Ch. 12/11 Review

circular rural settlement

A circular clustered rural settlement consists of a central open space surrounded by structures. In sub-Saharan Africa, the Maasai people, who are pastoral nomads, build circular settlements known as kraal (Figure 12-31). Women have the principal responsibility for constructing them. The kraal villages have enclosures for livestock in the center, surrounded by a ring of houses. von Thünen observed this circular pattern in Germany in his landmark agricultural studies in the early nineteenth century

primate city

A city that is the largest settlement in a country and has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement. if the settlement hierarchy does not graph as a straight line, then the country does not follow the rank-size rule. Instead, it may follow the primate city rule, in which the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement. In this distribution, the country's largest city is called the primate city. Mexico is an example of a country that follows the primate city distribution. Its largest settlement, Mexico City, is five times larger than its second-largest settlement, Guadalajara, rather than two times larger (Figure 12-11).

megacity

A giant urban area that includes surrounding cities and suburbs

Antropocentrism

A human-centered view of our relationship with the environment.

edge city

A large node of office and retail activities on the edge of an urban area

edge city

A large node of office and retail activities on the edge of an urban area.

Break-bulk point

A location where large shipments of goods are broken up into smaller containers for delivery to local markets. Trucks are most often used for short-distance delivery because they can be loaded and unloaded quickly and cheaply. Truck delivery is especially advantageous if the driver can reach the destination within one day, before having to stop for an extended rest (Figure 11-20). Trains are often used to ship to destinations that take longer than one day to reach, such as between the East and West coasts of the United States. Loading trains takes longer than loading trucks, but once under way, trains aren't required to make daily rest stops like trucks (Figure 11-21). Ships are attractive for transport over very long distances because the cost per kilometer is very low. Ships are slower than land-based transportation, but unlike trains or trucks, they can cross oceans, such as to North America from Europe or Asia (Figure 11-22). Airplanes are most expensive for all distances so are usually reserved for speedy delivery of small-bulk, high-value packages. Containerization has facilitated transfer of packages between modes. Containers may be packed into a rail car, transferred quickly to a container ship to cross the ocean, and unloaded onto trucks at the other end. Large ships have been specially built to accommodate large numbers of rectangular box-like containers. Regardless of transportation mode, cost rises each time inputs or products are transferred from one mode to another. For example, workers must unload goods from a truck and then reload them onto a plane. The company may need to build or rent a warehouse to store goods temporarily after unloading from one mode and before loading to another mode. Some companies may calculate that the cost of one mode is lower for some inputs and products, whereas another mode may be cheaper for other goods.

functional region

A region defined by the particular set of activities or interactions that occur within it nodal region A market area is a good example of a nodal region—a region with a core where the characteristic is most intense. To establish the market area, a circle is drawn around the node of service on a map. The territory inside the circle is its market area.

back office function

A second distinctive type of business service found in peripheral regions is back-office functions, also known as business-process outsourcing (BPO). Typical back-office functions include insurance claims processing, payroll management, transcription work, and other routine clerical activities. Back-office work also includes centers for responding to billing inquiries related to credit cards, shipments, and claims, or technical inquiries related to installation, operation, and repair. Traditionally, companies housed their back-office staff in the same office building downtown as their management staff, or at least in nearby buildings. A large percentage of the employees in a downtown bank building, for example, would be responsible for sorting paper checks and deposit slips. Proximity was considered important to assure close supervision of routine office workers and rapid turnaround of information. Rising rents downtown have induced many business services to move routine work to lower-rent buildings elsewhere. In most cases, sufficiently low rents can be obtained in buildings in suburbs or nearby small towns. For many business services, improved telecommunications is the most important factor in eliminating the need for spatial proximity. Selected developing countries have attracted back offices for two reasons related to labor: low way or ability to speak English

