Planning on Settlement Location in the IJsselmeerpolders and Central Place Theory

• SUGIURA Yoshio

  Department of Geography, Tokyo Metropolitan University

Bibliographic Information

Other Title

• アイセル湖ポルダーにおける集落配置計画と中心地理論
• アイセルコ ポルダー ニ オケル シュウラク ハイチ ケイカク ト チュウシンチ リロン

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between planning on settlement location in the IJsselmeerpolders and central place theory through a literature review. The relationship differs by polder. For the first reclaimed polder, the Wieringermeer, judging from its completion year of 1930, central place theory could not be applied to locate planned settlements. In the case of the Noordoostpolder, central place theory was likely to give a hint to the initial plan of settlement location via Howard's plan of Garden City if we limit analysis to the morphological aspect alone. In the cases of Oostelijk Flevoland and Zuidelijk Flevoland, higher-ranked settlements were located based on Takes' study (1948) that had markedly been influenced by central place theory. It is interesting that in such a hexagonal pattern of settlement location, six middle-ranked settlements are distributed around the highest-ranked settlement, provided that a middle-ranked settlement in the unreclaimed polder, the Markerwaard, and the other middle-ranked settlement in the IJsselmeer north of Lelystad, the highest-ranked settlement, are assumed to be located in addition to the four other middle-ranked settlements Emmeloord, Dronten, Zeewolde, and Almere.<br> Although before and during the Second World War, central place theory and similar theses attracted attention as a national land planning theory not only in Germany, but also in Japan, Estonia, and the Netherlands, planned settlements were actually located according to the theory only in the IJsselmeerpolders, the Netherlands. Consequently, the settlement location in the IJsselmeerpolders, especially in Oostelijk Flevoland and Zuidelijk Flevoland, was a pioneering application of central place theory to planning work. Academic circles of Dutch geographers, however, are no longer eager to correlate planned settlement location in polders to central place theory since it appears that central place theory was supported by Nazi Germany. Even so, that pioneering attempt had a relation to the fact that Dutch geography has been oriented toward applied work. In the 1930s, the geography departments of both Amsterdam University and Utrecht University, which graduated professional geographers in the Netherlands, began to pay attention to urban and regional planning. They then sent their graduates to planning sections in public agencies, where they emphasized the importance of survey preceding planning. Called planologists, they were sufficiently active to keep up with urban and regional planners, and have continued to have a good reputation in the Netherlands. In retrospect, it was also these social geographers' active participation in polder-relevant undertakings that has strengthened their reputation.<br> Considering their work in the context of central place studies, it cannot be overlooked that lower-ranked settlements located in Oostelijk Flevoland were not completely predicated on central place theory. Rigid applications of central place theory in both polders were avoided by social geographers' far-sightedness. Based on their surveys of settlements and inhabitants' lives in the already completed Noordoostpolder to plan settlement locations in southern polders of the IJsselmeer, social geographers such as Takes and Constandse insisted that settlement locations positing rural life rooted in agriculture Were not suited for inhabitants preferring urban life and anticipating motorization. As a result, quite a few lower-ranked settlements were located in Oostelijk Flevoland.<br> Their surveys conducted in the 1950s to 1960s revealed that shopping habits in the Noordoostpolder to visit the higher-ranked settlement erecated serious problems: Emmeloord usurped the central functions of its surrounding villages while inconvenient. villages remained that did not achieve the planned populations.

Journal

• Geographical Review of Japan

  Geographical Review of Japan 79 (11), 566-587, 2006

  The Association of Japanese Geographers

Keywords

• polder
• settlement location
• central place theory
• social geographer
• Nazi Germany
• the Netherlands

Details

• CRID: 1390282680181251584
• NII Article ID: 10018862437
• NII Book ID: AA11591990
• DOI: 10.4157/grj.79.11_566
• ISSN: 21851727
• ISSN: 13479555
• NDL BIB ID: 8532474
• Web Site: https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R000000004-I8532474
• Text Lang: ja
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • NDL
  • Crossref
  • CiNii Articles
  • KAKEN
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed