KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF OPEN LEARNING

MODULE AGE 202: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

BY

FRANCIS OMWERI ONSONGO

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY
©2005
TABLE OF CONTENT PAGE
LESSON ONE: INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN GEOGRAPHY--------------------04

LESSON TWO: NATURE AND SCOPE OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY------------09

LESSONS 3, 4 & 5:PARADIGMS AND THEORIES

IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY---------------------------------------------------------14

LESSONS 6, 7, & 8: SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS ------------------------------------28

LESSONS 9, 10 & 11: SPATIAL PROCESSES AND SPATIAL PATTERNS-—48

LESSON 12: THE CLASSICAL LOCATIONAL THEORIES: THE VON

THÜÜNEN MODEL OF AGRICULTURAL LAND USE---------------------------73

LESSON 13: CONCEPT OF A REGION------------------------------------------------84

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INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
AGE 202: Human Geography is a core course in Geography. Its aim is to expose
learners to the changes that have affected the subject matter and methodology of human
Geography. It is noted that the traditional approach emphasized the description of
places depicting ways of man in his habitat. The modern approach on the other hand
looks at the analysis of spatial processes and the interaction between man and his
natural environment. This modern approach relies on quantitative methods of analysis,
computerization, and building up of theories, models and paradigms.

It is known that Geography is a science subject dealing with the study of spatial
phenomena. Human Geography is also a scientific study of human spatial activities on
the surface of the earth. Human Geography is a bridging subject between all sub-
branches of Geography.

Learners should note that for a successful regional development planning to take place,
the planners and policy makers has much to learn from Human Geography in terms of
relevant theories, modules, paradigms and policies. In this context, for planners and
policy makers to improve human welfare, it is necessary to know how man affects his
cultural and natural environments, and how the cultural and natural environment affects
man.

Learners are expected to read the module very vigilantly in conjunction with the
reference materials. It is emphasized that they do all the assignments.
Learners are advised to attend tutorials for explanations and clarity. But those who
don’t want to participate in tutorials can link up wit the lecturer on the internet for
clarifications.

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1.0 LESSON ONE: INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN GEOGRAPHY Pg.4
1.1 Introduction:
In these two lessons, attempts will be made to look at the concept and evolution of
human geography: its nature and scope and methodology.

1.2 Objectives:
By the end of these lessons, you should be able to:
(1) Define the term human Geography
(2) Discuss the nature and scope of human Geography.
(3) Examine the development of the subject matter human Geography.

1.3 What is Human Geography?

The subject matter of human Geography is controversial because what is taught in it is
shared among other discipline in the natural and social sciences. At the same time, the
methodology of human Geography is not unique to the subject because other
disciplines also use similar techniques (Chisholm, 1975).

The controversy noted above has led to the emergence of two major concepts about the
subject matter. The first concept regards human Geography as the ecology of men i.e.
human Geography is the study of man-environment relations.The second concept
regards human Geography as the science of societies. This concept looks at human
Geography as the study of evolution of societies and how societies organise their
activities on the surface of the earth.

1.4 What Human Geography Entails

Human Geography can be defined as the study of man and his activities on the surface
of the earth (Money, (1875) who said that:
Human Geography seeks to examine those facts of geography, which relate
directly to man and his activities, observing both their effects upon him and
the results of his own impact on his surroundings.

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It should be noted that all the definitions emphasize human phenomena within the
natural environment. Here, we also note that man is the central figure in the drama of
man-environment relationship. This as a matter of fact distinguishes human Geography
from physical geography.

1.5 The Development of Human Geography

A Greek philosopher called Erustosthenus coined the term Geography. It is derived
from two Greek words: Geo meaning earth, and graph meaning description, recording
or drawing.

Geography is basically concerned with the relationship between man’s way of life and
places in which he lives. The aim of Geography is to understand the earth as the world
of man with particular reference to the differentiation and integration of places.

EVOLUTION OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Over the last 3,000 years or so, Geography had been concerned with accurately
describing the location of places. This activity can be traced back to the period of early
Greek civilization. But this interest in the location of places cannot be regarded as the
actual origin of the subject matter. For example of the early Greeks, it is only
Erastosthenus who can be regarded as a geographer proper because he derived a
method of locating places with some accuracy. He divided the world into rectangular
regions with imaginary lines drawn through major cities and important physical
features. His work provided a framework for the use of grids in describing location.

The period of ancient civilization was followed by the period of exploration (1400-
1900) when explorers, traders, missionaries and members of the geographical
association attempted to discover new lands (places). Most of their efforts produced
descriptive reports and a map hence this process is being referred to as gazetteer
geography. During this period, geography was associated with cartography.

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The second phase was between 1800 and 1950: a period of ancient classical
philosophy. During this period geography became more descriptive and adopted
regional approaches in its study. Then, regional geography became a very important
science as it laid emphasis on uniqueness of places. It was during this period that two
schools of thought emerged: environmental determinism and possibilism.

Environmental determinism states that forces beyond his control namely the natural
environment determine man’s activities on the surface of the earth. The second school
of thought is possibilism. Possibilism states in short that man has a upper hand in
determining the activities in the physical environment since he is the main decision
maker.

1.6 Environmental Determinism and Possibilism

On the one hand, environmental determination school of thought advocates for the
highest level of physical control over the human environment. On the other hand, there
is possibilism, which advocates primacy of human control over the physical
environment. These schools of thought have generated a serious debate amongst the
geographers, which is still going on although possibilism has been replaced by
humanism.

The environmental paradigm therefore emphasizes on the relationship between the

physical and human environments and looks at how these relations affect the
functioning and development of society. However, it should be noted that this
approach is of limited relevance to modern geography although it still exists in form of
studies such as of environment and behaviour. But as a matter of fact, today’s
environment is man made.

The third phase in the development of Human Geography was the period after 1950
when interest of geographers was now on search for patterns in the distribution of
spatial phenomena. Here there was the quantification and formulation of hypotheses in
geographic studies. During this period quantification in physical geography started and

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was later extended to human geography. The concept of chance or randomness became
more relevant. Statistical techniques and computer analysis became important tools in
the quantitative revolution in Geography. A decade later the method of inquiry in
human geography started including model building and spatial location theory as seen
in the works of Losch (1954), Isard (1956), Greenhut (1956) and the early works of
Christaller (1933). These laid a firm foundation for the development of economic
geography as a sub-branch of human geography.

Due to the impact of the quantitative revolution, after the 1960, human geography
started building of models and spatial economics. Here emphasis was more on methods
of data analysis than the subject matter of human geography – although new concepts
emerged to make it more applicable especially in regional and urban development
planning (Smith, 1977).

1.7 SUMMARY
The first part of this lecture gave an introduction to the definition of human geography
showing there is no single or simple definition of human geography that is universally
accepted. The second part of the lecture gave a summary of the three phases in the
development of the contents and methodology of human geography.

Another issue that is covered in this lecture is the emergence of two schools of thought
regarding the man-environment relationship. These two schools are environmental
determination and possibilism. Environmental determinism states that the environment
is what determines man’s activities on the surface of the earth. That means that the
environment has an upper hand in determining man’s activities. Possibilism on the
other hand, states that man has control of the physical environment. So it is man who
determines what do where.

Although the debates regarding possibilism and environmental determinism are going
on the modern times, man has become a peculiar powerful agent, a source of creative
energy in the conditions in which he lives. Man has invented a number of tools,

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modified plants all to make him live a life. Man is creative and by use of his
technology, he can control the environment to suit his desires.

1.8 REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. (a) What a human geography?
(b) What does it attempt to study?
(c) Distinguish environmental determinism from possibilism
2. By use of examples and illustrations, show the development of human
geography over the three phases.
3. (a) Define Human Geography
(b) Giving examples identify its major themes and shortcomings as a scientific
discipline.
1.9 Activity
By use of illustrations, show the development of human geography over the
three phases.

1.10 Further Reading

Chisholm, M. (1978): Human Geograhy Evolution or Revolution? Penguin Books.
Perpillon, A. V. (1966): Human Geography. London Longmans: Green and Co. Ltd.
Tidswell, V. (1976): Patterns and Processes in Human Geogrpahy. London
University Press.

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2.0 LESSON TWO: NATURE AND SCOPE OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
2.1 INTRODUCTION
In the previous chapter, we looked at the definition, development and methodology of
human geography. We were able to see how the subject matter of human geography
evolved and changed over time from the 15th century to present. In this lesson, we are
going to critically look at the nature and scope of human geography.

2.2 OBJECTIVES
By the end of this lecture you should be able to:
(1) Define and state the scope of human geography.
(2) See problems encountered in the study of human
geography.
(3) Determine the components of human geography.
(4) Critically evaluate the subject matter of human geography.

THE NATURE OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

The content and methodology of a subject is what determines whether it is to be a
social science or a natural science discipline. According to Smith (1977), human
geography is an empirical subject deeply rooted in the reality of life and analyses
spatial relationships in human activities.

In a nutshell human geography can be regarded as the study of who gets what, where
and how. In the past the aim of studying geography was to describe and interpret
human phenomena as they change from place to place and from time to time. In the
early days, human geography was more concerned with the main target of explaining
how the various natural factors such as relief, distance from the sea, soil type and
climate affect man’s economic activities. This approach was basically a man-
environment relationship. This approach was later done away with since it was
environmentally deterministic.

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Human geography has studied the following topics for a long time:
It has looked at the human race, its numbers, distribution and varieties and how
the human race has used the natural resources within the scope of demographic
geography.
Human Geography has looked at the utilization of land by different
communities from the simplest settlements to the most complicated (complex)
settlements.
Has looked at the utilization of natural resources through the exploitation of
major climatic zones such with its diverse activated parts and domesticated
animals.
It also looks at the exploitation of seas and mountain and the description of the
main areas of production and the direction of trade and exchange of goods and
services.
Because there was a desire for a systems’ approach to the regionalization of
human phenomena, human geography begun to emphasize the fact that spatial
phenomena are not located the way they are by chance but due to the decision
made by man who is an economic man who make decision to satisfy some
needs given the imperfect knowledge of the environment.
Today human geography deals with human landscape, i.e. how
1. Different societies utilize their terrestrial space.
2. Man perceives the environmental perception.
3. Different cultures and the economic background of communities have
evolved.

COMPONENTS OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Human geography comprises many specialities. It embraces the study of human race,
the growth of human numbers, the movements of populations, physical and cultural
differences between human groups and the study of economic activities. It also covers
the relationship between man and his natural environment, and ways in which man and
his activities are distributed:

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 Human geography can be sub-divided into major sub-divisions namely
economic geography and cultural geography.
Economic geography deals with the distribution of natural resources and their
use by man.

It can be further subdivided according to branches of activity such as agriculture,

manufacturing, trade, transportation and other services. It therefore covers the
exploitation of the various climatic and geological phenomena, the use of plants and
animals for food and industrial raw materials, the use of seas and forests and of
mineral resources. It also covers other kinds of economic activities such as industry
and trade that have come as a result of technological development in the use of
natural resources by man. Such activities as farming, manufacturing and trade no
longer depend on a simple relationship between man and his natural environment, but
most take into account the political and economic interpretation between different
regions. The study of economic geography also includes the distribution of the
various kinds of economic activities around the world.

In short, economic geography examines the spatial patterns of economic phenomenon

or events. It deals with the location of economic activities, the spatial organisation and
growth of economic systems and man’s use and misuse of the earth’s resources.

The other wide sub-field of human geography is cultural geography. Initially it referred
to the study of how diverse societies have used and changed the earth’s surface into
cultural landscapes, which contrast with natural landscapes. Gradually the field of
cultural geography has come to include all the applications of the idea of culture to
geographic problems. It analyses spatial variation of resources material traits such as
house type as well as religion.

SUMMARY
Human Geography is empirical. It emphasizes on the man-environment relationship.
For a long time Human Geography has looked at the human role, its numbers,

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distribution and variety and how the human role has used the natural resources. It has
looked at the utilization of land by communities through the exploitation of major
climatic zones. Today Human Geography deals with human landscape, i.e. how
different societies utilize their terrestrial space, the environmental perceptions and the
evolution of different cultures and the economic background of communities. Human
Geography can be sub-divided into two major sub-divisions – economic geography and
cultural geography.

QUESTIONS:
(1) Why it is difficult to define human geography
(2) Discuss in detail the nature of human geography

LEARNERS ACTIVITY

Distinguish between Human Geography and Physical geography

with the aid of examples and illustrations from a country of your
own choice.

