Big city as a self-contained central place system (the case of Moscow)
In this article an attempt to study a big city as a self-contained central place system has been made. For this purpose the author developed and tested a methodology for quantitative evaluation of the central functions value, based on the integration of a complex of the most important socio-economic indicators. The possibility not only to «measure» central functions value but also to determine belonging of all the elements to different levels of hierarchy or to service district was proved using this methodology. This research was made on the example of central place system of Moscow. An attempt to assess the influence of the significant territorial expansion on its dynamics from 2009 to 2015 has been studied. The high level of correlation was established between radial-ring structure of Moscow and relatively uniform decrease of the central functions value when moving from the city center which is disturbed by the main highways concentrating much larger value of central functions than neighboring elements.