Variable relationships in central place and retail potential models

Abstract

Received 2 September 196.9) DAVIES R. L. (1970) Variable relationships in central place and retail potential models, Reg. Studies 4, 49-61. Considerable efforts have been spent by geographersand planners to find suitable measuresofthe concepts of centrality and attractiveness in shopping models. Numerous indices have been advocated which emphasize the functional and qualitative aspects of shopping centres, but these vary in nature and scope and are often dependent on field surveys or special computations. From examination of three case-study areas, it is shown that such indices are not necessarily in any more agreement with each other in hierarchic rank placements of shopping centres than they are with rankings assigned by more general variables of census statistics. It is questioned whether their applicability to shopping studies in a practical context is any greater than use of certain more commonly available and compatible census data.

The Measurement of Settlement Centrality

“…Davies found close rank correlation coefficients between virtually all of them. H e concluded that "for many broad scales of enquiry general indices from census data are just as suitable criteria for mea-surements of hierarchic rank importance as other more specific types of functional indices" [ 5 ] . Nevertheless, given suitable data, it could be argued that even in an area like West Thessaly the use of the weighted index is preferable to other indices, because it does appear to give a more accurate measurement of settlement centrality, a useful advantage if this is the focus of the study.…”

Structural Cities: Delimiting Retailing Center Boundaries and Their Hierarchical Characteristics in Urban China Based on GPS-Enabled Taxi Data

“…Multiple measures are used to explore retailing hierarchy characteristics from the aspects of scale and function, and the most common factor is total sale and function diversity (Carruthers 1967;Davies 1970;Wu and Dai 2001). However, some geographers indicate that multipurpose shopping and function diversity contributes more in high-class retailing centers than low-class retailing centers, so its accuracy in calculating hierarchical structure is doubtful (Kohsaka 1984).…”

Home or Away: Why Do Qualified Leavers From Scottish Schools Move Away From Home?*

“…Borders 4A. l o For England, Davies (1970) has compared Smith's rankings with those based on other measures of centrality and has shown them to be highly correlated. In deciding on the order of decreasing centrality shown above, ties in Smith's classification were split on the basis of distance to higher order centres in other regions.…”