Key concepts
Human Geography deals with the man-environment relationship. It deals with how
different communities utilize their terrestrial space, the environmental perceptions and
the evolution of different cultures and the economic background of communities.
Cultural Geography is the division of Human Geography, which looks at how the
diverse societies have used and changed the earth’s surface into cultural landscape. It
includes all the application of the idea of culture into geographic problems.

Further Reading
Chisholm M. (1975): Human Geography: Evolution or Revolution? Penguin Books
Huntington, E. and Cushing, S.W. (1934): Principles of Human Geography: New York
Wiley Publishers.
Perpillon A.V (1966): Human Geography. London: Longman: Green and Co. Ltd.

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Smith, D.M. (1977): Human Geography: A Welfare Approach: London Edward
Arnold.
Tidswell, V. (1976): Patterns and Processes in Human Geography: London: University
Tutorial Press.
.

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3.0 LESSONS 3, 4 & 5:PARADIGMS AND THEORIES IN HUMAN
GEOGRAPHY
Introduction
This topic attempts to identify the changes in trends (approaches) to human geography
and how these changes have affected the subject matter of human geography. We have
traditional models and contemporary models. These models are what are referred to as
paradigms.

Objectives
By the end of the lesson, learners should be able to:
(1) Define a paradigm
(2) Distinguish between traditional paradigms and contemporary
paradigms.
(3) Define a system and show its relevance as an approach model
in the study of human geography.
(4) Show why perception studies are used in human geography.

Paradigms
The term paradigm has been used widely in the social sciences research. It refers to a
body of ideas or approach models that may be used to guide the development of theory
and explanatory research. Scientists often share such a body of ideas whose research is
committed to the same problem and standards. Hence a group of scientists who share
the same paradigm will form a continuing community devoted to a particular research
tradition. Thomas Kuhn (1962) in his book structure of scientific revolution sees a
paradigm as a body of intertwined theoretical and methodological beliefs that permit
selection, evaluation and criticism.

Paradigms tend to be highly restrictive. They focus attention upon a small range of
problems to allow investigation to be concentrated on small parts of the man-

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environment system in detail and depth. The ideas are normally acquired through ones’
education and subsequent exposure to the literature rather than being formally taught.

In human geography there are a number of paradigms associated with different historic
times during which they were dominant. Broadly speaking, there are two main
paradigms namely:- traditional paradigms and the contemporary paradigms.

Traditional Paradigms
These paradigms were dominant in the period before the 1950s. Traditional paradigms
can be further sub-divided into: explanatory, environmentalism and regionalism
paradigms.

Let’s now look at each of these traditional paradigms in detail:

(a) Explanatory paradigm
This paradigm belongs to the early classical period in the development of
geographic thought. It was characterised by the charting of unknown places
and gathering of basic facts on spatial phenomenon. This activity motivated
early observers and mapmakers and also inspired observers who discovered
“new lands”. For example, Humboldt developed systematic methods for
specimen collection and maintenance of records. Presently, this method is not
emphasized but geographic association like the members of the Royal
Geographical Society and mountain climbing expeditions still maintain these
ideas and beliefs of the early geographers whose role was that of description
and classification.

(b) Environmentalism paradigm

This paradigm is a product of the explanatory paradigm. It arose due to the
need to explain differences between the ‘new and old lands’. It emphasized
the need to investigate the ways in which the physical environment affects the
functioning and development of societies. Before the 1950s there was a strong
debate amongst the geographers, which led to the emergence of two schools

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 of thought concerning the relationship between the physical and human
environment. These schools of thought are environmental determinism and
possibilism.

(c) Regionalism
The regionalism paradigm has inherited some aspects of tradition of the
explanation paradigm and a synthesis of the man-environment relationships. As
a whole this paradigm involves identification of uniform regions, description of
segments of the earth’s surface and specialised regional studies. This method
has little academic credibility today although it exists in the study of regional
geography.

At the same time, more and more scientific methods of regionalization exist today. The
regionalism paradigms seek to identify and describe regions, but it focuses mainly on
the role of historical and cultural factors in influencing the development and
functioning of society. According to this approach, the historical development of
different cultures is responsible for the current differences between regions. This
paradigm emphasizes those historical factors created different cultural institutions.

CONTEMPORARY PARADIGMS
Contemporary paradigms came into being after the 1950s when there evolved the
quantitative revolution. These are the modern paradigms, which make use of modern
techniques of data collection, analysis and presentation. Of the contemporary
paradigms we have:- spatial analysis, subject humanistic and structurism paradigms.
Let’s now look in detail at each one of these branches of contemporary paradigms:-

(a) Spatial Analysis Paradigm

This paradigm is strongly linked with the quantitative techniques. The
popularity of the spatial analysis paradigm was strongly influenced by the
‘quantitative revolution’. Two most important aspects of the quantitative
revolution are, first the quantification and experimentation with a wide range of

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 statistical techniques. Second, there is also the aspect of emphasize on
formulation of hypotheses and search for theory.

The spatial analysis paradigm focuses on general trends and patterns of

distribution of phenomenon in space. It uses the nomothetic approach rather
than the traditional idiographic approaches which stresses uniqueness of places.
This approach uses numerical methods to analyse data; hence by doing so, the
spatial analysis paradigm has some predictive power, which makes it possible to
be used in the development of public policy. Apart from modelling, the spatial
analysis paradigm uses the system’s approach.

Definition of a system
A system is a set of elements with relationships between themselves. It consists
of elements within which there are identifiable linkages and relationships and
from the interaction of which emerges a number of outcomes.
A system can also be seen as an organized or complex whole, an assemblage or
combination of things or parts forming a complex or unitary whole. More
broadly, a system refers to a set of inter-related parts or a set of interacting
functional relationships between various components which transform a set of
inputs into a set of outputs. Each system may be considered to comprise of a
sub-system and in turn an inevitably sub-system or some other larger hierarchy
of systems when viewed as an appropriate complex.

One can think of elements of the spatial economic system and their role in
the operation of an economy such as cities, towns, villages and rural homesteads
from a system point of view. The relationships are transport and communication
connections that tie the system of places and economic activities together.
Other examples of a system or sub-system include transport system and
urban system, marketing system, e.t.c.

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Uses of Systems Approach
The spatial analysis paradigm considers the wholeness of phenomenon and the
relationship between its sub-systems. A system focuses upon the functioning,
processes and relationships within it as well as the resultant forms.
Used as a thinking approach, it necessitates five steps:
(i) Identification of elements or components parts.
(ii) Appreciation of the relationship between these parts.
(iii) Evaluation of the result of the interaction of these components.
(iv) Identification of the impacts - end result of the system or a new input
exogenous to the system.
(v) Understanding the dynamic nature of the system.

Advantages of the systems’ approach in the study of human geography

A system’s approach has the following advantages:-
(1) It systematises or logically interconnects a great deal of initially isolated knowledge
that was gained about facts through the testing of scientific hypothesis.
(2) It gives an explanation or accounts for these hypothesis and serves as a vehicle for
generalizing new hypotheses.
(3) It is an economizer in the sense that it integrates all knowledge about a domain that
would have remained isolated.
(4) It uses a collection of viewpoints and techniques that have their origin in several
scientific disciplines – thus making it easier for the subject matter to be clearly
understood. This means that its methods are available to everyone for critical
analysis and examination.
(5) It offers a framework in which to elucidate the mechanism through which the
dynamics of various components in a hierarchy are linked.

The spatial analysis paradigm that utilises the systems approach focuses attention upon
locations and distribution of phenomena, interaction of peoples, goods and services
between places and regions, spatial structural arrangements, organizations and spatial
processes.

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The spatial analysis paradigm was dominant in the 1960s and continues to be important
up to now. Taaffee (1974) observes the strength of the spatial analysis paradigm is its
capacity to generate cumulative generalizations to a greater degree than other
paradigms. As a result spatial analysts have progressed further in an attempt to build
theory. Taaffee also notes that spatial analysis has at least two shortcomings.

First, it is noted that a progressive abstracting of spatial patterns increases the changes
of over concern with sterile geometric patterns. Second, it is noted that research on the
theme suffers from a danger that “a disproportionate share of the research might be
allocated to problems which are socially trivial as they are theoretically traceable could
be placing confidence in pre-existing body of theory if we were to confine ourselves to
testing hypotheses arising from theory.” Obviously there are many questions of much
importance to society for which we have a pertinent body of theory (Taaffee, 1970).

Behavioural approach or the subject Humanistic Paradigm? How it relates to the

Spatial Analysis Paradigm
The Behavioural paradigm may be seen as developing criticism or logical
outgrowth of the spatial analysis paradigm and from within the quantitative
revolution. It emerged as a reaction to the use of scientific objective methodology
of spatial analysis - hence some scholars see it as a critique rather than a precise
methodology.
It emphasizes that geographers must go beyond the spatial variables to understand
human ecosystem. This paradigm emphasizes that man be responsive not only to
the physical attributes of the landscape but also to the physiological and social
variables when deciding where to locate activities or how to utilize the earth’s
resources.
A distinguishing feature of this paradigm is an emphasis upon probing the working
of man’s mind in order to understand individual or group responses to nature and
man made environment. This uses methods and concepts from psychology,
sociology and anthropology.

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Approaches to the study of behavioural geography are trans or inter-disciplinary
method. This method was taken up first in the 1950s and early 1960s by Gilbert White,
then at the University of Chicago and his associates who made a series of investigations
of human responses to natural hazard, guided by theories of decision making and
influenced by methods used in psychology and sociology.

The school regarded it more important to map the personal perception of the
decision maker than to describe the actual physical and economic conditions of the
environment since the decision maker would act upon his own perceptions and not
the environmental factors themselves.
In a paper presented in 1964, Juliana Wolpart also introduced behavioural
geography in which actual and potential labour productivity on farms in central
Sweden were compared. She found out that the sample farm population did not
achieve profit maximization nor were its goods solely directed to that objective.
The farmers were found to be spatial satisfiers rather than ‘economic men’.

One other aspect of behavioural analysis has been the concept of the mental map of the
environment. Mental mapping has been taken up by a number of workers among them
Rodney White and Peter Gould (1967,1969) two volume work entitled Behaviour and
location in which they try to present an ambitious alternative to theory building based
on “economic man”.

Merits and Demerits of this Behavioural Approach

The Behavioural approach to the study of human geography has the following
advantages:
By focusing attention upon the variables, which mediate between man’s mind and
environment, it offers the potential for deeper understanding of decision-making.
Such a deeper understanding could improve appreciation of non-environment
relationships and spatial organization.
The focus upon decision processes may contribute to greater geographic input in
resource policy making.

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However, the Behavioural Approach has the following limitations:
(1) It is difficult to practically apply this approach. It has been suggested that current
research on environmental behaviouralism has failed to provide information
prerequisite for explicit policy formulation. It has also been pointed out “the
feedback from theory to practice to theory is non existent”.
(2) Major problems have also been encountered in identifying and defining the most
important behavioural variables. Key concepts such as motivation, values, attitudes
and others have been difficult to define.
(3) The problem of definition has also led to a related problem of measurement.
Geographers have adopted measurement techniques used and developed in
psychology, but there is concern that they are being used without appreciation for
their original purposes, assumptions and limitations.

One exception is the methodology provided by Hagerstrand and his associates in time
space geography that is an important aspect of Behavioural geography. In a nutshell,
time-space geography provides a method of mapping spatial behaviour and at the same
time represents a re-orientation away from aggregate data towards studies of individual
behaviour. More important, some geographers are beginning to find in time-space
geography a new economic theory in which time and space are regarded as scarce
resources, the allocation of which form the basis of social reality. Time-space studies
are shading new light on patterns of diffusion and other geographical aspects of human
behaviour.

Perception Studies in Human Geography

Geographical interest in perception started in 1947 when Wright (1947) suggested that
geographical inquiry should incorporate and use the subjective geographical
conceptions of the world that exists in the mind countless ordinary folk. Goodey (1974)
reckoned that geographical studies are not descriptions of the real world, but rather
perceptions passed through the double filter of the author’s mind and his available tools
of argument and representation.

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A substantial body of geographical literature on perceptions and man’s awareness of his
surroundings begun to develop in the 1960s (Goodey, 1974; Saarinen, 1969). The
motivation for developing interest in the environmental perception is partly as a result
of the geographers growing involvement in planning for the quality of the environment
and in resource management. Pioneer studies on geographical perception were done at
the University of Chicago. Their aim was to discover the relationship between the
people’s beliefs about natural hazards and their subsequent behaviour. These studies
developed due to the need for more thoughtful solutions to the problems of dealing with
natural hazards.

