth of certain sectors; hills and water features may make some locations unusually desirable for residential purposes
• Commuter villages defy the theory, being in the commuter zone but located far from the city
• Decentralization of shops, manufacturing industry, and entertainment
• Urban regeneration and gentrification
  Gentrification
  Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
  
   - more expensive property can be found in 'low class' housing areas
• Many new housing estates were built on the edges of cities in Britain
• It does not address local urban politics
  Urban politics
  Urban politics is politics in and about cities. This term refers to the diverse political structure that occurs in urban areas where there is diversity in both race and socio-economic status. Urban politics is political science that falls into the field of urban studies, which incorporates many...
  
   and forces of globalization
  Globalization
  Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
  
  
• The model does not fit polycentric cities
  Polycentrism
  Polycentrism is the principle of organization of a region around several political, social or financial centres. Examples of polycentric cities include the Ruhr area in Germany, and Stoke-on-Trent in the UK. Today, the former is a large city that grew from a dozen smaller cities, the latter a...
  
  , for example Stoke-on-Trent
  Stoke-on-Trent
  Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
  
  

See also

• Urban structure
  Urban structure
  Urban structure is the arrangement of land use in urban areas. Sociologists, economists, and geographers have developed several models, explaining where different types of people and businesses tend to exist within the urban setting. Three models are described in this article...
  
  
• Transect (urban)
  Transect (urban)
  The urban-to-rural transect is an urban planning model created by New Urbanist Andrés Duany. The transect defines a series of zones that transition from sparse rural farmhouses to the dense urban core. Each zone is fractal in that it contains a similar transition from the edge to the center of the...
  
  
• Sector model (Hoyt model)
  Sector model
  The sector model, also known as the Hoyt model, is a model of urban land use proposed in 1939 by economist Homer Hoyt. It is a modification of the concentric zone model of city development. The benefits of the application of this model include the fact it allows for an outward progression of growth...
  
  
• Multiple nuclei model
  Multiple nuclei model
  The multiple nuclei model is an ecological model put forth by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman in the 1945 article "The Nature of Cities." The model describes the layout of a city. It notes that while a city may have started with a central business district, similar industries with common land-use...
  
  
• Core frame model
  Core frame model
  The Core frame model is a model showing the urban structure of the Central Business District of a town or city.The model includes an inner core where land is expensive and used intensively, resulting in vertical development. This area is the focus of the transport system and has a concentrated...
  
  
• Irregular pattern model
  Irregular pattern model
  Irregular pattern model is an arrangement of Public space that characterizes the stage of "Transition from village to city" especially in Third World. This urban model is due to lack of planning or construction and illegal without a specific order...
  
  

External links

• Concentric Zone model shown at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte [Dead link]