Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 1.3
“Die Isolierte Staat”
by Johann Heinrich von
Thünen, Rostock, 1852
(
Source
: University of
Toronto—Robarts Library,
details/
There still exists an intensive debate on the theory of von Thünen (Block and
DuPuis
2001
). Despite its merit, von Thünen's model is only descriptive, i.e., it is
aimed at predicting the behavior of the system. In fact, at the time, models were
mostly used to answer to questions such as “why do we do it?”. Von Thünen's work
can be viewed as fundamental in urban economics and location theory. Nowadays,
it is still relevant in areas such as geography, agricultural economics and sociology
(Block and DuPuis
2001
). These authors emphasize that the centrality theory of von
Thünen is still relevant for some dairy products such as milk. Other researchers have
pursued von Thünen's centrality idea. The results are reviewed by Fischer (
2011
).
The first normative location models aimed at determining “what we should do”,
were proposed by Carl Friedrich Launhardt (1832-1918) and Alfred Weber (1868-
1958). Launhardt (
1900
) introduced the problem of tracing an optimal rail route
connecting three points. Interestingly, the author casted this problem within an
industrial context. The problem was revisited by Pinto (
1977
) who stated it as
follows: Consider the three nodes depicted in Fig.
1.5
. Suppose that
w
A
tons of