Moore and Golledge (1976) summarise the main lives of geographical research on
perception regarding the environment:
Studies on contemporary conceptions and attitudes towards different aspects of
spatial environments e.g. landscape.
Studies of conceptions of environment over historical times, that is, changing
conceptions of the environment over time.
Studies of environmental perceptions across different cultures. This is also
called Ethnogeography.

Ethnogeography?
Ethnogeography refers to a society’s perception of the environment of which it is part;
its understanding of natural and cultural processes which create spatial patterns. It
seeks overall worldview of people of different cultures. This includes their
understanding of the environment processes and patterns, the spatial organization they
mentally and physically impose on the landscape, their understanding of resource
management techniques and their rationale for applying techniques to different portions
of their environment. The rationale for Ethnogeography is that human societies
organized the use of their world’s resource not according to the total knowledge, but
according to knowledge that is limited by:

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 (i) Cultural filters, which represent the shared terminologies, categories,
knowledge and beliefs, passed from generation to generation by the process
of unculturalization
(ii) Concurrent teaming processes of knowledge in play but not yet incorporated
as part of culture.
(iii) Individual and collective levels of insights and aspirations (Knight, 1974).

Studies of perception of various groups within an environment

Some scholars focus on the individual as group images are assumed to be a sum of
individual images. Others focus on the social unit and assume that individual
perceptions are not independent from one another, but are derived from prevailing
group perceptions.
Goodley (1974) notes that geographical perception studies are moving away from
the initial dependence on psychological and sociological studies. He recognised
three forces around which geographers appear to be developing their researches.
These are discussed below:
(i) There is the environmental perception. This looks at man’s awareness of the
environment through one or a combination of his senses, of the features of his
immediate environment. For example land use patterns, hazard perception in
resource management, e.t.c.
(ii) We have the extra environmental perception. This is referred to as the invisible
environment. These are the areas of the world which man perceives, but which
man has no direct experience. This is a form of rudimentary perception of
places that no one has ever been to. Perception of such places is gained through
reading stories, mass media, and e.t.c.
(iii)There is the preferential perception, which perceives man’s preference to move
to particular places. Such studies are aimed at discovery of resources for gold
selection. It is important to note that some elements of the preferential
perception are included within the environmental perception.

23
Wooder (1970) writes that perception studies have been done under such headings as
landscape, hazard, recreation, and labour movement and space preference.
(i) Landscape studies started with the premise that man’s attitude and views
about nature influences his use of resources. Such knowledge is mainly
gained through writers’ accounts of different groups to gain their view on
the environment.
(ii) Hazard studies deal with response of individuals and social groups to
extreme events in nature. Such may include storms, temperature inversion,
earthquakes, diseases and floods, erosion, volcanoes e.t.c. Wright (1974)
concludes that every parameter of the biosphere subject to seasonal, annual
or secular fluctuations constitutes a hazard to man to the extent that his
adjustments to the frequency, magnitude or timing of its extremes are based
on imperfect knowledge.
(iii) Recreational studies on the other hand deal mainly with the perception of
the wilderness or countryside as a recreational resource. Some can also be
done on open urban spaces. The purpose is to determine different people’s
perception as an aid to better land use and management.
(iv) Movement studies are based on assumption that there is interaction between
man and the environment. Studies on patterns of human activity provide a
valuable framework for gaining insights into such interaction.
(v) Urban studies consider the image that resident hold about a city. The
purpose is that such image influences the decisions and hence spatial
behaviour within the city.
(vi) Woodey (1974) identifies a last set of studies called space preferences.
They deal with the way people perceive and evaluate the geographical space
that surrounds them. Studies in this context have been done on space
preferences of individuals especially of residential desirability of particular
areas.

24
On main idea, which arises from the above synthesis, is that human beings form views
about the environment in which they live or visit. These views influence their
behaviour on the landscape and therefore dictate the way they use resources.

THE DIALECTICAL PARADIGM (STRUCTURALISM PARADIGM)

Definition of Dialectical Paradigm
This paradigm understands the work from a radical viewpoint, that is, the
disadvantageous position of the poor in as far as the allocation of resources is
concerned. In this context the paradigm states that things are located the way they are
by the rich who has control over resources and therefore decides on how to use and
locate these resources.

This approach of studying human geography achieves an understanding of the world by

drawing attention to the power relationships of society. This mind set sees the
relationship of places in the context of the world’s political economy. It recognizes a
contemporary reality, that is, the disadvantageous position of many people with respect
to the control and use of resources and exposes the structure of relations in the world’s
political economy that preserves and intensifies that disadvantage.

For the radical geographers, the dialectical worldview is the context for criticising
existing theories of spatial organization. For the classical locational theory, which is an
achievement of the spatial analysts, for example, it is criticised for its inappropriate
assumptions, lack of historical perspective and status quo orientation.

A major view of the work of the radical geographers is that it acknowledges and
analyses prevailing value systems. It inquires deeply into processes of social and
economic organization. For instance, it tends to question the validity for 80% of the
world’s population having access to only 20% of the world’s resources. This is really a
show of the disadvantageous position of the poor. Traditional human geographers have
avoided the question of value. They try economic problems either descriptively or
verbally or within a quantitative theoretical framework.

25
THE MANAGERIAL PARADIGM
This paradigm consists more or less of a framework of study rather than a cohesive
paradigm. It suggests that whatever the social formation, there is an immediate level of
decision makers (managers) concerned with the allocation of resources. Accordingly, it
is these managers who should be studied since their decisions affect social and spatial
distribution of phenomena.

This paradigm is criticized for being elitistic in approach. At the same time it is noted
that managers may not be the overall decision makers. Here, then, the pertinent
question is who are the managers? And at what level?

SUMMARY
In these lessons, we have looked at the methods and theories used in the study of
human geography. These methods of study are called paradigms. Paradigms are broadly
divided into two types namely traditional paradigms and the contemporary paradigms.
Traditional paradigms were dominant before the 1950s. They are divided into
explanatory, environmentalism and regionalism paradigms. On the other hand the
contemporary paradigms are those, which were greatly influenced by the quantitative
revolution. They are spatial analysis paradigms, subject humanistic paradigm,
structuralism and managerialism paradigms.

QUESTIONS
1. (a) What is a paradigm?
(b) Distinguish between traditional and contemporary paradigms with the aid of
examples and illustrations.
2. Evaluate the relevance of the behavioural approach the study of Human Geography
3. Spatial behaviour is a function of the mental image man links with his environment.
Elucidate.
4. (a) Examine one major system in Human Geography and diagrammatically show its
constituent elements.

26
 (b) What are the advantages of the use of the systems approach to the stud of Human
Geography?
5. (a) What is a region?
(b) Discuss fully the various types of regions.

Key concepts
A paradigm: It is a body of ideas or approach models uses to guide the development
of theory and explanatory research. Scholars often share such a body of ideas whose
research is committed to the same problem and standards.
Traditional paradigms: These were the paradigms, which were dominant before the
1950s. Basically these were descriptive and attempted to explain the uniqueness of
places. These paradigms are the explanatory paradigm, environmental paradigm and
regionalism paradigm.
Contemporary paradigm: These were the modern paradigms, which came into being
after the quantitative revolution of the 1950s. These are the modern paradigms, which
use scientific methods of data collection analysis and presentation. Of the contemporary
paradigms we have spatial analysis paradigm, subject humanistic paradigm,
structuralism paradigm, and the manegerialism paradigm.
A system is a set of elements with relationships among themselves. It is a set of inter-
related parts or a set of interacting functional relationships between various
components, which transport a set of inputs into a set of outputs.

Further Reading
Cox, K.R. (1972). Man, Location & Behaviour: An Introduction to Human
Geography. John Wiley and Sons, London.
Waliamsley and G.J. Lewis (1984). Human Geography: Longman Group Ltd.
London.
Whyne C.W. (1979). Elements of Human Geography: Frerenhem Press Ltd.

27
LESSON 6, 7 & 8: SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS

Introduction
In this lesson, we are going to look at spatial interaction spatial interaction involves the
movement of goods and services, people and ideas between places. Spatial involves the
movement of ideas from one place to another in such a way that they spread to the
entire space with a short period of time. Spatial interaction has two main characteristics
– reciprocity and continuity. Three ideas promote or inhibit spatial interaction i.e.
complementarity, transferability and intervening opportunity.

Objectives
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
(i) Define spatial interaction
(ii) Show what hinders or promotes spatial interaction.
(iii) Determine the elements of the diffusion process.

DEFINITION OF SPACE
Space refers to an area or room. It refers to the area extent of the earth surface. The
area could be on the ground or in a building such as a house or classroom. The concept
of area has two dimensions: - horizontal and vertical dimensions.
On the surface of the earth the vertical dimension embraces the atmosphere, which
extends into outer space. Horizontal dimension is the distance from one are to another
on the surface of the earth.

A large space refers to a large area or wide territory. This is the absolute definition of
space. Traditional geographers call this definition real space because it refers to
terrestrial space. Space is measured in terms of distance and location. It is thus an area
between two points or many points. The distance if expressed in units such as
kilometres or miles is called absolute distance or absolute space. In this context it is
appropriate to talk of national space or national territory.

28
The term spatial refers to anything that exists within space. Absolute space dominated
geographical studies up to 1950. However, after the 1950s, there was the quantitative
revolution in geography. The idea of absolute space began to lose respect among
geographers who were now more interested in relative space or relative distance.

Here is an example to help us understand the difference between relative and absolute
space. Suppose Abel wants to travel from Nairobi to Mombasa, the absolute distance is
about 400 km, and the time to travel is about 8 hours if he uses a bus. But should Abel
change his minds and go by Kenya Airways, he will take about 1 hour, but the cost is
much higher about Kshs.4, 000/= instead of bus fare of Kshs.600. If we consider
transportation space, the decision to travel will be influenced by absolute distance
(space) and relative distance that takes into account time and costs assuming that other
things are held constant.

In a business space, the absolute distance is not as important as the relative distance
(space), which can be measured in the context of profit margins as weighted against
time and marketing costs.

If a map is drawn to show the same travel time it is called an isochoric map, and the
lines drawn on it connecting all places of equal travel time from a specific spot of
reference are called isochrones. Lines drawn to show places with the same travel costs
are called isotims.

It is important to note that when dealing with terrestrial space, the geographer is
concerned with site, situation and location of terrestrial phenomena. This is because
spaces are defined by distance along a dimension. The number of dimensions we use
and the way we measure distance along them determine the nature of any space we
construct (Albert, et al, 1972). Space can be expanded and reduced with time.

It is worthy noting that absolute and relative distance between spatial phenomena
determines the nature and magnitude of interaction between the phenomenon. For

29
instance, individuals living in Nyeri, Murang’a and Machakos visit Nairobi more
frequently than those who are in Nyanza, Western and North Eastern Provinces.

It is worth to note that relative space appears to distort spatial relationship because we
consider absolute to be normal space and the relative space to be a distortion of reality.
When explaining human spatial behaviour, the concept of space should not be restricted
to terrestrial space, but should consider too the social space or social geographic space
which is measured in terms of social distance.

Spatial Interaction
Definition of Spatial Interaction
Spatial interaction is the movement of goods, services, people and ides collectively.
This involves movement such as the flow of raw materials to processing points,
consumers travelling to purchase the goods or get services and the distribution of
finished products from a manufacturing plant to the consumers and the trade in
agricultural communities.

BARRIERS OF INTERACTION IN TERRESTRIAL SPACE

The barriers of interaction in terrestrial space include:
- Rugged relief features
- Poor surface drainage
- Thick vegetation cover
- Desert conditions
- Sparse settlements
- Cultural barriers, language barriers, communication, etc.

In actual sense, this list is endless, but gives one a starting point for studying the nature
of barriers in one’s own physical environment setting. These barriers in absolute space
assist geographers in Regional geography to establish where and what is where.
Though locations of spatial phenomena may appear to be absolute or fixed, man’s

30
activities on the surface of the earth keep on changing the absolute space. “The world
is becoming a global village”.

The rate at which two places converge upon each other in time space is given by the
formula
TT 1 − TT 2
Y 2 − Y1
Where TT1 and TT2 = Travel Time between two places in year 1 and year 2
respectively.
Y1 and Y2 = two dates in question.
For example: London and Edinburgh. The time period under consideration is 1776 and
1966, a period of 190 years. During 1776 a steam coach took 5,760 minutes to travel
between the two cities. However, by 1966 an aeroplane took only 180 minutes to travel
between the two cities. Applying the above formula

TT 1 − TT 2 5760 − 180
=
Y 2 − Y1 190
5580 min s
=
190 years
= 29.4 minutes per year.

