Applying the Models in Developing Countries

The models of urban structure described earlier in this chapter (concentric zone, sector, and multiple nuclei) help to explain contemporary patterns within the urban areas in developing countries. Rapid growth of population and land area has strengthened the applicability of the models in some cities but reduced their usefulness in other cases.

Concentric Zones in Developing Countries

The concentric zone model has been applied most frequently to cities in developing countries. Geographer Harm deBlij’s model of sub-Saharan African cities is an example (Figure 13-35). The inner rings house higher-income people. Inner rings have the most attractive residential areas because they are near business and consumer services, and they offer such vital public services as water, electricity, paved roads, and garbage pickup.

Concentric Zone Model Applied to Cities in Developing Countries

As cities grow rapidly in developing countries, rings are constantly being added on the periphery to accommodate immigrants from rural areas attracted by job opportunities (Figure 13-36). Much of the housing in the outer rings is in informal settlements, also known as squatter settlements (Figure 13-37). The United Nations defines an informal settlement as a residential area where housing has been built on land to which the occupants have no legal claim or has not been built to the city’s standards for legal buildings.

Concentric Zone Model Applied to Nairobi, Kenya

Higher-income people are more likely to live in an inner ring, whereas low-income people are in outer rings.

Concentric Zones, Nairobi

Higher-income people live in the high-rises, which are closer to the center.

Informal settlements are known by a variety of names, including barriadas and favelas in Latin America, bidonvilles in North Africa, bastees in India, gecekondu in Turkey, kampongs in Malaysia, and barong-barong in the Philippines. The United Nations estimated that 883 million people lived in informal settlements in 2018.

Informal settlements have few services because neither the city nor the residents can afford them. Homes are in basic shelters made with scavenged cardboard, wood boxes, sackcloth, and crushed beverage cans. Latrines may be designated by the settlement’s leaders, and water is carried from a central well or dispensed from a truck. Electricity service may be stolen by running a wire from the nearest power line. In the absence of bus service or available private cars, a resident may have to walk two hours to reach a place of employment.

Sectors in Developing Countries

Geographers Ernest Griffin and Larry Ford show that in Latin American cities, wealthy people push out from the center in a well-defined elite residential sector (Figure 13-38). The elite sector forms on either side of a narrow spine (the green commercial area in Figure 13-38) that contains offices, shops, and amenities attractive to wealthy people, such as restaurants, theaters, parks, and zoos. For example, Santiago, Chile, has an elite sector extending northeast from the CBD (Figure 13-39). The wealthy are also attracted to the center and spine because services such as water and electricity are more readily available and reliable there than elsewhere. Wealthy and middle-class residents avoid living near sectors of “disamenity,” which are land uses that may be noisy or polluting or that cater to low-income residents.

Sector Model Applied to Cities in Developing Countries

Sector Model Applied to Santiago, Chile

High-income people live in a sector to the northeast.

Multiple Nuclei in Developing Countries

Cities in some developing countries show evidence of the multiple nuclei model by containing a complex mix of ethnic groups. During the apartheid era, South Africa’s cities showed especially clear evidence of the multiple nuclei model because each race was segregated into distinct neighborhoods (see under Distribution by Ethnicity & Race in Chapter 1).

T. G. McGee’s model of a Southeast Asian city superimposes on concentric zones several nodes of squatter settlements and what he called “alien” zones, where foreigners, usually Chinese, live and work (Figures 13-40 and 13-41). McGee found that Southeast Asian cities do not typically have a strong CBD. Instead, the various functions of the CBD are dispersed to several nodes.

Multiple Nuclei Model Applied to Cities in Developing Countries

Griffin-Ford model of Southeast Asia city.

Multiple Nuclei Model Applied to Manila 

Most informal settlements in Manila, the Philippines, are located in outer districts.

Pause & Reflect 13.2.5

Would you expect the distribution of people with college degrees to follow most closely the concentric zone, sector, or multiple nuclei model? Why?