Continuous Regularities and Discontinuities in the Central Place System

Abstract

population size continuum. Moreover, in testing the validity of the most fundamental proposition of Christaller's modelF-a hierarchical ordering of central places-most workers have not derived a specific scale against which all centres can be measured and ranked.3 In this study a technique for measuring the centrality of functions and grading centres has been derived to rank centres in Co. Tipperary, Ireland; and in addition the functional characteristics of individual centres are also examined at the aggregate level. The nature of Christaller's classic model, together with its assumptions, has already been discussed by several authors and no detailed account of them will be included here.4 Christaller's partial equilibrium system of central places, supported exclusively by tertiary activity, is developed under assumptions of. an isotropic resource, topographic and transportation surface serving evenly distributed rational consumers with equal incomes thereby yielding a homogenous income surface. Order and vertical organisation are introduced into the system by assuming that groups of key functions have similar threshold values which, together with the postulate that high order places perform all the functions of low order places plus a group of functions differentiating them from these lower order centres, results in a hierarchical class system of centres with each class possessing specific groups of central functions. Christaller's derivation that each functional class is characterised by a discrete population level of its centres was deduced from ad