In a time-space context, the two cities have been drawing closer to each other at the rate
of 29.4 minutes per year between 1776 and 1966 (Alber et.al 1972).

Interaction between places can be relied on the context of geographic relationship or the
nature of interaction through trade, migration, message flow as given by postal services
such as letters, e-mails, telephone calls or messages. This means that once there is
trade, migration and message flow between two places, then spatial interaction is
boosted. For example, if we take Nairobi and Thika as two areas that are interacting,
then for the interaction to take place, there must be a flow of goods and services
between Nairobi and Thika. Nairobi will be receiving some goods and services from

31
Thika and similarly Thika will be receiving goods and services from Nairobi. At the
same time there must be good message flow between the two towns through postal
services, telephones and e-mail messages.

SOCIAL SPACE AND HOW CAN IT HELP OR HINDER DEVELOPMENT

The concept of social space is one that is extremely valuable in geographical studies. It
measures or explains interaction between social groups. Social spaces in which people
live are more and more psychological than absolute.

In order to explain how Europeans interact with Africans in Nairobi. First, there is the
absolute distance between the predominantly Asian residential areas of Parklands and
the predominantly African estates of or Eastlands. Second, there is the social distance
or how far apart the two racial groups think or perceive the social space barriers from
each other due to the social rift cause them.

These social cost barriers include: cultural norms, religious values, economic behaviour
and political ideology. Studies have been conducted to show the socio-economic
interaction in the city of Nairobi. It was found out that people interact at the ethnic
levels when they are earning low income. But as incomes increase and they rise to
high-income bracket, they interact based on their social economic status but not on their
ethnic backgrounds. In this context therefore it means that at a higher level of income
members of the Luo, Kikuyu and Luhyia communities will freely interact without any
problem. It is the totality of these features that constitute social space of a nation or a
group of people.

Social distance can be removed or changed by removing or changing social behaviour.

There are social barriers, which are significant such as beliefs, norms and ethnicity.
There is also segregation. In geographical analysis, social space can be examined at
both micro and macro levels. The macro level is the societal level and the micro level
is the personal level or space. Personal space is influenced by the individual belief,
behaviour, needs and educational attainment. Many things like political, economic,

32
cultural, sociological and psychological space influence human spatial behaviour
(Albert, 1972). Forces such as education, income, natural resources, and exposure can
change social costs to new ideas. In a nutshell we should note that man’s activities
should be examined in the context of both physical environment and social
environment.

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

The concept of physical environment refers to the sum effect (totality) of all conditions
and influences that affect human life. For example, the Earth’s atmosphere with all its
components gases like oxygen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and nitrogen constitute an
essential part of the physical environment. All these non-living elements of the
physical environment are called abiotic elements.

The physical environment also contains biotic or living elements that constitute the
biosphere such as vegetation, soil, animals and Homo sapiens. These phenomena form
chains of the environment. The physical environment can be categorised into two on
the basis of absolute and relative space.

First, it can be categorised into the operational environment (immediate space) where
we carry out daily activities. Second, it can also fall into the geographical environment
category, which is the rest of the terrestrial space, which we have very little knowledge
about. Small organisms such as bacteria or fungi, which may not be visible, sometimes
affect man’s environment by the naked eye. But man has been made aware of their
existence by use of microscope or through diseases that are caused by these living and
non-living organisms. These organisms or elements form the perception environment.
Such an environment contains living and non-living elements of the operational
environment.

ENVIRONMENTAL UTILITY
The physical environment means the physical features, which are surrounding man in
his environment. Elements of the physical environments include climate, slope, and

33
soil type among others. These elements determine patterns of spatial behaviour and
overall prospects of economic development. Properties of the physical environment do
significantly affect the spatial patterns of human activities.

In order to understand how the physical environment affects mankind, you should
consider:
(i) Decision making process
(ii) Opportunities created by using natural resources
(iii)Constraints created by the physical environment.

In his attempt to earn a living man is exposed to the risks of death through disease and
environmental hazards such as lighting, drought, famine, floods and earthquakes among
others. We should see how the elements of the physical environment influence human
decision-making processes by creating opportunities for resource utilization. Elements
of the physical environment that influence human decision making include:

(1) Climate
- Climate affects man’s use of the physical environment. This climate is
best perceived in terms of the world’s climatic regions. Further
reference should be made to the micro climatic regions as created by
mountains, valleys and plains. Climate has affected man through its
direct impact on his physiological adaptations. It has also affected man
indirectly through its impact on vegetation and animal communities on
which mankind depend for food, raw materials, security and
transportation.
- Climate affects crops that are grown in a place or region. Different
climatic belts of the worlds tropical, temperate and Polar Regions sustain
different type of crops that are best suitable to such environments. For
example maize does well in tropical climates, rice does well in monsoon
climates and wheat does well in temperate climates. These crops and
many others form staple food for different communities of the world.

34
 Actually, these crops and many others cash crops are grown for
industrial use to meet man’s demand for various products. Man’s
technical know how has enabled him to grow different crops under
different climatic conditions.
- Climate also affects shelter of a region. Climate has a significance
bearing on shelter found in a region. For example the Eskimos build
Igloos or doom shaped structures made with blocks of ice. It is also
noticeable that most communities in hot tropical regions use different
types of shelter that are best suited to such climatic conditions. For
instance they build grass thatched (houses) huts – a common
phenomenon in many African communities. Human shelter or houses
are built with available materials in the locality and are designed to meet
the shelter needs of that climate. .

(2) Slope
It is noted that temperature falls as altitude increases and this places an
upper limit in growing certain crops. Slope also influences land use
activities to be conducted in certain areas although modern technology has
made it possible for cultivation to be done even in very steep slope areas.
However, sloppy areas are affected by micro climatic conditions such as
frost and rain shadow. For example, sunny slopes of the Alpine Mountains
are ideal for cultivation whereas the shady slopes of the Alpine are always
heavily forested due to restricted human activity. It should also be noted
that large-scale farming is best done in lowland areas or on plains.

(3) Soil type

- The type of use is yet another important element of the physical
environment. The soil texture, depth and composition all play a role in
determining plant growth. This is because they determine the nutrients
for crop growth, the rate of soil erosion, and the ease at which such

35
 crops can be worked upon. Such factors determine the amount of
fertilizer needed to attain maximum crop production. Because of this
soil type factors, certain soils are suitable for certain crops. Red
volcanic soils are for example suitable for tea growing.

- Other than the physical elements that affect the utilization of resources
discussed above, there are also economic elements, which also play an
important role. However favourable the physical environment could be,
land may remain unused until human resources are applied. For
example, the farmer, like an entrepreneur is a risk taker and has to take
into account a number of economic elements.
- It is important to make some assumptions before examining how
economic forces influence land use activity. First, we assume that man
is an economic man with full knowledge of his environment. Secondly,
man aims at maximising profits. Thirdly, there is free marketing
situation in which the forces of demand and supply interact to allocate
resources. Fourthly, we assume that there is regional specialization
influenced by the concept of comparative advantage. Finally, we
assume that the gains gotten from the economies of scale and
comparative advantage are limited by the concept of diminishing
returns. In this context, diminishing returns give the limits of production
beyond which it is unprofitable to continue producing.
- For any activity of economic nature to be effective, and profitable, one
has to consider the following:
(i) Economic rent and distance
(ii) Distance and labour inputs
(iii)Other factors of production
- Decision making regarding the utilization of land resources is
determined by the following:

36
(1) The Economic rent:
This is the surplus return as a result of using a unit of land for producing a particular
commodity. It is determined by yields, market price and transport costs to the market.
Rent is also determined by fixed production costs per hectare (labour, seed, fertilizer,
mechanization). Other agricultural economists suggest that there is a relationship
between labour and distance. These two tend to influence the type of crop that can be
grown in an area. They argue that long distances may contribute to low yields. They
say that when labour is not mechanised between 10-25% of production time is used in
walking to the fields. At the same time during production, at the time of harvesting a
lot of time is wasted due to use of crude means of transportation.

(2) Behavioural elements

The pattern of farming in a region is a product of decisions made by several individual
farmers in the region who have taken into account the various physical and economic
elements. But it should be noted that farmers’ perception of and reaction to behavioural
elements would vary according to one’s farming experience and personality. Because
of this, many agricultural economists reject the concept of economic men in favour of a
new model called bounded rationality model. This model accepts the assumption that
man’s knowledge of his environment is imperfect and that man has many other goals
other than profit maximization. One major problem that affects farmers’ perception
towards agriculture is uncertainty of climatic elements or environmental hazards.
Cultural background of the farmers will influence his perception towards certain
agricultural activities. Such experiences are given more weight by historical
experiences such as frequency of floods. In a case like this many farmers will prefer
animal rearing to crop production like the Lake Region of Kenya where there are
frequent floods. In an effort to reduce effect of environmental uncertainty, most farmers
will engage different farming strategies like shifting cultivation, nomadic pastoralism,
mixed farming or inter-cropping. It is ascertained that man resorts to these farming
strategies because he is a mere satisfier rather than an optimiser. This means that man
is not struggling to maximise his profits, but he is always satisfied to achieve a
minimum level of returns from his production endeavours to sustain his spirit as a

37
satisfier. In order to achieve the most rewarding activity man has to try many activities
using different strategies in that region in order to realise the most appropriate activity
in that region.

DISTANCE AND DISTANCE DECAYING EFFECT

The earth’s surface is characterised by spatial contrasts and similarities. Physical and
human activities are unevenly distributed on a spatial-temporal context or over space
and time. The distance variable can be examined under cost-distance, time distance and
social distance. Many scholars studying human spatial movement have come to the
contention that human movement are not random. For example, if the number of trips
made by people in an area is plotted against the distance each has covered, the pattern
produced could be a downward sloping curve as shown below:-

20

15
No. of Trips

10

0 5 10 15 Distance in Kilometres
Fig. 1: Sloping curve showing the distance decay effect

The downward sloping line describes a consistent distance – decay effects. The graph
demonstrates that in daily life majority of people move for short distances. In other
words, more trips are made over short journeys.

38
It can be concluded that absolute distance acts as a barrier to man’s desire to move.
This effect of absolute distance is called friction of distance.

People commute to their places of work on a daily basis and they are called commuters.
Those who travel to far places from their homes are called migrants and the process is
migration.

Long distances can be a barrier especially if they increase costs and time taken and
general insecurity.

Decision-making regarding spatial mobility sometimes are not based on objective

assessment of distance, but on the subjective images formed about distance. The
physical barriers, cultural barriers, demographic characteristics and socio-economic
characteristics could create these images.

Actually, these barriers may give a false impression about the actual distance of a place.
Distance as a variable is very important in influencing location of spatial activities, the
diffusion of spatial phenomenon and evolution of spatial patterns

Spatial diffusion
Spatial diffusion is the movement of ideas (waves) innovations etc, from one area to
another such that it spreads over the entire space. Waves sweep around the world in
record time. For example, female fashion dresses originate in certain areas and within a
short period of time one finds that they have spread to almost all parts of the world and
eventually become fashion history. We have to bear in mind that for the diffusion
process to take place, there must be a carrier of the item to be spread. The item can be
information, disease, money or a good. Actually in the present society people use mass
media to accelerate the process of diffusing information like use of e-mails and mobile
phone enhances diffusion of information.

39
The second condition for the diffusion process to take place is the fact that there must
be a barrier or filters. For example in the fight against HIV/AIDS, the Government of
Kenya in collaboration with other stakeholders is promoting the use of condoms but
there are some barriers, which probably may hinder the acceptance of condom use. But
after sometime people will get to know the truth that condoms are a really good
measure to fight the AIDS pandemic.

ELEMENTS OF THE DIFFUSION PROCESS

Much of the geographer’s studies in diffusion stems from the work of a Swedish
geographer Torsten Hangerstrand and his colleagues at the University of Lund in 1953.
According to Torstern et al (1953), there are six essentials in the diffusion model as
shown below:

(1) Area or environment in which the process occurs (uniform or different directed).
(2) Time- whether the process is differentiated or it is continuous.
(3) The item being diffused such as material e.g. T.V., women fashion dress, e.t.c. or
non-material phenomena like behaviour, message or disease. They vary in the
degree of communicability or acceptability (e.g. measles, family planning).
(4) Origin- where the idea or item originated from will have an impact on the rate of
spread of the idea or item.
(5) Place of destination
(6) Paths of movement

There are several types of diffusion processes namely; expansion diffusion, relocation
diffusion, contagious diffusion and hierarchical diffusion.

