Urban spheres of influence within county Durham

Abstract

For a series of functions or services, the movement of people living in County Durham has been obtained. The functions studied were car driving tests, employment at coal mines, hospital treatment for ophthalmic and general surgery specialities, season ticket distribution for professional football clubs and student attendance at technical colleges. This data forms the basis for mapping urban fields and defining specific lands for each of the chosen functions. Bach function is then studied in detail in an attempt to establish the variables that affect the pattern of urban fields and specific umlands. This is set against central place theory and the operating of a central place system. The variables recognised from this analysis are population distribution, distance, the power of attraction of centres and the distances of centres from each, other. These variables are initially checked by sample studies of centres and small settlements. The nest stage is the building of a stochastic model of their system. A ratio called the interaction index is used to remove the influence of the population distribution and thereby simplify the model. This model is then tested by a multiple regression computer programme. The results show the importance of distance as a variable, the problem of adequately defining the level of a function at a centre, and the equilibrium nature of the system by the failure of the centre network to be statistically significant. The analysis also shows that the interaction index fits into a social physics system and does remove the distorting affect of population distribution.