A New Method for Measurement of Urban Decentralization

The standard model used in studies of urban decentralization is the monocentric model with its implication of an exponential density gradient. Exponential density gradients have been estimated for the cities of many countries. The exponential, however, does not easily facilitate the study of jurisdictional e ects on suburbanization. This led Edwin Mills in 1991 to propose a new function for measuring suburbanization and analyzing its determinants [2]. While Mills has used his function to study jurisdictional e ects in decentralization of U.S. cities, there are no known cases of its application for measurement of suburbanization patterns over time. This paper reports measures of suburbanization obtained for the post-war decades in the two Germanys, and comments brie y on the suitability of Mills' function for this purpose. 1 The Exponential as a Means of Measuring Suburbanization Suburbanization is generally studied in terms of trends in densities between the central city and the suburbs. The functional form most often used is