What does the density gradient describe in urban form?

• A. Density gradually changes from the urban core to the periphery, higher density near center.
• B. Density is uniform across the city.
• C. Density increases with distance from the center.
• D. Density only affects parks.

Answer: (A)

The density gradient describes how density changes as you move through a city, typically showing a higher density near the center that gradually decreases toward the outskirts. This reflects how activity, buildings, and populations concentrate in the urban core due to factors like accessibility and land values, with less dense, more spread-out development as you move away. In a monocentric city, you’d see tall downtown buildings and dense neighborhoods near the center and lower-density residential areas farther out; in polycentric cities the gradient can be less steep but the idea remains that density is highest near activity hubs and declines with distance. So the statement that captures this pattern—density gradually changing from the urban core to the periphery, with higher density near the center—is the best fit. The other ideas don’t match common urban form: uniform density across the city isn’t typical, density isn’t generally increasing as you move away from the center, and density isn’t about parks.