symbology, or other cartographic characteristics. The increasing application of
GIS technology has led to a parallel expansion and use of cartographic analysis.
Maps have become essential tools in such diverse fields as natural resource man-
agement, retail marketing, and medicine. Indeed, one may readily find maps of
ground water supplies, locations of retail outlets, and maps of the human body
all with a quick Internet search. But simple mapmaking is also becoming easier,
and does not require years of training or thousands of dollars worth of sophisti-
cated equipment or complicated data sets. Simple GPS receivers today allow the
user to make maps of a favorite park, fishing spot, or the route to a favored restau-
rant. Thus, everyone can make use of cartography, from an unsophisticated per-
sonal level to one involving intense scientific analysis. The journey from
drawing simple, crude diagrams on the ground to mapping using satellites feeding
data to a GPS receiver may appear to be a long one, but the principle behind the
twoprocessesisthesame,asisthemotivation. Cartography is the reflection of
the world’s spatial complexity and how humans represent it.
Central Place Theory
A theory aimed at describing and explaining urban settlement patterns. Central
Place Theory provides one of the most influential philosophical frameworks to
emerge from the study of urban geography in the 20th century, and continues to
be debated and refined. The foundations of the theory were first laid out in the doc-
toral dissertation of Walther Christaller in the 1930s. Christaller had studied settle-
ment patterns in his native Germany and concluded that the arrangement and size
of urban places was directly related to the economic services and functions the
various locations offered. Each urban center was associated with an economic
hinterland, sometimes referred to as the market area, resulting in a regular pattern
of the growth and spacing of settlements. Christaller’s great contribution lay in
explaining the economic fundamentals behind the formation of the hinterlands,
their basic shape, and how certain principles might affect the urban spatial pattern.
Central Place Theory assumes that the physical geography considered is uni-
form—a completely flat plain exists, with no hills or mountains present, and no
rivers, streams, or other features that would impede motion. Distance, therefore,
is the only factor when considering transportation cost and accessibility to mar-
kets. Moreover, theplain holds an evenly spaced population, and no area has an
advantage in terms of resource endowment—labor, capital, and raw materials are
all equally available and of identical quality. Under these conditions, demand for
goods is also identical at everylocationon the plain, and the only difference in
Central Place Theory 53