Chapter Twelve, Services & Settlements Flashcards
Service
Any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who provide it. 3 types: consumer services, business services, and public services.
Consumer Services
Primary purpose is to provide services to individual consumers who desire them and can afford to pay for them. (1/2 of US jobs) 4 main types: retail, education, health, and leisure
Business Services
Primary purpose is to facilitate the activities of other businesses. (1/4 of US jobs) 4 main types: professional services, financial services, information services, and transportation services
Public Services
Primary purpose is to provide security and protection for citizens and businesses. Comprised of educators, Fed employees (1/6), State employees (1/4), and Local Govt employees (3/5).
Settlement
A permanent collection of buildings where people reside, work, and obtain services.
Central Place Theory
First proposed in the 1930s by German geographer Walter Christaller, based on his studies of southern Germany
A theory that explains the distribution of services based on the fact that settlements serve as centers of market areas for services; larger settlements are fewer and farther apart than smaller settlements and provide services for a larger number of people who are willing to travel farther.
Central Place
A market center for the exchange of goods and services by people attracted from the surrounding area. The central place is so called because it is centrally located to maximize accessibility.
Market Area or Hinterland
The area surrounding a service from which customers are attracted. A market area is a good example of a nodal region—a region with a core where the characteristic is most intense.
Range
The maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service. The range is the radius of the circle (or hexagon) drawn to delineate a service’s market area.
Threshold
The minimum number of people needed to support the service.
Rank Size Rule
A pattern of settlements in a country such that the nth largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement.
Primate City Rule
A pattern of settlements in a country such that the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.
Primate City
The largest settlement in a country, if it has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.
Gravity Model
A model that holds that the potential use of a service at a particular location is directly related to the number of people in a location and inversely related to the distance people must travel to reach the service.
Food Desert
An area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food.
Periodic Market
A collection of individual vendors who come together to offer goods and services in a location on specified days.
Global City
A major center for the provision of services in the global economy. Can be subdivided according to a number of criteria. Alpha, Beta, Gamma
Basic Businesses
Export primarily to customers outside the settlement.
Nonbasic Businesses
Serve primarily the customers living in the same settlement.
Economic Base
A community’s collection of basic businesses.
Clustered Rural Settlement
An agricultural-based community in which a number of families live in close proximity to each other, with fields surrounding the collection of houses and farm buildings.
Dispersed Rural Settlement
Characterized by farmers living on individual farms isolated from neighbors rather than alongside other farmers in settlements.
Enclosure Movement
The process of consolidating small landholdings into a number of larger farms in England during the 18th century.
Urbanization
The process by which the population of urban settlements grows.
Megacity
An urban settlement with a total population in excess of 10 million people.
Metacity
Has more than 20 million people.
