Concentric Zone Model - The Model

The Model

Based on human ecology theories done by Burgess and applied on Chicago, it was the first to give the explanation of distribution of social groups within urban areas. This concentric ring model depicts urban land use in concentric rings: the Central Business District (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's regional land use model developed a century earlier. It contrasts with Homer Hoyt's sector model and the multiple nuclei model.

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 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-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. 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.