ECONOMICS AND CITIES - Unequal activity distribution in cities

Why are economic activities within cities unequally distributed in general and between areas near the city center and those near or in the suburbs?

Word count: 977

Figure 1: Multi-nuclei urban structure (Harvey and Jowsey 2004, pg. 264)

After the end of world war, the economic pattern of cities began to see some tremendous changes. These changes were brought forth with advancements in technology, transportation and communication media that allowed industries to decentralize and locate at further distances, thus allowing for new economic activities to flourish at the city center (O’Sullivan 2011, pg. 180).

Manufacturing and other heavy industries began to shift from CBD to suburban areas for more land, and located themselves close to highways for interstate access (O’Sullivan 2011, pg. 178). At the same time, with new demands for new kind of products and facilities like healthcare, education and banking, financial and service sector industries began to dominate the economic activity at the city center (Rao 2019, Week 5).

The purpose of this report is to discuss this uneven distribution of economic activities in cities, from its CBD to suburban areas. It will explore reasons for this distribution using Harris and Ullman’s multinuclei theory (see Fig. 1) and a prominent Australian multinuclei city as a case study.

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Melton Sunshine Bacchus Marsh

Figure 2: Land use pattern with multiple economic centers in Melbourne (Bureau of Meteorology 2016)

Figure 3: Land use pattern with multiple economic centers in Perth (Bureau of Meteorology 2013)

A ‘multinuclei city’ contains many economic centers rather than just one CBD. The term was coined by sociologists Harris and Ullman in 1945, at a time when transport revolution, technological innovations like automation, and demand for new services allowed for emergence of new economic centers or nuclei, each with their own purpose, located away from CBD (Rao 2019, Week 9).

Today, in most Australian cities like Melbourne and Perth (See fig. 1 and 2), new economic centers have emerged as the cities expanded and population shifted out of CBD to different suburban areas (Harris and Ullman 1945, pg. 14). These economic centers cater to specialized functions depending on factors like transport availability, population demographic, affordability and proximity to different types of industries (Harris and Ullman 1945, pg. 14). For example, majority of trade finance and banking services can locate close to CBD because their profit margin is very high, which allows them to afford land near the city center. Industries like manufacturing and grazing make relatively smaller profit, thus reducing their affordability. These industries also need more land depending on their products. Even within CBD, for example, different retail stores are located in different areas depending on foot traffic, sales turnover and other such factors, in order to maximize their profit (Harvey and Jowsey 2004, pg. 257).

Harris and Ullman’s multinuclei theory incorporates all these aspects to offer a more “flexible approach” (Harvey and Jowsey 2004, pg. 264) to analyzing land use patterns in different parts of the city.

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Figure 4: Heat map of job density in Melbourne (State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning 2017, pg. 50)

Figure 5: Key industries in different parts of Melbourne (State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning 2017, pg. 22)

According to Harris and Ullman (1945, pg. 15), retail and finance industries dominate the economic activity in and close to the CBD. This is highly applicable to many Australian multinuclei cities, like Melbourne. From figure 4., it is evident that Melbourne’s job density is no longer concentrated at its CBD, but is distributed unevenly in various suburban areas, which are becoming major economic centers. Its retail and finance industry is located in and closest to Melbourne CBD (see Fig. 5 ‘Inner’). Complementing these industries are the light-manufacturing and technical service industries which locate themselves in places easily accessible via transport like rail and trucks, in and near Melbourne CBD. Harris and Ullman attribute this pattern to certain aspects that are specific to each industry. Retail and department stores site within the CBD because they require maximum pedestrian and transport accessibility for a high customer count (1945, pg.

15). Financial and government buildings locate themselves close to the CBD in order to access other buildings of the same industry. Light manufacturing industries do not require as much land or capital and they may provide services to the retail and finance industries, therefore locating close to them in order to maximize their profit in terms of sales and transport costs. What must also be taken into account is that these industries make enough profit to be able to afford using the land in and closest to CBD (Harris and Ullman 1945, pg. 15).

