Multi-fractal measures of city-size distributions based on the three-parameter Zipf model

A multi-fractal framework of urban hierarchies is presented to address the rank-size distribution of cities. The three-parameter Zipf model based on a pair of exponential-type scaling laws is generalized to multi-scale fractal measures. Then according to the equivalent relationship between Zipf's law and Pareto distribution, a set of multi-fractal equations are derived using dual conversion and the Legendre transform. The US city population data coming from the 2000 census are employed to verify the multi-fractal models and the results are satisfying. The multi-fractal measures reveal some strange symmetry regularity of urban systems. While explaining partially the remains of the hierarchical step-like frequency distribution of city sizes suggested by central place theory, the mathematical framework can be interpreted with the entropy-maximizing principle and some related ideas from self-organization. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.