<p>PROJECT: CENTRAL PLACE THEORY Research on central place theory was conducted by Brian Berry in the U.S. Midwest, especially in Iowa. The purpose of this project is to determine the extent to which the hierarchy of settlements in Iowa still conforms to central place theory.</p><p> Below is a list of the 25 largest cities in Iowa. The population is for the county in which the city is located, from the 1990 Census.</p><p>Rank City County Population 1 Des Moines Polk 327,140</p><p>2 Cedar Rapids Linn 168,767</p><p>3 Davenport Scott 150,973</p><p>4 Waterloo Black Hawk 123,798</p><p>5 Sioux City Woodbury 98,276</p><p>6 Iowa City Johnson 96,119</p><p>7 Dubuque Dubuque 86,403</p><p>8 Council Bluffs Pottawattamie 82,628</p><p>9 Ames Story 74,252</p><p>10 Clinton Clinton 51,040</p><p>11 Mason City Carro Gordo 46,733</p><p>12 Burlington Des Moines 42,614 13 Fort Dodge Webster 40,342</p><p>14 Muscatine Muscatine 39,907</p><p>15 Keokuk Lee 38,687</p><p>16 Marshalltown Marshall 38,276</p><p>17 Indianola Warren 36,033</p><p>18 Ottumwa Wapello 35,696</p><p>19 Newton Jasper 34,795</p><p>20 Knoxville Marion 30,001</p><p>21 Sioux Orange 29,903</p><p>22 Boone Boone 25,186</p><p>23 LeMars Plymouth 23,388</p><p>24 Waverly Bremer 22,813</p><p>25 Spencer Clay 17,585</p><p>1. On the map of Iowa draw a circle around the dots representing settlements with a population over 80,000. How many are there? ______2. Divide the state into 8 irregularly shaped circles, with the 8 largest cities as close as possible to the center of the circle. The 8 irregularly shaped circles should not overlap each other. These represent the market areas for the 8 largest cities. 3. Measure the approximate distance in miles of the radius of the circle drawn around Des Moines. ______4. Are the irregularly shaped circles about the same size throughout the state, or do the sizes differ in different parts of the state? ______5. Why are the market areas in the eastern part of the state smaller? ______6. To what extent do cities in Iowa follow the rank-size distribution? ______</p>