IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirb/v33y2006i3p345-364.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reinterpreting Central Place Networks Using Ideas from Fractals and Self-Organized Criticality

Author

Listed:
  • Yanguang Chen
  • Yixing Zhou

Abstract

The basic rules of central place networks are abstracted and formulated as three geometric series scaling laws, which can be transformed into several power laws associated with fractal structure. The scaling laws might be the Rosetta Stone to understand the complexity of human geographical systems because they take the form of Horton and Strahler's laws in geomorphology and Gutenberg and Richter's laws in seismology indicative of fractals and self-organized criticality (SOC). An empirical analysis is conducted with the use of data from southern Germany, given by Christaller. The fractal dimensions, D f , of four systems are calculated as follows: D f is 1.733 for Munich, 1.685 for Nuremberg, 1.837 for Stuttgart, and 1.481 for Frankfurt. SOC theory is employed to interpret the fractality of central places, and the power laws are seen as signatures of feasible optimality, thus yielding further support to the suggestion that optimality of the system as a whole explains the dynamic origin of fractal forms in nature.

Suggested Citation

  • Yanguang Chen & Yixing Zhou, 2006. "Reinterpreting Central Place Networks Using Ideas from Fractals and Self-Organized Criticality," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 33(3), pages 345-364, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:33:y:2006:i:3:p:345-364
    DOI: 10.1068/b31131
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/b31131
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/b31131?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucien Benguigui & Daniel Czamanski & Maria Marinov & Yuval Portugali, 2000. "When and Where is a City Fractal?," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 27(4), pages 507-519, August.
    2. Claes Andersson & Steen Rasmussen & Roger White, 2002. "Urban Settlement Transitions," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 29(6), pages 841-865, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Yanguang, 2009. "Analogies between urban hierarchies and river networks: Fractals, symmetry, and self-organized criticality," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 1766-1778.
    2. Bo Liu & Desheng Xue & Yiming Tan, 2019. "Deciphering the Manufacturing Production Space in Global City-Regions of Developing Countries—a Case of Pearl River Delta, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-26, December.
    3. Yanguang Chen & Yixing Zhou, 2003. "The Rank-Size Rule and Fractal Hierarchies of Cities: Mathematical Models and Empirical Analyses," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 30(6), pages 799-818, December.
    4. Yanguang Chen & Jiejing Wang, 2013. "Multifractal Characterization of Urban Form and Growth: The Case of Beijing," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 40(5), pages 884-904, October.
    5. Jian Feng & Yanguang Chen, 2021. "Modeling Urban Growth and Socio-Spatial Dynamics of Hangzhou, China: 1964–2010," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-25, January.
    6. Chen, Yanguang & Zhou, Yixing, 2008. "Scaling laws and indications of self-organized criticality in urban systems," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 85-98.
    7. Song, Zhijun & Jin, Wenxuan & Jiang, Guanghui & Li, Sichun & Ma, Wenqiu, 2021. "Typical and atypical multifractal systems of urban spaces—using construction land in Zhengzhou from 1988 to 2015 as an example," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    8. Huan Lu & Ruiyang Wang & Rong Ye & Jinzhao Fan, 2023. "Monitoring Long-Term Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Urban Expansion Using Multisource Remote Sensing Images and Historical Maps: A Case Study of Hangzhou, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, January.
    9. Myagmartseren Purevtseren & Bazarkhand Tsegmid & Myagmarjav Indra & Munkhnaran Sugar, 2018. "The Fractal Geometry of Urban Land Use: The Case of Ulaanbaatar City, Mongolia," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-14, May.
    10. Chen, Yanguang, 2013. "Fractal analytical approach of urban form based on spatial correlation function," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 47-60.
    11. Czamanski, Daniel & Broitman, Dani, 2017. "Information and communication technology and the spatial evolution of mature cities," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 30-38.
    12. Chen, Yanguang & Lin, Jingyi, 2009. "Modeling the self-affine structure and optimization conditions of city systems using the idea from fractals," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 615-629.
    13. Claes Andersson & Koen Frenken & Alexander Hellervik, 2006. "A Complex Network Approach to Urban Growth," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(10), pages 1941-1964, October.
    14. Lucien Benguigui & Daniel Czamanski & Maria Marinov, 2001. "The Dynamics of Urban Morphology: The Case of Petah Tikvah," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 28(3), pages 447-460, June.
    15. Boeing, Geoff, 2017. "Methods and Measures for Analyzing Complex Street Networks and Urban Form," SocArXiv 93h82, Center for Open Science.
    16. Daniel Czamanski & Rafael Roth, 2011. "Characteristic time, developers’ behavior and leapfrogging dynamics of high-rise buildings," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 46(1), pages 101-118, February.
    17. Saeedimoghaddam, Mahmoud & Stepinski, T.F. & Dmowska, Anna, 2020. "Rényi’s spectra of urban form for different modalities of input data," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    18. Isabelle Thomas & Pierre Frankhauser & Dominique Badariotti, 2012. "Comparing the fractality of European urban neighbourhoods: do national contexts matter?," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 189-208, April.
    19. Alberto Vancheri & Paolo Giordano & Denise Andrey & Sergio Albeverio, 2008. "Urban Growth Processes Joining Cellular Automata and Multiagent Systems. Part 1: Theory and Models," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 35(4), pages 723-739, August.
    20. Dani Broitman & Vladimir Griskin & Daniel Czamanski, 2019. "Unbundling negative and positive externalities of nature in cities: The influence of wild animals on housing prices," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(13), pages 2820-2836, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:33:y:2006:i:3:p:345-364. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.