Unit 7 Study Guide
Services
● Service: any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who
provide it
● Consumer Services: provide services to individual buyers (50% of US jobs)
○ Retail, education, health, and leisure
● Business Services: facilitate the activities of other businesses (25% of US jobs)
○ Professional, financial, transportation and information
● Public Services: provide security and protection for citizens and businesses (8% of US jobs)
Central Place Theory
● Settlement: a permanent collection of buildings where people reside, work, and obtain services
● Central Place Theory: predicts where and how the most most profitable location can be
identified
■ Range: the max distance people are willing to travel for a service
■ Threshold: the min number of people needed to support the service
○ Hexagons used so there is no overlapping (circles) or uneven distance from
middle (square)
○ Hamlet: very short range, very short threshold
■ Ex. gas, corner stores, lottery tickets
○ Village: short range, small threshold
■ Ex. Hardware, post offices, diners
○ Town: medium range and threshold
■ Ex. medical services, returnants, high schools
, ○ City: long range and threshold
■ Ex. sporting events, concerts, specialists
● Global Cities: a major center for the provision of services in the global economy
○ Classifications: Alpha++, alpha+, alpha, gamma, beta
Urban Hierarchies
● Rank-size rule: the country’s nth-largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest
settlement
○ Usually means country is more developed
● Primate City: the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the
second-ranking settlement
○ There is not enough wealth in the society to pay for a full variety of services
○ Usually means a country is less developed
CBD + Cultural Forms (Build Landscape)
Central business district: term for the most distinctive area of most cities also known as
“downtown”
● Attracts people to CBD: accessibility, focal point of the region’s transport network
● Intensive land use, skyscrapers
○ Underground intensive land use, subways
● Residential use of CBD has increased
Traditional Models
Concentric Zone Model: A model of the internal structure of cities in which social
groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings
● Density decreases as you move father from the CBD
● The closer to the CBD to more expensive it is (Bid-rent theory)
○ The zone of transition is more densely populated than the the Commuter zone
Services
● Service: any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who
provide it
● Consumer Services: provide services to individual buyers (50% of US jobs)
○ Retail, education, health, and leisure
● Business Services: facilitate the activities of other businesses (25% of US jobs)
○ Professional, financial, transportation and information
● Public Services: provide security and protection for citizens and businesses (8% of US jobs)
Central Place Theory
● Settlement: a permanent collection of buildings where people reside, work, and obtain services
● Central Place Theory: predicts where and how the most most profitable location can be
identified
■ Range: the max distance people are willing to travel for a service
■ Threshold: the min number of people needed to support the service
○ Hexagons used so there is no overlapping (circles) or uneven distance from
middle (square)
○ Hamlet: very short range, very short threshold
■ Ex. gas, corner stores, lottery tickets
○ Village: short range, small threshold
■ Ex. Hardware, post offices, diners
○ Town: medium range and threshold
■ Ex. medical services, returnants, high schools
, ○ City: long range and threshold
■ Ex. sporting events, concerts, specialists
● Global Cities: a major center for the provision of services in the global economy
○ Classifications: Alpha++, alpha+, alpha, gamma, beta
Urban Hierarchies
● Rank-size rule: the country’s nth-largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest
settlement
○ Usually means country is more developed
● Primate City: the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the
second-ranking settlement
○ There is not enough wealth in the society to pay for a full variety of services
○ Usually means a country is less developed
CBD + Cultural Forms (Build Landscape)
Central business district: term for the most distinctive area of most cities also known as
“downtown”
● Attracts people to CBD: accessibility, focal point of the region’s transport network
● Intensive land use, skyscrapers
○ Underground intensive land use, subways
● Residential use of CBD has increased
Traditional Models
Concentric Zone Model: A model of the internal structure of cities in which social
groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings
● Density decreases as you move father from the CBD
● The closer to the CBD to more expensive it is (Bid-rent theory)
○ The zone of transition is more densely populated than the the Commuter zone
