The urban sphere of influence is also called "Umland (German term)", "city-region" or "city catchment area".
The sphere of urban influence is the area around a city that has an inflow-outflow relationship of goods and services with the city.
The "urban sphere of influence" provides the city with low-value goods (agricultural production) and low-value services (labor services), while the city provides the "urban sphere of influence" with high-value goods (manufacturing output) and high-value services (school, hospital, administration, industrial, etc.).
The "urban sphere of influence" is proportional to the number and quantity of goods and services a city provides. That is, the more services a city provides, the greater the city's "urban sphere of influence".
For example, Delhi provides a larger number of goods and services (Parliament, Supreme Court, etc.) than Mumbai and Chennai. Hence, the area of influence of Delhi is more than that of Mumbai and Chennai.
The monopoly of the city in the matter of goods and services exists in the "urban sphere of influence". For example, if any person in India has to visit Parliament then he has to go to Delhi, Delhi has the monopoly of parliamentary service.
Lucknow's urban sphere of influence lies within Uttar Pradesh while Delhi's sphere of influence is spread across India.
In the matter of school and hospital services (AIIMS), there also exists an area of competition between the urban area of influence of Delhi and Lucknow. Thus, people have a choice of whether they want to go to Delhi or Lucknow for hospital services.
- People go to the city to buy a TV, fridge, etc.
- People come to the city to take advantage of hospital services, school services, banking services, watch movies, etc.
- The needs of the city such as labor, raw materials, vegetables, etc. are also met by the Umland region.
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| Sphere of urban influence |
The following are some characteristics of a Sphere of urban influence:
- It is very difficult to delineate the boundary of the urban sphere of influence because the sphere of influence is dynamic in nature. The urban area of influence keeps on increasing every year.
- The delimitation method of the boundary of the Umland is similar to that of the functional region. Please refer for: Regionalization methods of the functional region
- Each city has a different size of the sphere of influence, generally, a larger city has a larger Umland area.
- The intensity of the city's influence decreases as we move away from the city center.
- Rapid transport and communication network can increase the area of influence of the city.
- The area of influence of a city is proportional to the number of services and the volume of services in a city. For example, Mumbai's sphere of influence is larger than Lucknow's because Mumbai provides larger services than Lucknow.
- The area of the competition zone may exist between cities.
Significance of the sphere of urban influence:
- Planning for health and education services is needed in those areas which are left by city influences.
- We need to focus on the development planning of those regions that do not come under the zone of competition of Umland.
- It is useful in examining the area of the influence of certain goods and services. That help in industrial growth and planning.
- Explain the qualitative and quantitative methods of delineation of the sphere of urban influence. (UPSC 250 words, 20 marks)
- Explain urban spheres of influence by giving example from India. ( 65th BPSC geography)
- Population and Settlement Geography
- Sphere of urban influence
- Population and Settlement Geography
- Regionalization methods
- Write a short note on the activities prevailing in the Umland of a city.
- Rural-urban fringe
- नगरीय प्रभाव क्षेत्र
- ग्राम-नगर उपांत
- किसी नगर के अमलैण्ड (प्रभावक्षेत्र )में प्रचलित क्रियाकलापों पर संक्षिप्त टिप्पणी लिखिए।
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