service
any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who provide it
settlement
a permanent collection of buildings, where people work, reside, and obtain services
consumer services
Businesses that provide services primarily to individual consumers who desire them and can afford to pay for them, including retail services and personal services.
retail services
Services that provide goods for sale to consumers.
personal services
Services that provide for the well-being and personal improvement of individual consumers.
business services
Services that primarily meet the needs of other businesses, including producer and transportation services
producer services
Services that primarily help people conduct business
transportation and information services
Services that diffuse and distribute services.
public services
Services that provide security and protection for citizens and businesses
clustered rural settlements
A number of families live in close proximity to each other, with fields surrounding the collection of houses and farm buildings.
dispersed rural settlements
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 smaller number of larger farms in England during the eighteenth century.
central place
a market center for the exchange of goods and services by people attracted from the surrounding area
central place theory
a theory that explains how services are distributed and why such a regular pattern of settlement exists- at least in MDC's such as the United States
Market Area or hinterland
the area surrounding a service from which customers are attracted
range
the maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service
threshold
the minimum number of people needed to support the service
gravity model
A model that predicts that the optimal location of a service is directly related to the number of people in a location and inversely related to the distance people must travel to reach the service.
rank-size rule
the country's nth largest settlement is 1/n the popluation of the largest settlement
primate city rule
the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.
primate city
the country's largest city
city states
a sovereign state consisting of an autonomous city with its dependencies
basic industries
industries that export primarily to consumers outside the settlement
nonbasic industries
Enterprises whose customers live in the same community, essentially consumer services.
economic base
a community's unique collection of basic industries
Central Business District (CBD)
services of all types clustered in the center of the city, commonly called downtown and known to geographers by this term