An Agglomeration of City Functions and Environment

Abstract

This study was undertaken to find out what is the optimal size and the optimal environment of the city by using Factor Analysis Method. The concept of municipal indexes were introduced into this study for the representation of city environment. The degree of development is estimated by those indexes that consist of functional factors and environmental factors.In the first, the principal axes analysis was enployed to classify 49 environmental factors of 46 prefectural metropolises. It is suggested by the result of this analysis that following three factors can approximately express the municipalindexes;Factor-I: Agglomeration or ConcentrationFactor-II: Density of FacilitiesFactor-III: Structure of IndustriesNext, the 37 environmental factors were classified into two categories. One category consists of 24 factors, and another does of 13 factors. The former 24 factors represent agglomeration of city facilities, and the latter 13 factors represent open space of the city.It is assumed here that the optimal size of city stands at the equilibrium of agglomeration factors and open space factors, and an intersection point of two regression lines that are fitted to the scatter diagram of agglomeration factors, or open space factors and populations of prefectural metropolises shows optimal environment of city in size. It has been obtained from those analysis that the city with the population of 400, 000 inhabitants and the population density of 1, 600 inhabitants/km2 is the optimal environment in size. Okayama city and Wakayama city may be given as two examples of the optimal environment satisfying those conditions.