use patterns in Germany. It used the concept of economic rent to explain a spatial
organization where different agricultural activities are competing for the usage of
land (Figure 7.8). Although this model has conceptually little relevance to urban
land use, its underlying principles have been the foundation of many models where
economic considerations, namely land rent and distance-decay, shape urban land use.
The core assumption of this functional land use model is that agricultural land use is
segregated in concentric circles around a market. Many concordances of this model
with reality have been found, notably in North America.