AP® Human Geography · Unit 6 · Topic 6.5
The Hoyt Sector and Multiple Nuclei Models
The Hoyt model says land uses stretch outward from downtown in wedges along transport routes, while the multiple nuclei model says a city grows around several separate centers, each with its own surrounding development.
Burgess imagined a city as rings of equal access to downtown. Hoyt looked closer and noticed that wealth and industry do not spread evenly in all directions, they follow roads, rail lines, and rivers. A rail line running northwest from downtown makes land along it cheap to reach, so factories and warehouses cluster there. A scenic road running west attracts wealthy homebuyers who want a fast commute and a nice view, so high-rent housing stretches out along that road instead of forming a ring. The result is a pie cut into unequal wedges, called sectors, each defined by what runs along its spine rather than by distance from center.
The multiple nuclei model drops the idea of one center entirely. Grow a city long enough and new centers appear on their own: a university draws students and cheap rentals, an airport draws warehouses and hotels, a suburban mall draws its own ring of shops and apartments. Each nucleus has its own pull, and land use organizes locally around whichever nucleus is closest, not around a single downtown. Similar activities cluster near each other for shared benefit, while incompatible ones, like heavy industry and expensive housing, stay apart.
Together with Burgess, these three models are not competitors picking one true answer, they are lenses. A real city usually shows traces of all three: a ringed core, sector-shaped wealthy corridors, and newer nuclei out at the edges. Geographers overlay them on one map to read how history, transportation, and terrain each left their mark.
Key terms
- Sector
- A wedge-shaped zone of similar land use that stretches outward from downtown along a transportation route.
- Nucleus
- An independent center of activity, like a university or airport, that attracts its own surrounding development.
- Transportation corridor
- A road, rail line, or river that gives faster access along its path than the surrounding land.
- Burgess model
- The earlier model picturing a city as concentric rings of land use at increasing distance from downtown.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does the Hoyt sector model let transport routes stretch zones out into wedges?
- How it worksWalk me through the multiple nuclei model growing a city around several centers at once.
- Worked exampleDraw Burgess rings, Hoyt sectors, and multiple nuclei over the same city and compare them.
- Going furtherWhat happens to these models when a coastline or a mountain shapes the city's growth?
Check yourself
End of topic.