(1) Expansion diffusion

This is the process through which information, material, spread through a population
from one region to another. For example diffusion of new maize seeds from one
agricultural region to another.

40
 INITIAL STAGE

LATER STAGE
(Source: Alber, 1971)
Fig. 2: Diffusion Process

Another example is a case where a few women in a certain city accept a particular
dress design when it is first known and therefore this information is passed onto their
friends who accept the new fashion and they also spread it further to their friends.
This expansionary diffusion can be illustrated by figure above.

(2)Relocation diffusion
In this case the individuals who are to pass the information must move to the new
locations in order to pass the information to the new people. For example the
movement of the blacks to the Northern cities of the United States of America from the
rural south. Also a wave of an epidemic may pass from one population to the next

41
 Fig. 3: Relocation Diffusion Model
TOWN B
TOWN A
TOWN C

SOURCE: Alber, 1971) TOWN D

CONTAGIOUS DIFFUSION
This is a diffusion process, which occurs due to contact. For example, the spreads of
HIV/AIDS are a contagious diffusion process. There must be sexual contact for
HIV/AIDS to be spread out. Its classical use is to trace how contagious diseases like
measles pass through a population by direct person-to-person contact.

HIERARCHIAL DIFFUSION (CASCADE DIFFUSION)

This is a form of diffusion process whereby the spread starts from the top and then it
moves downwards to lower levels. For example, the mobile phones (cell phones)
started to be used in Kenya in Nairobi the capital city. Later the use was spread to the
other key urban centres like Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret, Thika and Kisumu. From
these urban centres, then the use trickled down to the rural markets in Kenya. This is
an example of a hierarchal process. This diffusion assumes that information is always
downward flowing from larger centres to smaller ones. The figure below shows the
hierarchical diffusion process.

42
 Fig 4. : Hierarchical Diffusion Process

HIGH LEVEL

MIDDLE
LEVEL

LOW LEVEL

CONSTRAINTS IN THE DIFFUSION PROCESS

Any diffusion process must have barriers or constraints. The diffusion process can be
accelerated or decelerated. The most common obstacle to the diffusion process are:
(1) Absorption barriers
(2) Reflecting barriers
(3) Psychological barriers
(4) Distance barriers

ABSORPTION BARRIERS
This is what stops the diffusion from spreading further. This is a phenomenon which
prevents movement especially in primitive societies where the levels of technology is
poor.

43
REFLECTING BARRIERS
For instance, sea consists are reflecting barriers for communication generated by people
who live on the land-water boundary

PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS
This is a very powerful barrier to communication. For instance religious and political
barriers may slow down or stop the diffusion of innovation. For instance the Roman
Catholic Church has a strong belief that it is unchristian to use the condom and
therefore this is psychological barrier to Christians of this denomination as far as
condoms diffusion is concerned.

DISTANCE BARRIER
Distance should be perceived in terms of absolute and relative distance. The barriers to
the spread of innovation could be due to actual distance or the presence of physical
barriers such as mountains, swamps and forests. On the other hand relative distance
barriers could be in terms of cultural barriers like marriage restrictions, language
barriers and political barriers among others.

FACTORS INFLUENCING SPATIAL INTERACTION

A spatial process is a movement of locational strategy. In this context we are interested
in movements such as flows of raw materials to processing points, consumer travel to
purchase goods or get services, the distribution of finished products from a
manufacturing plant and trade in agricultural commodities. Locational strategies may
involve the best locations from manufacturing plants or the optimal arrangements of
retail outlets or growing optimum crops in a specific area.
The natural environment generally only distorts the ideal patterns, which the abstract
qualities of space alone would produce. Spatial interaction has two main characteristics
– reciprocity and continuity. Flows of goods, people and information are collectively
known as spatial interaction. Three conditions inhibit or promote spatial interaction:
complementarity, transferability and intervening opportunity.

44
Complementarity
Complementarity is a state that exists if the varying advantage of two or more locations
or areas permits a mutually beneficial linkage, usually by trade. Complementarity is
the first requirement for spatial interaction.

For movement to occur between two places there must be a supply of some item in one
place and demand for it in another, and the demand and supply must be specifically
complementary. For example, petroleum is moved for long distances from the oil fields
in the Middle East to the industrialized nations of North America, Europe and Japan.
Since supply and demand complement each other, the condition of complementarity
exist thus movement is justified.

Transferability
Secondly, the condition of transferability must be met. Transferability is the degree to
which a good or service may be transferred or transported. We have to note that all
movements incur costs and costs increases with distance. One requirement is that the
value of movement or flow must outweigh the cost of movement. An item must be
transferable at acceptable cost from a supply area to a demand area. That is from the
area the item is produced to the area the item is consumed. We can illustrate the
condition of transferability by use of an example. Electricity is produced form point A
to point B and C. When we work out the costs of transmitting electricity from A to B
we find that it is more or equal to the benefit so derived and therefore it will not be
possible to transfer electricity from point A to point B. But in the case of point C, the
costs of transmission is less than the benefits so derived and therefore the condition of
transferability is met and electricity can therefore be effectively be transmitted between
point A and C.

Intervening opportunity
Thirdly, there is the condition of the presence of intervening opportunity. The presence
of intervening opportunities may be defined as the presence of greater or better
opportunities, which greatly diminish the attractiveness of even slightly further ones.

45
Intervening opportunity is a negative concept and emphasized the importance of
relative location. It refers to the creation of a more attractive opportunity to the
previous one. This is a concept of production costs and the time taken to produce or
transport the good or services from the source area to the market. For example, if in a
certain area a shopping centre is located at area A, the citizens from point B and C are
getting the supply of goods from point A. But another shopping centre is placed at
point B, and then the consumers of B and C will be advised to get their goods from B,
which is closer. Therefore, shopping centre at B is an intervening variable because it
will make the consumers to be moving away from shopping centre A because it is far
and more expensive to move. So this new shopping centre is the intervening
opportunity.

SUMMARY
This lesson looks at spatial interaction. Human and physical factors determine spatial
interaction. The items involved is spatial interaction could be goods or services or even
information. Distance plays an important role in the spatial interaction process. Spatial
diffusion is the movement of ideas (waves) from one place to another such that it
spreads over the entire space. Diffusion has several types – expansion diffusion,
relocation diffusion, contagious diffusion and hierarchical diffusion. There are
constraints that do exist in the diffusion process. The natural environment generally
distorts ideal patterns, which the abstract qualities of space alone would produce.
Spatial interaction has two main characteristics – reciprocity and continuity.
Three conditions inhibit or promote spatial interaction. These are complementary,
transferability and intervening opportunity.

Activity

Write an essay on the human activity of your home

environment. Assess the interaction of people from your
community with those of the neighbouring communities.

46
QUESTIONS
Q1. (a) What is geographical space?
(b) Distinguish between relative and absolute space with the aid of examples.
Q2. What do you understand by the term spatial interaction?
Using appropriate examples, discuss the various attributes that promote or
inhibit spatial interaction.
Q3. (a) What is social distance?
(b) How does it enhance or hinder development?
Q4. (a) What is spatial diffusion?
(b) Discuss the various forms of spatial diffusion

REFERENCES
Abler R, Adams J.S. and Gould P. (1971): Spatial Organization: The Geographer’s
View of the World. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Pretice-Hall Editions
Tidswell, V. (1976): Patterns and Process in Human Geography. London University
Press.

47
9.0 LESSONS 9, 10 & 11: SPATIAL PROCESSES AND SPATIAL PATTERNS

Introduction
We know that before human behavior is translated into action, all goals must be
weighted against the available information. The demand and supply for goods and
services is what necessitates involvement, which creates a need for spatial structures
like road network systems and landing bays. In these lecture we shall look of the origin
and forms of spatial processes.

OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
(1) Explain the origin of spatial processes
(2) Describe the different types of spatial processes.

WHAT IS A SPATIAL PROCESS?

A spatial process is a mechanism that produces spatial structures of distribution. For
spatial processes to take place there is need for infrastructure like roads, footpaths and
other items that enhance flow of information thus enabling spatial processes to take
place like telephones, letters, etc. The pushing and pulling conditions in the
environment determine the frequency and intensity of spatial processes that involve the
movement of goods and people.

SPATIAL PROCESS THEORIES

The following are theories of spatial processes and structure:
• Gravity model
• Central place theory and urban rank size rule
• Agrarian land use model
• Weberian Triangular costs model

48
THE GRAVIRTY MODEL
This model owes its origin to the work of Isaac Newton who stated that every partial of
matter attracts every other particle of matter with a force proportional to the mass of
each and to the inverse square of the distance between these two particles. Geographies
use the gravity model to calculate the interaction between two points A and B

Applications
In geographical studies, this principle has been utilized in various aspects of spatial
activity. The gravity model has been used to delimit market area (as in the case of the
population movement. It is also used in the study of shopping patterns, the delimitation
of urban fields or even the measurement of political influences.

The application of this model to traffic flow has shown that interaction has a regularity
which can be analysed. It is noted that complementary are linked by flows which reflect
relative surpluses and deficits of the regions. The greater the surpluses and deficits the
greater will be the flow between them. The chance of occurrence of intervening
opportunity increases, as the distance becomes greater leading to a decline in the
number and extent of flows. Transferability will decrease with economic distance, so
that beyond a certain points good will not be bought or sold.

As such interaction is determined by the relative importance of the regions involved –

the distance separating them. The greater the importance and the shorter the distance,
the greater will be the interaction. Taking this further to the application of Newton Law,
it should be possible to actually predict flows by multiplying the mass of two regions
and dividing the result by the distance between them. However, this as a matter of fact
is not easy. For instance, how does one measure distance and mass in economic terms.

In real situation of the application of the model, population density is used as a measure
of mass, but this could mean that nations with equal number of people will have similar
flow characteristics, which is not the case, purchasing ability could even be a more
accurate measure of mass, but it also does not take into account such factors as culture,

49
education, human desires and standards of livings, all of which may affect the nature of
interaction.

Distance is of course measured in Kilometres, but economic distance is of greater

significance in geographical studies regarding interaction. This economic distance is
difficult to measure. However attempts have been made and a set of relationship
between distance delay effects on movement principles, the amount of interaction
between two places decreases as the distance between them increases. This law may
seem obvious but is importance lies in its application to flow studies.

Fig. 5 Distance Decay Curve

According to the figure above, as distance between two points increases from D1 to
D2, the level of interaction decreases from IH to IL. It should be noted however that
the rate of decline in interaction differs with commodities, so that for each flow a
different graph must be drawn.

50
 In conclusion we can say that the gravity model despite the problems of measure in
that use, provide a simplified explanation of interaction flows as such form the
foundation of more advanced studies of spatial activity.

THE CENTRAL PLACE THEORY

Definition of the Central Place Theory
Walter Christaller put the Central Place theory forward in 1933. He was concerned with
the size, number a distribution of central places. These central places were conceived as
places, which provide services such as retail shopping facilities and banks. A large
central place is one that has many service outlets and performs a wide range of
functions. The purpose of this theory is to minimise the travel costs of the population
in gaining access to the services they require.

Walter Christaller put this theory forward in 1933. According to Christaller, there is an
isotropic landscape i.e. land having uniform physical characteristics then all resources,
population and settlement would be evenly distributed in order to exploit and make use
of the resources by those living in the central place in relation to people living in the
surrounding areas. These central places are linked by flows of money and goods, which
is as a result of the demand, and supply of goods and services and money to the central
place. These influence the location and growth of the central place.

According to this theory, it is the demand and supply of goods and services that
influence the growth of the central places. For instance a consumer from the area
surrounding the central place must travel to the central place to buy goods or render
services. By moving, money and energy are spent in order to overcome the friction of
distance. As the distance from the central place increases, these will reach a point
where it will be worthless to travel to the central place to buy goods or offer services
since the costs of travelling will outweigh the benefits that an individual gets due to the
movement. For example, if the cost of the desired goods and services are added to the
travelling costs, then the cost of travelling to the central place becomes prohibitive.

51
 The consequences of this are to reduce the demand for goods and services to zero. This
distance is called range of a good or service. Different goods and services have
different ranges. For example people travel short distance so frequently to buy everyday
consumable like milk, bread, soda, meat and vegetable, but people also travel long
distance though infrequently to buy items like cars, bicycles or Televisions.