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The emergence of other economic centers has not diminished the importance of the CBD, but rather, they complement each other’s functions (O’Sullivan 2011, pg.

168). In the case of Melbourne, this can be observed in Sunshine, the emerging capital of Melbourne’s West. New transportation developments like the Western Rail Plan are currently being executed in order to establish Sunshine Super Hub, which would allow its community Brimbank to be a thriving economic center that is highly connected to the rest of the city, including the CBD and Melbourne Airport (Brimbank 2019).

Multinuclei theory states the reason for this as specific activities requiring “specialized facilities” (Harris and Ullman 1945, pg. 14). Sunshine, by location, situates between Geelong, Ballarat and the CBD and this has been taken up as an opportunity to develop Sunshine as a transport Super Hub in order to provide easy accessibility to other parts of the city.

These suburban centers also include residential areas where people who have moved out of the CBD have shifted to, with advent in transportation and communication technology (Harris and Ullman 1945, pg. 16). Suburban economic centers, like Sunshine in the case of Melbourne, provide these residents with employment opportunities in places other than the CBD, which would mean that they do not need to incur heavy travel costs in order to get to their workplace.

Minor economic centers catering to green spaces and other small industries like universities emerge in places where people can benefit the most from them and which are most accessible via different modes of transport. Beyond all these economic centers lie the manufacturing and other heavy industry sectors. They tend to locate themselves at the edge of the city, away from the CBD and residential areas. In Melbourne, the manufacturing industry follows a similar trend (see Fig. 5 ‘Southern’ and ‘Western’) and site at a greater distance from the city center, near transport routes for easy accessibility to the CBD. This is because these industries require large amounts of land in order to produce their goods and the associated land, air and noise pollution needs to be kept away from the city center for better public health (Harris and Ullman 1945, pg. 15-16).

In conclusion, economic activities are unevenly distributed within cities but this is because they respond to factors like affordability, accessibility, need for land and profit maximizing. They connect with each other in terms of providing services and facilities and locate themselves accordingly.

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References Brimbank. (2019). Plan for Sunshine to become the capital of Melbourne’s West. Brimbank City Council.

Retrieved from https://www.buzz.brimbank.vic.gov.au/plan-for-sunshine-to-become-the-capital-ofmelbournes-west/

Harris, C., & Ullman, E. (1945). The Nature of Cities. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 242, pg. 7-17. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/stable/1026055 Harvey, J & Jowsey, E. (2004). ‘The Pattern of Urban Land Use’, in Urban land economics, Palgrave Macmillan UK. Rao, J. (2019). PROP1001: Economics and Cities, week 5, lecture notes [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_392865_1&content_ id=_7567389_1&mode=reset Rao, J. (2019). PROP1001: Economics and Cities, week 9, lecture notes [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_392865_1&content_ id=_7567389_1&mode=reset

O'Sullivan, A. (2011). ‘Land-use patterns,’ in Urban economics. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Image sources Figure 1. Harvey, J & Jowsey, E. (2004). A multi-nuclei urban structure. Palgrave Macmillan UK. Figure 2. Bureau of Meteorology. (2016). Melbourne: Geographic information. Commonwealth of Australia.

Retrieved from http://www.bom.gov.au/water/nwa/2016/melbourne/regiondescription/geographicinformation.shtml Figure 3. Bureau of Meteorology. (2013i). Perth. Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved from http://www.bom.gov.au/water/nwa/2013/perth/contextual/physicalinformation.shtml Figure 4. The State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. (2017). Jobs across Melbourne. Plan Melbourne 2017-2050. Retrieved from http://planmelbourne.vic.gov.au/home Figure 5. The State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. (2017). Projected employment growth, metropolitan Melbourne, 2015–2031. Plan Melbourne 2017-2050.

Retrieved from http://planmelbourne.vic.gov.au/home

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