Johann Heinrich von Thünen, himself a farmer and economist, used his experience and self-study in economics to propose a land use model exhibiting a pattern of concentric rings around a center that represents the city. It's important to recognize that this was a pre-industrialization model (his book The Isolated State with Respect to Agricultural Economics was published in 1826), so it is assumed that goods would be transported to the city via oxcart. Von Thünen supposed that perishable goods like vegetables and dairy products would be produced in the first ring surrounding the city, since these goods must be delivered to market quickly. In the next ring, firewood and lumber were produced, since these were not perishable products, but they were cumbersome to transport. In the third ring surrounding the city, von Thünen proposed that grains and field crops would be produced, since these were lighter than lumber. In the fourth and final (outer) ring, ranching would take place, since animals require larger space to pasture and they can transport themselves to market.

The Sinclair Model (named for Robert Sinclair, who proposed it in 1967) reassigns these rings while retaining the general concentric model. In the inner ring, because land prices were higher closer to the city, this area would be used for urban development. Put another way, because of the potential for the urban center to expand, investment in agricultural activities close to a city is not worthwhile. Thus, agricultural activities would actually take place farther away from the city.

It's important to note that, though von Thünen's model exhibits an elegant logic based no pre-industrialization conditions, and Sinclair's model seems to be manifest in many modern cities, both have limitations. For example, they take for granted uniform physical conditions (e.g, the assumption that there are no mountains, rivers, oceans, or lakes that either facilitate or impede transportation).