Fig 6: Showing the threshold of the central place

Threshold : within this

area these are adequate of
consumers to sustain the
central place.

Central Place
Beyond this point it isn’t
worth to travel to the central
place due to costs and
availability of alternatives

Discussion of the Figure

According to figure 6, each good or service has its own threshold of demand or size of
market within the area covered by the threshold, thee are adequate numbers of

52
consumers to sustain the central place. As we move far from central place, it becomes
expensive for the consumers to travel to the central place and at the same time there
could be availability of alternatives. It is important to note that any good or services
have its own threshold of demand or size of market. Such an area contains a minimum
number of consumers required to support the central place

Christaller also assumed hexagonal market areas, these being the most efficient way of
covering a plain with no overlaps and no gaps as shown in figure 7 below.

Fig 7: Development of hexagonal market areas

The Christaller’s theory states that settlements serve as Central places for goods and
services. The larger the settlement, the more goods and services the central place will
provide. Thus larger towns like Nairobi will be high order centers and act as central
places for larger market areas and villages may be low order centers and act as central
places for small market areas. For instance, Shadrack’s wife is likely to use her local
village shop to buy bread, but would need to travel to the nearest town for clothes or
household goods. But for very specified goods and services such as TV or Hospital
treatment she may have to travel to the nearest city. In this context therefore the village
grocery store would serve as a small area of surrounding farmlands, the town would
serve as a larger area, and attract customers from far areas and people in the whole
region may use the city.

53
The product of this would be a hierarchy of settlement and a mesh of hexagonal market
area as shown in figure 8.

Fig 8: A hierarchy of settlements and market areas

Source: After Christaller

All settlement of equal size would have the same functions and would serve hinterlands
of the same size and therefore would be equally spaced.

According to this theory, population growth leads to an increase in the number of

central places. As population grows, many small market areas are developed and begin
to touch each other. Actually the non-market areas are so small. Due to the population
growth, central places so developed start becoming closer to each other thus causing
that market areas to overlap and therefore hexagons are produced.

K = 3 is the final network of the central places. The number of

communities of low order places or higher order places determines
the K value.

In a nutshell we should note that the whole system of the central place forms a
hierarchy because low order centres provide low order goods and high order centres
provide high order goods. Second, we should also note that the population of the
consumer communities served increase with the increasing order of the centres.

54
Advantages of the central place theory
Despite of all the drawbacks mentioned above, it would be wrong to discontent the
central place theory altogether. Christaller himself noticed a regularity of settlement
spacing in his own part of Southern Germany and later geographers have successfully
applied his principles to the regions of flat relief like the American Mid-West, the
Argentina pampers, the Chinese lowlands and in England’s East Anglia.

This theory provides idealized patterns from which deviations in the real world can be
measured. Christaller’s theory is suited and therefore it is more relevant to the
settlement patterns in rural areas and those in developing countries where towns have
relatively few functions.

Disadvantages of the Central place theory

It only describes the equilibrium spatial patterns and tendencies. It is not a dynamic
theory explaining the actual processes by which centres are created at certain locations
and the changes that they undergo in those places. These settlement patterns are said to
be unrealistic. Homogeneous regions don’t exist and at the same time market areas are
never hexagonal. Producers may not always aim at profit maximization and customers
may not shop at the same store. Towns of the same size hardly share the same
functions.

INDUSTRIAL LOCATION
Industries are located wherever they are located due a number of aspects of physical
geography, economics, human and social considerations and politics. It will be
dangerous for us to generalize the importance of any one of these factors. These factors
it would be noted that they are not isolated but in complex inter-relationships and may
change from time to time and from place to place as well as from industry to industry.
It should be noted generally that even if environmental factors determine the overall
regional pattern of industrialization, economic factors are most likely to direct
industries to particular sites.

55
In taking a decision upon final location, the entrepreneur must weigh up the relative
merits of all the potential locations and then select that site which best fits the needs of
the firm.

Man will not necessarily choose the location with the most advantages. But usually
sites that possess advantages and disadvantages and the manufacturer’s firm is likely to
be located in a site where the favourable factors out-weigh the unfavourable ones. It
should be remembered that the best location for one firm might not necessarily be the
best location for another. That means that another may view the advantages as
perceived by one industry as a disadvantage. The perception varies from individual to
individual. In fact, even industries, which seem to be having similar economic
structures and requirements, are frequently found in different locations.

FACTORS AFFECTING LOCATION OF INDUSTRIES

Below are factors, which affect the location of industries:
(i) Physical Geography
The importance of relief and climate is often overlooked in the study of industrial
location. The truth is that the physical factors exert an over-riding influence on the
patterns of industrialization. People tend to work in areas where conditions are
attractive. For instance, industrial regions are usually associated with areas of lower
relief and moderate climates, even within relatively small areas.

(ii) Land
Land, although physical is considered separately in the economic sense since it
contains wealth in the form of raw materials and potential power supplies.
Industries that lose bulk or weights in the manufacturing process, or which use
highly perishable primary products tend to be located near the source of their raw
materials because it is unworthy to transport waste or materials which may become
unusable. Industries in this category include copper smelting, the iron steel industry,
cement making and most types of energy sources are either immovable or may be
transported at immense costs. Examples of this category are things like heavy or

56
 bulky fuels. Therefore industries based on coal or oil tends to be tied to particular
locations. Coal industries are tied to the coalfields and oil industries if oil is
imported tend to be confined to the coastal regions. The same is true where large
quantities of energy are required.

It should be noted that at the moment the importance of both power and raw
materials has declined due to improved transport and technology. This has
generated sophistication and complexity in modern industrial location. There has
also been a relative increase in the importance of other locational factors.

Water supply may also be treated as part of land. Industries that require a lot of
water in their production process like steel making or for processing (e.g. brewing)
will be located at rivers or wells if fresh water is required or at the coast if salt
waste is needed.

There are also other specific land requirements demanded by all firms, such as
sufficient space and a flat surface, both of which reduce the building costs. At the
same time some firms need land where waste disposal is both easy and cheap.

(iii) Capital
This includes both fixed capital such as buildings and machinery and financial
capital (money). The cost of acquiring fixed capital varies from place to place and
areas where costs are low will have a greater pull than those areas where costs are
high. This is significant in the location of small or new firms, which often find
existing buildings attractive since converting, and using them will save time and
money. For example wartime ammunition factory or even old railway stations or
post offices may now be used commonly for small-scale electrical engineering and
textile manufacture. At the same time the availability and cost of capital exerts a
pull and this could explain why centers of finance like Nairobi and Mombasa have
also become industrial centers in Kenya.

57
(iv) Labour
The cost and availability of labour together with its quality and quantity vary
specially. Areas with specialist or skilled labour will tend to attract specialist
industries, whereas areas with vast quantities of unskilled labour and possibly cheap
labour will attract large-scale labour intensive firms. Other things that should be
considered are the stability and the efficiency of labour, absenteeism and labour
relations.

However, the importance of the labour factors is governed by its occupational and
geographical mobility that is can this labour move from place to place or can it
move between jobs.

(v) Management
This is used to be taken as part of labour but at the moment management and
entrepreneurial enterprise is discussed on its own. The success of any industry is
dependent upon the ability of its management. Areas with people having great
management skills will have correspondingly stronger industrial pull.

(vi) Bring
Transport facilities are essential to all firms. Therefore areas with efficient transport
routes will attract more industries than those lacking such facilities. This is why
industrial firms are located along roads or canals cannels and along harbours and
railway stations. It would be noted that firms’ aim at reducing economic distances
i.e., their aim is to reduce transport cost.

(vii) Markets
A firm’s market can either be the general public or another firm. The importance of
market as a locational factor is growing with improvement in technology. Usually
markets are found in towns were there is population (labour) and capital are
available thus making market to appear a very important locational factor.

58
(viii) Human and Chance factor
Occasionally industries and firms have been located in areas for no apparent
physical or economic reason. These may be regarded as chance locations. For
example a firm could have been started in a certain area because the entrepreneur
prefers that place for personal seasons. These could also be a case whose a firm was
located in a place just by accident.

(ix) Politics
Physical, economic and personal factors combine together to localise industries
anywhere. But this isn’t always the case in reality because industrial location is a
result of government intervention. For instance a number of countries today have
policies starting where industries are supposed to be located. Even on small scale
local authorities may influence location.

THEORIES OF INDUSTRIAL LOCATION

Theories have been formulated to explain real world locations. The central aim of such
theories is to find the optimal location – the economically best location. Most
economists agree that the best locations are those that give maximum profits. Highest
profits are obtained when costs are at their lowest and revenues at their highest. Yet
hardly are these situations found at the same time or place. Locational theories are
divided into two groups :- those which consider least cost locations and those which
consider maximum revenue locations.

THE WEBER THEORY

Alfred Weber in his book, Theory of the location of industries, published in 1909 by the
University of Chicago Press, proposed the most important theory based on the least
cost. This is based on the transport costs as opposed to the processing costs. This theory
starts by making the following assumptions in that some raw materials are fixed in
locations whereas other such as water are ubiquitous (found everywhere). It also
assumes that markets are fixed at certain points and that transport costs are determined
by weight of product and distance. It also assumes that there exists perfect competition

59
and that man acts rationally. Fundamentally, Weber imagined that least costs obtain
highest profits. To find the least transport cost location, Weber used a simplified
locational triangles assuming two points where raw materials are found and a single
market (figure 8).

Fig 8. (a): Location of firm at an equidistant position to the market and source of
raw materials

R1 R2

In figure (a), it is assumed that transports are equal for the finished goods and for both
raw materials R1 and R2. That means that the firm pays same for brining the raw
materials into the plant as it does for taking the raw materials to the market. Point
where the firm’s location is ideal is point P, which is at a strategic position of getting
raw materials from point R1 and R2 and after processing takes the finished product to
the market at M.

60
 M
Figure (b): Weight Loosing Industry

R1 R2

Figure (c) : Weight Gaining Industry

M

R1 R2

A plant could be built is therefore located at the centre, so that the total distance to be
covered by transport is at minimum. In figure (b) there is an illustration of a weight-
losing industry in which the total weight of raw materials is higher than that of the

61
finished product. Here the transport cost of the raw materials is gone higher than for the
finished goods because the raw materials contain a lot of waste. In this case, point P is
located nearer to the raw materials. Figure (c) illustrates a weight gaining industry
where the total weight of raw materials is lower than that of the finished goods. Here
the transport costs for the raw materials are much lower than for the finished goods
because they weigh less or are less fragile than the finished goods. Point P in this case
is located nearer the market.

In order to determine whether industries are market oriented or raw material oriented,
Weber devised a simple material index formula:

Material index = Weight of raw materials

Weight of finished goods

For example if it takes 800,000kgs of raw material to make 400,000kgs of finished

goods, than the index would be:
Weight of raw material
Index =
Weight of finished goods
= 800,000
= 2
400,000

According to this, an index of more than 1.0 would be raw material oriented e.g. sugar
processing and steel industry. Conversely an index of less than 1.0 would be indicated
as market oriented industry such as baking.

62
Fig 9. Consequence of Labour and Transport Costs on Location

L2

M
L2
P
Shs. 1,000

Shs. 2,000
R2
R1

Shs. 3,000

Shs. 4,000

This diagram shows isodapares, which are lines drawn showing equal total transport
costs. Two points L1 L2 offer cheap labour that will reduce total costs by Kshs.3, 000
per unit. Location of the factory at L1 is likely since it is within the Shs.3, 000
isodapane – more is saved by that more than is lost. Location at L2 is unlikely to take
place.

Strengths and weaknesses of the Weber Theory

The basic weaknesses of this theory are the fact that it over-emphasizes on transport
costs. Weber realised this weaknesses and made possible modifications in his locational
triangles. One possible case of modification is differing labour costs. For example, a
pool of cheap labour may act as a locational pull factor. In other words, under these
circumstances of cheap labour, firms will be tempted to locate their factories away form

63
the point of least transport costs towards the point of least labour costs as long as such
movement resulted from a fall in total cost. This would for example be a case for firms
employing great quantities of labour. A similar modification may be caused by the
existence of industrial agglomeration, which also acts as a magnet to industry and
firms.

Weber’s theory is criticised of being too much of an abstract. It emphasizes on the

supply side, analysing the effects of different costs while holding demand constant at a
point, thus preventing demand from playing any role in plant location. It is also argued
that the pre-conditions of this theory are unrealistic. Transport costs do not rise
commensurately with weight and distance, perfect condition rarely exists and man does
not always act rationally.

