Distance decay functions in urban floor-area distributions

Abstract

The areal distribution of the floor area is studied in six Finnish towns, Turku, Vaasa, Kuopio, Jyväskylä, Kouvola and Kuusankoski, with special attention being paid to variations with distance from the centre. The empirical data is first employed to determine the exact form of the distance function, the negative‑exponential type emerging as the most appropriate of the Pareto models.

This negative‑exponential function is then used to study the distribu­tion of the floor area among the classes of residential space, office premises, retail premises, industrial sites, warehouses and others. No variation is noted in the function either by floor‑area class or by sector of the town. The principal variants in the model are the parameters a and b, whose correlation with the growth of the town is evident at least in the forma­tion of central craters.

The parameters of the distance function are found to be closely connected with the concept of an optimal urban structure, which permits the conclusion that the distance functions, and especially their parameters, are good indicators of efficiency in urban structures.