🏢 Shops and offices
Shops want lots of customers walking past. Offices want to be near other businesses and to be easy for workers to reach. Both want a central site, even if it is small.
Urban Challenges » Urban Land Use Patterns
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: 6.2 Cities face a range of social and environmental challenges resulting from rapid growth and resource demands (a)
- What land use means and how it is arranged in a city
- How locational needs, accessibility and land values affect where things are built
- The bid-rent idea in plain words
- How to use satellite images to identify land uses
Urban Environments is an optional topic. Check with your teacher that it is one of the two topics you are studying in Paper 2 Section A.
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Unlock This CourseWhy a city has a pattern
Look at any big city from above and you will see that it is not a random mess. Shops and offices are packed together in one area, houses spread out in others, and factories sit somewhere else. This arrangement is called a land use pattern. It happens because every type of business or building needs different things from its site, and land in different parts of the city costs different amounts.
Key terms:
- Land use: what an area of land is used for, such as housing, shops, industry or parks.
- Locational needs: the things a business or building needs from its site, such as space, workers or customers.
- Accessibility: how easy it is to reach a place, and how easy it is to travel from it.
- Land value: how much it costs to buy or rent a piece of land.
- Bid-rent: the idea that different land uses bid, or offer, different prices for land, and the highest bidder gets the site.
The specification names three factors for you to learn: locational needs, accessibility and land values.
Factor 1: locational needs
Different land uses want different things, so they choose different places.
🏭 Factories and warehouses
These need a lot of flat, cheap space for big buildings, car parks and lorries. They do not need passing customers, so they are happy to be further out.
🏡 Housing
Families want space, gardens, quiet and safe streets. Many people also want to be close to schools and shops, and within reach of work.
🌳 Parks and open space
These are put in places where people live and want fresh air and recreation.
Factor 2: accessibility
Accessibility is about how easy a place is to get to. In most cities the most accessible site is the centre, because roads, railways and bus routes all lead there. From the centre, workers and customers can come from every direction.
Sites near a major junction, a station or a main road are more accessible than sites on a quiet side street. This is why shops cluster on main streets and why warehouses are often built next to a main road or motorway on the edge of a city, where lorries can come and go without driving through the centre.
Factor 3: land values
Land is more expensive where it is more wanted. The most accessible land, in the centre, has the highest land value. Land values then fall as you move away from the centre, because the sites are less accessible and fewer people pass by.
High land values have a clear effect on the buildings:
- In the centre, land is so expensive that builders put up tall buildings to get lots of floor space from a small area.
- Further out, land is cheaper, so buildings are lower and have more space around them, such as houses with gardens.
The bid-rent idea in plain words
Imagine that the owner of a central site holds an auction. Different users bid for it, and the one that can pay the most wins.
- Shops make big profits from busy central sites, so they can bid the highest.
- Offices also gain a lot from a central site, so they bid high too.
- Housing and factories cannot earn enough from a small central plot to pay such a high price, so they bid much less.
As a result, shops and offices win the centre. Housing and industry win cheaper sites further out. The idea is called bid-rent because each use is bidding a rent for land, and the bids fall as distance from the centre grows.
Putting it together
A typical city pattern is: centre with shops and offices and very high land values, then housing and industry further out on cheaper land, with land values falling all the way out. It is only a general pattern. Real cities have exceptions.
Skill: using satellite images to identify land uses
A satellite image is a photograph taken from space. You may be asked to say what a part of a city is used for. Look for clues in four things: colour, shape, pattern and size.
🏙 Built-up areas
Grey or brown, with buildings close together. Very tall buildings show long shadows. Tightly packed buildings with narrow streets suggest the centre. Rows of similar small buildings with green gaps suggest housing.
🌿 Green and blue areas
Green patches in the city may be parks, playing fields or gardens. Blue or dark areas are water, such as a river or a lake.
🛣 Transport
Long, thin, straight lines are roads or railways. Many lines meeting in one place show a busy, accessible junction or station.
🏪 Industry and retail parks
Very large, plain rectangular roofs with big car parks or lorry yards next to a main road suggest a warehouse, factory or large out-of-town store.
Worked example
Question: A satellite image shows a large flat grey rectangle next to a motorway, with rows of lorries parked beside it. Identify the likely land use and give one reason why it is located there. [2 marks]
Answer: It is probably a warehouse or distribution centre. (1) It needs a lot of cheap space and good accessibility, so it is next to a main road where lorries can get in and out easily. (1)
Common mistakes
- Saying that land is expensive "because it is in the city". Say it is expensive because it is accessible and in demand.
- Forgetting to name the factor. Use the words locational needs, accessibility or land values in your answer.
- Treating the pattern as a rule with no exceptions. It is a general model, and real cities vary.
- Naming a land use from a satellite image without giving the clue. Always say what you can see, such as tall buildings with shadows or a large roof beside a main road.
Exam-style question
(a) State what is meant by land use. [1 mark]
(b) Explain why land values are highest in the centre of a city. [3 marks]
(c) Explain why a large factory is more likely to be built on the edge of a city than in the centre. [4 marks]
Model answer
(a) What an area of land is used for, such as housing, shops or industry. (1)
(b) The centre is the most accessible part of the city because roads and railways meet there. (1) Many customers and workers can reach it, so shops and offices want to be there. (1) Lots of users want a small amount of land and bid high prices, so land values are highest. (1)
(c) A factory needs a large amount of space for its buildings and lorries. (1) Land on the edge of a city is cheaper than in the centre. (1) Factories do not need passing customers, so they can afford to be away from the centre. (1) The edge of the city has good access to main roads for lorries, without going through traffic in the centre. (1)
Exam tip
For "explain why" questions, link a factor to its effect: say what the land use needs, then why a particular place gives it. Each link usually earns a mark.