Some theorists have criticized Weber for being too concerned with costs and that the
demand comes from a single point. For this reason further locational models have been
based on maximum profit approach. The most important of this was the work of Lösch,
first proposed in 1940.

THE LöSCH THEORY OF OPTIMAL LOCATION

This theory is closely related to the central place theory put forward by Christaller. The
Lösch theory was published by Yale University in a book entitled ‘Economies of
Location’ in 1954. The theory is unlike the work of Weber based on demand and
purposes that the optimal location of a firm or industry is that which commands the
largest market and area and therefore produces the largest revenue. Lösch assumed that
there is a flat, uniform land surfaces constant supply, and demand spreads out evenly
throughout a region. Given these assumptions Lösch set out to explain the shape and
size of market areas. To explain this he imagined that the delivery price of all products
is determined solely by transport costs. This is because as the distance from a factory
increases since the industrialist must cover the extra cost of transport involved. Since
price tends to increase with distance, demand tends to fall. At a certain point therefore

64
demand for a particular product will disappear entirely. This being so in all directions
around a factory, the market area will be circled.

Fig. 10: Theoretical Shape of the Market Area

Each factory will look for a location where it can command the largest possible market
area. The entrepreneur could not wish his market area to overlap another factory
making similar goods since this would reduce his revenue. The result would be a region
where factories are spaced evenly with their market areas adjacent to each other, each
being hexagonal in shape.

On a much larger scale, these factors will be viewed as industrial estates or industrial
towns each with its own hexagonal hinterland. Of course, every product will have it’s
own demand and therefore will have different sized market areas.

65
LOCATIONAL THEORIES AND THE REAL WORLD
It should be noted that the locational theories so far discussed like those of Weber and
Lösch made the following assumptions.
1) The decisions were taken by an economic man
2) The decisions so taken were totally rational
3) There was possession of perfect knowledge
4) Seeks the location that yields maximum profit.

The truth is that such conditions don’t exist in the real world. These theories were not
used to describe what happens in reality, but to help our understanding of what happens
in the real world. In the real world, man takes decisions with limited ability and with no
perfect knowledge and therefore man’s locational decisions must reflect those
constraints. At present there are two main approaches, which explain how the real
world location decisions are made.

The first approach emphasizes that man is an optimiser, which means that he makes his
decisions within the constraints of lack of perfect information, uncertainty and limited
ability. Let us look at the figure 11 below showing a pre-behavioural matrix-ability to
use information properly.
Fig 11: Pre-behavioural matrix-ability3to use information properly.
4
8

1
2 5

Spatial margins of
profitability
behaviour

7 6

66
Industrialist 1, has made the right decision by using good information wisely.
Industrialists 2,5,6, and 7 are in a similar location purely by chance since they have
poor information and little ability to use it. Industrialist 3, 4 and 8 are less lucky since
they have poor information and used the poor information to make wrong locations.
These industrialists make no profits and therefore soon go out of business.

From the above discussion, it is clear in the real world, man is not an optimiser. In this
context therefore, man a satisfier makes sub-optimal locations of his industries. Man is
a satisfier rather than an economic man. He is not an optimiser. This theory which calls
men on sub-optimiser is supported because it is very difficult to say in monetary terms
what the maximum profits from any location will be same years to come. In fact, most
firms will be satisfied with profits higher than those of their competitors. In this
context, profitability is seen as a relative rather than the absolute that is central in the
location theories.

The second approach is that most men don’t consider profit maximization as their
principal aim in life. Their actual choice of location within these margins would depend
on many considerations e.g. preferences for certain locations, especially those that they
found congenial. Most people in the real world work for reward in addition to monetary
gains. These rewards include things like pleasant living and working conditions. These
conditions can be quantified as psychic income, and used s non-costs when discussing
locational theory.
Politics and government intervention can also lead to sub-optimal locations for social,
political or strategic reasons.

(C) THE LAND USE MODEL

According to this model, urban settlements are very important aspects of spatial
patterns. These spatial patterns can be examined as agricultural land use patterns and as
urban land use patterns. The urban centres spatial patterns can be listed as:-
- Burgess – concentric rings theory
- Hoyt, sector theory

67
 - Mann – model of a British city
- Ullman’s and Harris – multiple Nuclei theory
All these models are discussed below:-

The concentric zone of model of Burgess:-

This is a good starting point for studying the land use in small urban centres. These are
concentric zones arranged in a logical (manner) order from the city centre called the
central Business District (CBD).

KEY:
1. Central Business District
1 2. Commercial/Wholesale/Light
2 3 Manufacturing
4
5 3. Low Class Residential
6
4. Middle Class Residential
5. High class Area
Fig. Concentric Zones
6. Manufacturing Industrial

Fig 12. Concentric Zones

According to Figure 12, 1 is the central Business District (CBD), 2 is the transitional
zone which contains many of the small original industries of the town with the older

68
houses. This zone is sometimes called the “twilight zone”. It is characterised by a
mixture of land use activities – industries, commerce, business and high-density
residential areas of low income groups. Newly arriving migrants also occupy this zone.

Zones 3, 4 and 5 are mostly residential areas. The quality of residential areas increases
as one moves away from the Central Business District. For instance zone 4 contains
better dwellings of the middle class elites and professionals.

This model was based on the Chicago city settlement patterns in the USA. It provides
us with an initial framework for comparing land use patterns of cities.

However, the Burgess model has been criticized in a number of ways. First it should be
pointed out that this model was based on a culture which was different from other
cultures like those of most African countries and centres of Asia. Secondly, time has
proved it’s patterns wrong. For example, in Europe before the industrial revolution the
elites used to live in houses next to the CBD, but these days the elite prefer to live in
sub-urban areas far away from the CBD.

THE HOYT SECTOR MODEL

Homer Hoyt developed the model in 1939 – using data collected from many cities in
the USA, focusing his interest on residential structure. His model showed that railway
routes and other communication networks influence residential structure along them.
The same communication networks attract industrial locations as well. These residential
patterns radiate from the CBD. For this reason the push and pull forces play a
significant role in the land-use structure. The push and pull forces are called the
centripetal and centrifugal forces respectively.

Hoyt sector model is illustrated in figure below:

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 Fig 13. Sectoral Model

3
1
3

4 5
3

Hoyt’s model shows directional element in city expansion as well as the push and pull
forces in a city’s growth. For instance building neat residential buildings at the
periphery of a city may draw people from older estates.

This model in different from the Burgess model in that it suggests inversion process
which vary from sector to sector.

This was based on the structure of the hypothetical British City. It used patterns form
Sheffield, Nottingham and Huddersfield. This model was the work of Petterman in
1965. This model combines the zooming area idea with the sectors idea and takes the
two to be complimentary to each other in designing urban land use. The model also
looks at the influence of environmental factors such as common direction of wind flow
in industrial location and how it affects residential locations.

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 Fig 14.

8B 8C

3B 3C

A . Middle Class

B. Low Middle
9
C. Working Class 9
9 9

2A
2B 2C
2C Fig. British City
3B 3C

8B 8C

10

1. Central Business 5. High class 9. Industrial

District residential suburb
2. Wholesale/light 6. Heavy 10. Commuter zone
manufacturing manufacturing 11. Transitional
3. Low class 7. Outlying zone
residential business district 12. Terrace houses
4. Medium class 8. Residential 13. Bye-law houses
residential suburb

(D) ULLMAN AND HARRIS MULTIPLE NUCLEI MODEL

Ullman and Harris put this model of urban growth forward. It states that cities don’t
grow from one central nucleus but rather from an integration of several central points
such as air ports, industrial trading centres, railway station or even bus station.

Summary
These lesson look at the spatial processes and spatial patterns. They review the origin of
spatial processes and describe the different types of spatial patterns. A spatial process is
mechanism that produces spatial structures of distribution. A number of theories of

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spatial process exist like the gravity model, the central place theory and the urban
ranking size relationship model, the agrarian land use model and the Weberian
triangular costs model. All these theories have attempted to explain spatial processes
and the spatial patterns so created.

Review Questions
1. Discuss fully the Losch’s theory of optimal location.
2. (a) What is Weber’s theory of industrial location?
(b) How could this theory be used to explain the location of industries in
Kenya?
(c) What are the weaknesses of this theory?
3. (a) What is the original of a spatial process?
(b) Describe different types of spatial process.
4. (a) What is the gravity model?
(c) How has this model been used in various activities of spatial activity.

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12.0 LESSON 12: THE CLASSICAL LOCATIONAL THEORIES: THE VON
THÜNEN MODEL OF AGRICULTURAL LAND USE

Introduction
This lesson is going to look at the Von Thünen’s theory of agricultural land use.
According to this model, distance and relative location are important determinants of
land at both local level and in the world. Basing his argument or his experience as an
agricultural economist, Thünen came to the content that different plots of land would be
used for different purposes depending on the accessibility to the market. The main
reason for this state of affairs is because landlords seek to maximise their profits. This
theory of agricultural location led to the development of industrial and settlement
theories of Alfred Weber and Walter Christaller.

Objectives
By the end of the lesson, learners should be able to:
1. State the pertinent economic concepts that play a key role in the locational
theories
2. State and explain fully the law of diminishing returns.
3. Known Von Thünen model of agricultural s location and the relevance to
Kenya.

The physical environment may be favourable for farming, but it will remain unused
until the human resources are applied to it. Therefore we can say that the farming
system is an economic as well as an ecological system. It can be said that the farm like
an industrial firm is a risk averter and a number of economic elements apply to it.

Pertinent Economic Concepts:

An overall economic idea is that of homo-economicus (or an economic man). The
economic man has full knowledge regarding a given situation. He is completely
rationale in his behaviour and his main objective is to maximise profits (make as much
profits possible). The manner in which the factors of production of land, labour and
capital are allocated to achieve this goal of profit maximization will have a profound
effects upon the scale, style and spatial pattern of farming in the world.

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The other issue is: how should resources be utilized to attain this goal of profit
maximization? The answer to this problem is related to economies of scale and the
three ‘laws’ of economics i.e. law of demand and supply, law of comparative advantage
and law of diminishing returns.

A saving in the costs of production can be made if labour or capital is used effectively
and if these factors of production are fully employed. To achieve this objective it is
necessary to have an optimum size of enterprise. When the size of the firm is too small,
it suffers from dis-economies of scale because the size of production is too small such
that there is more room to increase the size of production. On the other hand after a
certain point, an increase in the factors of production will led to a less than proportional
production such that dis-economics of large scale production crops in. But at the
optimum level of production the cost of production is at minimal. Harvey partially
attributed Hops in Kent to local scale economies such as the availability of skilled
labour together with marketing facilities. The other effort of economies of scale is
tendency towards specialization of specific farming activities and thus strengthens a
similar tendency suggested by the physical environment.

The concept of comparative advantage enhances the degree of specialization. This

identifies the advantage of growing one crop and/or livestock combination in
preference to another in order to gain maximum profit.

The gains from scale economies and comparative advantage are circumscribed by the
concept of diminishing returns that determine the boundary where the returns from
production no longer justify an increased input of resources. In agriculture for instance,
there is a limit to the quantity of fertilizer that can be effectively used to maximise crop
production. At the same time, there is a limit to the level of irrigation water that can
effectively combat drought.

VON THÜNEN’S MODEL

Johanne Heinrich Von Thünen, a German interested in economic theory and local
agricultural conditions, first put this model forward. Thünen was an estate manager and
from his experiences he noted that the landlords are economic men who were
essentially interested in profit maximization. As a result of this, Thünen came to the

74
contention that identical plots of land could be used for different economic purposes
depending on their accessibility to the market. Frictional effects of distance and relative
location are important determinants of land use both at the local level and in the world.

He was also interested in the local agricultural condition. Thünen came up with the first
economic model of spatial organization. From his experience as an estate manager,
Thünen observed that identical plots of land (site) would be used for different purposes
depending on their accessibility to market. He published a book called ‘the isolated
state’ in 1826 with the aim of finding the laws, which determine the interaction of
agricultural prices, distance, and land use as landlords seek to maximise their income.
Geographers interested in his work are interested purposely in his methods of analysis
and his emphasis on the role of geographical location in land use.

The work of Thünen brought in the location theory. Thünen’s work has been regarded
as the first major contribution to the location theory. This theory attempts to explain
and predict the spatial decisions of firms that are a product of aggregates of individual
decision making. The major task of the locational theorists has been to integrate the
space dimension into classical economic theory. As noted earlier the work of locational
theory organised from the work of Von Thünen on agricultural location in the 1820s led
to subsequent contributions to industry and settlement by Alfred Weber and Walter
Christaller.

