MULTIPLE- NUCLEI THEORY PRESENTED BY, Vidya

Renuka
BY HARRIS AND ULLMAN Likith
The Multiple Nuclei Model is an ecological model created by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman in the 1945 article "The
Nature of Cities"

Background Edward Louis Ullman (1912 – 1976) was an American geographer. He proposed that trade was an
interaction based on three phenomena: complementarity, intervening opportunities, and
transferrability of commodities.

Chauncy Dennison Harris (1914 - December 26, 2003) was a pioneer of modern geography. His
seminal works in the field of American urban geography ("The Nature of Cities" and "A Functional
Classification of Cities in the United States") along with his work on the Soviet Union during and
after the Cold War era established him as one of the world's foremost urban geographers
Theory
• The Multiple Nuclei Model is an ecological model.
• The work of Harris and Ullmann (1945) in developing a multiple-
nuclei theory of urban land use is amongst the most innovative
descriptive or analytical urban models.
• Basic concept: cities don’t grow up around a single core but
have several nodes. MULTIPLE NUCLIE THEORY
• Recognized that different activities having different accessibility
requirements.
• Specialized cells of activity would develop according to the
specific requirements of certain activities.
- Light manufacturing & wholesaling located along the
transport routes.
- Heavy industry was located in outer edge of city.
• The model describes the layout of a city. It says that even though
a city may have began with a Central business district, or CBD,
other smaller CBDs develop on the outskirts of the city near the
more valuable housing areas to allow shorter commutes from the
outskirts of the city. This creates nodes or nuclei in other parts of
the city besides the CBD thus the name multiple nuclei model.
• Their aim was to produce a more realistic model but it was a
more complicated model.
1. The main notion of this theory was to Move away from
concentric zone
2. Larger cities have a structure which is essentially cellular and tend
to develop a number of nuclei which serve as focal points for
agglomerative tendencies, some more important than others.
• The model is suitable for the big and expanding cities. The
number of nuclei, around which the city expands, depends upon
the situational as well as historical factors.
Criticism
• Negligence of height of buildings.
• Non-existence of abrupt divisions between zones.
• Each zone displays a significant degree of internal heterogeneity and not homogeneity.
• Unawareness of inertia forces.
• No consideration of influence of physical relief and government policy.
• The concepts may not be totally applicable to oriental cities with different cultural, economic and political
backgrounds.

Cities don't grow on one nucleus but several nuclei. Each nuclei acts like a growth point. The theory was formed based
on the idea that people have greater movement due to increased car ownership. This increase of movement allows
for the specialization of regional centers (e.g. heavy industry, business park, Retail Areas). The model is suitable for the
big and expanding cities. The number of nuclei, around which the city expands, depends upon the situational as well
as historical factors.
Multiple nuclei develop because:
1. Certain industrial activities require transportation facilities e.g. ports, railway stations etc. to lower transportation
costs.

2. Certain activities tend to stay apart e.g. residential zoning and airports etc.

3. Certain activities are found together to their mutual advantage e.g. University, bookstore, coffee shops, etc.

4. Certain activities requires the facility to be set in rare areas in a city like the CBD need very convenient traffic
and factories need abundant source of water

5. Certain events are benefited from the adjacent distance like the positions of factories and residence.

6. Certain events are easily lead negative influences to others so these events should be avoid to exist at the same
place, for example the graceful and wide greenbelt should not be arranged beside the steel factories which
make a surge of smoke.
EXAMPLES :
DELHI – India’s capital, somewhat conforming to the multiple nuclei theory.
Urban pattern of Delhi from past few years ,there are multiple growth points , CBD and there is a urban sprawl pattern at
present which explains multiple nuclei theory.
Ottawa is a Multiple Nuclei city!
The city of Ottawa is not a concentric city, but rather it is more of a Multiple Nucleii city with multiple central business
districts and multiple zones of transition and light industrial zones. As well, Ottawa is also a region that includes the three
satellite cities of Kanata Barrhaven/Nepean South And Orleans. These Multiple Nucleii zones were further multiplied with
the formation of the new City of Ottawa, which was created by the amalgamation of all of the cities, and townships that
once comprised the area formerly known as the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton.

These maps shows the layout of the City of Ottawa showing its Greenbelt as well as the location of the major employment
zones. The employment zones are shown as pink tones. And it is shown below.
This map shows the location of major roads in the Ottawa Region
This maps shows an approximation of current transit flows in the Ottawa Region.
This map shows a more balanced system of satellite cities outside of the greenbelt. Note that transit is going to the satellite
cities as well as to the core of the city.
This map show what a multi-directional transit system might look like when the three satellite cities are places where people
both live and work in.

Transportation will also be dual or multi-directional since in reality not everyone will live where they work. Therefore a gird
system of Public Transit will be necessary since not everyone will want to go through the core of the city in order to get to
their destinations. Use will be made of existing rail corridors to move people across the region. In some ways this is ideal since
in the present situation transit buses carry people from the areas outside of the greenbelt to the core of the city and return
mostly empty to the suburbs to restart their transit runs. In the future these buses or light rail trains (including commuter trains)
will be carrying people in both directions, and this means that they will be generating transit revenue in both directions of
their runs. i.e. No more dead heading routes! This will result in a more cost effective and energy efficient operations. In this
scenario a transit tunnel under downtown Ottawa may not be necessary since transit flow to the core may actually remain
stable or even decrease.