Alfred Weber and Walter Christoller are locational theorists. They developed normative
firms (of) in a world of pure competition and they assumed that entrepreneurs are
completely rational and attempt to maximise profits with perfect knowledge of the cost
characteristics of all locations. They explained that the dimension of location is
determined in terms of differences in production and transportation costs between sites.

A review of Thünen’s model of agricultural land use is referred to with a look at two
classical economic concepts – the low of diminishing returns and the concept of
economic land (rent).

75
 The Law of Diminishing Returns
An important aspect of Von Thünen model has to do with the limitations in the
intensity of agricultural land use, which is referred to as the law of diminishing returns.
This classical law considers combination of inputs of land, labour and capital. The law
states that as successive input say labour are applied to a fixed factor say land; total
product (output) passes through three stages. The first stage is the stage of increasing
returns to scale, the second stage is the stage of constant returns to scale and the third
stage is the stage of decreasing returns to scale. In the first stage, total product increases
at an increasing rate; in the second stage it increases at a declining rate and in the third
stage it declines as shown in the figure 15 below.

Fig 15: Stages of production

STAGE 1 STAGE 3
90 STAGE 2
80
70
60 TP
OUTPUT

50
40
30
20
10

0 AP

MP

5 10 15 20 25
UNITS OF VARIABLE INPUT

The figure above gives a standard example of how the principle of diminishing returns
operates. Assuming that there is one fixed input, land; and one variable input labour.
According to the law, average product (AP) of labour is the total product (TP) divided

76
by the number of labour units i.e. AP = TP. Similarly marginal product of labour is the
addition to total product attributable to the T unit of labour employed in production i.e.

MP = ∆ TP
∆L

Throughout stage 1, marginal product exceeds average product. The intersection of the
marginal product curve and the average product curve marks the end of the first stage
and the beginning of the second stage. During the second stage, marginal product curve
declines until it reaches zero. At the zero point that is where stage two ends and stage
three starts. In stage three average product keeps on declining and total product also
keeps on declining.

It should be noted that knowledge of total product, average product and marginal
productivity establishes some general boundaries for rational or profitable zones of
agricultural production in market exchange economies. For farmers to attain maximum
returns from their investments, they will need to operate in stage one and stage two in
terms of extensive margin of production. At the same time it should be noted that if
farmers are willing to maximise their returns, they should never produce in stage 3.
It should be noted that the concept of economic land (rent) is central to Thünen’s
discussion of agricultural land use. Economic rent provides a means whereby
competition for the use of land is resolved to produce patterns of land use.
Economic rent is concerned as a surplus, which a given volume of input such as capital
and labour can produce on a piece of land. Economic rent in other words is the profit
obtained from a piece of land. Economic rent is not contract rent – the amount paid by a
tenant for the right to occupy and use a certain property.

Von Thünen considered a uniform agricultural landscape with a single city acting as the
only market and source of units needed by the farmers. The economic rent of each of
kind of land use would depend on the location relative to the city centre. All farmers at
a given distance from the city will select the pattern of production which yields the
highest economic rent at that location. This therefore amounts to maximising profits
from each type of land use activity and is achieved by minimising transport costs.

77
250

200

150

100

50

0
4 6 8 10 12

Distance from City Market

Fig. 16: Demonstration of the economic rent concept

78
The figure above shows that maize yields higher economic rent compared to
vegetables. But far away from 5 kilometres from the city market maize yields less
economic rent. A rational farmer should therefore grow maize near the city market and
vegetable further away from the city. The diagram above shows the effect of distance
on land rent (economic rent) while other variables like the quality of land are held
constant. The main thing to understand von Thünen’s idea is economic rent because he
was concerned with the net returns from a unit of land. A great attribute of his model
was the fact that he tried to link economic aspects with spatial location.

In order to develop his ideas on land use patterns, Thünen like many other model
builders made a number of simplifying assumptions about the real world. These
assumptions are discussed below.

First, he assumed that the area under consideration was an ‘isolated area or state’. By
this he meant that there was no external trade. Actually the market for the state’s
agricultural produce was confined to one large centrally localised city. Secondly, he
assumed that the area concerned was a featureless plain or isotropic surface with equal
ease of movement in every direction and no variations in soil fertility, topography or
climate existed. Third, he assumed that the farmer himself was regarded as an entirely
rational being – an ‘economic man’ who had perfect knowledge of the market
mechanism and always maximized his profits.

79
Fig 17. Von Thünen’s Restricted Model 0f Agricultural Land Use

XXXXXXXX

5
1 2 3 4 6 7

KEY:
0 CITY CENTRE
1. Market gardening and milk production (track and dairy farming)
2. Firewood and timber production (Sylvicuttre)
3. Crop Farming – without fallow-intensive arable farming (6 year
rotation)
4. Crop farming-fallow and pasture (7 year rotation)
5. Three field Arable System (Arable rotation)
6. Livestock farming (ranching and grazing)
7. Wasteland (Snarling and Wild Life)

80
Finally, he assumed that only transport costs were allowed to very and they were
considered to be directly proportional to the distance form the market. Only one mode
of transport was available, that is, the ox-drawn art.

Note that such a model where all variables except use are held constant is called a
partial equilibrium model.

Economic rent can be translated into land use and on this basis von Thünen arrived at
the following rules around the central city as shown in fig. 17 above: -
(i) Free cash cropping (horticulture and daily)
(ii) Forestry (Silviculture)
(iii) Crop alternation system (intensive arable rotation)
(iv) Improved system (arable with fallow and positive)
(v) Three field rotation (arable rotation)
(vi) Stock farming (ranching and grazing)
(vii) Snarling and wildlife

Von Thünen himself realised that the model was unrealistic and he introduced
modification such as a navigable river, which reduces the traditional ox. Drawn cart
transport cost by 90%. As a result of this introductions the circular rings become
longitudinal zones along the line of the river. He also recognized was the presence of a
smaller market generating a similar zoning, but on a diminishing scale.

Von Thünen’s model has not been superseded although it has so many limitations. This
is the case because of the following factors: -

Firstly, Von Thiinen’s treatise may be regarded as a model that has led to the further
research on the field. Second; it should be noted that a particular significance in von
Thünen’s method of analysis, the partial equilibrium approach, represents an early
example of the scientific method of inquiry. In this context he postulated a normative
pattern of land use to be tested against reality. A normative pattern is one, which may
reasonably be expected on the basis of a number of stated premises.

81
The most important of Thünen’s premises are that the land use would be related to
distance from the market and it is upon this fundamental concept that our attention
should be focused.

Relevance of Von Thünen’s model to Kenya.

In Kenya, some of the crops which are highly consumable such as potatoes, cabbage
and vegetables have been grown close to the towns. A good example is the situation in
the city of Nairobi where these crops are grown in the areas surrounding the city of
Nairobi, that is Kiambu, Kajiado.

It should also be noted that in Kenya crops are grown in areas where they can reap the
highest returns. For example, maize is grown away from the city centre because its
returns are low as compared to other highly consumable crops. Butter and cheese are
produced near the town markets.

Plantation farming in Kenya has also been practised at far distances from the city as
Thünen located it in his model. In some areas where there is inadequate rainfall, like
Mwea, there is irrigation to maximise the utilization of land in these areas and because
of that this area is used for rice growing.

However, Von Thünen’s model may appear to be irrelevant in Kenya in those products
that are highly perishable like fruits and milk are being produced far away from the
main cities. This is due to the increasing efficient means of transportation and
discovery of refrigeration. In a nutshell we can say that many factors have changed
since 1826 in particular types and relative costs of transportation. The rapidly
developing technology has changed man’s use of land resources in production. The
improvement in transport and storage has lowered transport costs relative to production
costs such that production is possible much further from the market and each of Von
Thünen’s original rings may be very much wider.

In the real world, farmers don’t behave as Von Thünen assumed. They are often not
independent of one another. In conclusion, Von Thünen’s work is useful in that it
focuses attention on economic factors especially transport costs and distance to the
market.

82
Factors, which in the past geographers have subordinated to those of the physical
environment when attempting to explain the various land uses.

Activity

Look at the city of Nairobi and see how the Von Thünen’s
model can be relevant to its interaction with the surrounding
areas.

Definition of concepts
Homo-economicus: This means an economic man. An economic man is one who will
always want to maximise profits from an economic activity he does.
Comparative advantage: In the process of production, one will always produce goods
which have a comparative advantage over the production of alternative goods. Goods
so produced that have least costs of production have comparative advantage over
others.
Marginal product: This is the extra unit produced as a result of engaging an extra unit
of production.

Review questions
1. (a) What is Von Thünen’s model of agricultural land use?
(b) Examine its relevance in the modern agricultural sector.
2. How is the law of diminishing returns used in the Von Thünen’s model of
agricultural land use?

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13.0 LESSON 13: CONCEPT OF A REGION

DEFINITION
A region is an area of the earth’s surface with one or more features or characteristics
which give it a measure of utility or identity and makes it different from the
surrounding areas. Accordingly, a region can be cultural, economic, morphological,
natural, physiological, political, etc. and can be identified as single or multi-feature or
by the total attributes. Thus part of the Earth’s surface may be said to be an agricultural
region because all the farms in the region have more than certain acreage or grow a
similar proportion of wheat, tea or coffee or have the same range of farm equipment.

There are many synonyms for the word region such as Province, District, Division,
Zone, Belt or Locality. Example of such regions include:-
1) A relatively large sub-division of a country for economic, administrative or
cultural purposes that frequently implies an alternative system of centralized
organization.
2) An area of the world made up of neighbouring countries which form an
international point of view are considered socially, economically or
politically inter-dependent e.g. the EAC, EEC, ECOWAS, COMESA, PTA,
IGADD, etc.
3) Part of a country covered by particular programme services (LBDA) or a
broadcasting company (e.g. Capital FM)
4) One of the successive parts into which the area or atmosphere is
theoretically divided according to height. It can also be applied to sea
according to depth below sea level.
5) It can be a pair or division of the body of its parts.
6) It can be space occupied by a thing.

TYPES OF REGIONS
Fig 18 shows the categorization of regions into:
1) Formal regions
2) Functional regions
3) Natural regions
4) The pays concept

84
 5) Single feature regions
6) Multi-feature regions

Fig 18: Categories of Regions

Regional Units

Single Feature Multiple Feature

Regions Regions Total Regions
(campage)

Aerial classes
and nodal Formal Region Nodal Region Campage
regions hierarchy

Formal Regions
These are identified on the basis of the presence or absence of particular distinguishing
features. Its identity is measured through the analysis of character, intensity, extent and
inter-relationships of regional associations and the ways in which they are inter-locked
and separated from each other in space.

Functional Regions
This is a real structure of human occupancy which is independent of the natural
environment with clearly defined boundaries of human activities, for example, the city
as a region which has been brought into being through the medium of the road which
binds it to other urban centres.

The Natural Regions

These are major world regions that have been identified on the basis of its physical
features. Herbertson (1905) observed that vegetation corresponded closely to climates

85
and he considered the configuration of the earth as secondary to the influence of natural
regions.
Therefore his actual map of natural regions appeared to be little more than a climatic
classification.

A Russian Soil Scientist V. V. Dokuchayer is greatly remembered for having defined

the natural regions as a product of climate, which are emphasized intimate inter-
relationships between soils and vegetation. But it is noted that his map has problems of
bondages of soil, climate and vegetation which do not always coincide.

Single Feature Regions

The identification of such regions are restricted to single features such as animals, or
vegetation formatives or climate.

The Pays Concept

This was a term used by French Geographers in the early 20th century to refer to parts
of France which were held together by a distinctive rural way of life-genne-de vie.
These Pays were for the most part untouched by introduction, but somehow influenced
by the transport revolution and essentially local. They were characterised by vernacular
building styles, particular ways of farming and patterns of settlement that made them
unique regions.

The Multi-feature region

The identification of such a region is based on many features, which are intertwined.
These features could be for instance a similar climate, economic activities such as
agriculture and may be similar socio-cultural set up among others.

Reading list
D. J. Walmsley & G. J. Lewis (1984): Human Geography. Longman Group. London.
Chapman Keith (1979): Peoples, Patterns and Process: An Introduction to Human
Geography; Edward Anord.
Whynne-Hammond, C. (1979): Elements of Human Geography. London, George
Allen & Unwin.

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