active solar energy

Active solar energy systems collect solar energy and convert it either to heat energy or to electricity (Figure 11-55). The conversion can be accomplished either directly or indirectly. In direct electric conversion, solar radiation is captured with photovoltaic cells, which convert light energy to electrical energy. Bell Laboratories invented the photovoltaic cell in 1954. Each cell generates only a small electric current, but large numbers of these cells wired together produce significant electricity. These cells are made primarily of silicon (also used in computers), the second most abundant element in Earth's crust. When the silicon is combined with one or more other materials, it exhibits distinctive electrical properties in the presence of sunlight, known as the photovoltaic effect. Electrons excited by the light move through the silicon, producing direct current (DC) electricity. In indirect electric conversion, solar radiation is first converted to heat and then to electricity. The Sun's rays are concentrated by reflectors onto a pipe filled with synthetic oil. The heat from the oil-filled pipe generates steam to run turbines. In heat conversion, solar radiation is concentrated with large reflectors and lenses to heat water or rocks. These store the energy for use at night and on cloudy days. A place that receives relatively little sunlight can use solar energy by using more reflectors and lenses and larger storage containers.

e-commerce sector

Amazon, one of the fastest growing financial sector Silicon Valley its a high-order industry activity of buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet

formal region

An area within which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics. example: country

copper production

An example of a bulk-reducing industry is most of the steps of copper production. Copper production involves several steps: Mining. Mining in general is bulk reducing because the heavy, bulky ore extracted from mines is mostly waste, known as gangue (Figure 11-10). Concentration. The ore is crushed and ground into fine particles, mixed with water and chemicals, filtered, and dried. Concentration mills are near copper mines because concentration transforms the heavy, bulky copper ore into a product of much higher value per weight. Smelting. The concentrated copper becomes the input for smelters, which remove more impurities. Because smelting is a bulk-reducing industry, smelters are built near their main inputs—the concentration mills—again to minimize transportation costs. Refining. The purified copper produced by smelters is treated at refineries to produce copper cathodes, about 99.99 percent pure copper. Most refineries are located near smelters. Manufacturing. Copper that is ready for use in other products is produced in foundries.

biomass

Biomass fuel is fuel derived from plant material and animal waste. Biomass energy sources include wood and crops. When carefully harvested in forests, wood is a renewable resource that can be used to generate electricity and heat. The waste from processing wood, such as for building construction and demolition, is also available. And crops such as sugarcane, corn, and soybeans can be processed into motor-vehicle fuels. Worldwide production of biomass fuel is approximately 3 quad BTUs, including one-third each in North America, Europe, and developing regions. Brazil makes extensive use of biomass to fuel its cars and trucks. The potential for increasing the use of biomass for fuel is limited, for several reasons: Burning biomass may be inefficient because the energy used to produce the crops may be as much as the energy supplied by the crops. Biomass already serves essential purposes other than energy, such as providing much of Earth's food, clothing, and shelter. When wood is burned for fuel instead of being left in the forest, the fertility of the forest may be reduced. Historically, people relied primarily on animate power, which is power supplied by animals or by people themselves. Animate power was supplemented by biomass fuel (such as wood, plant material, and animal waste), which is burned directly or converted to charcoal, alcohol, or methane gas. Biomass remains an important source of fuel in some developing countries, but during the past 200 years, developed countries have converted primarily to energy from fossil fuels.

world city

Centers of economic, culture, and political activity that are strongly interconnected and together control the global systems of finance and commerce.

Walter christaller

Central place theory was first proposed in the 1930s by German geographer Walter Christaller, based on his studies of southern Germany In his original study, Walter Christaller showed that the distances between settlements in southern Germany followed a regular pattern.

gateway city

Cities that, because of their geographic location, act as ports of entry and distribution centers for large geographic areas. cities for transportation

containerization

Containerization has facilitated transfer of packages between modes. Containers may be packed into a rail car, transferred quickly to a container ship to cross the ocean, and unloaded onto trucks at the other end. Large ships have been specially built to accommodate large numbers of rectangular box-like containers. has a break of bulk point

division of labor

Division of work into a number of separate tasks to be performed by different workers Changes in production have led to a spatial division of labor, in which a region's workers specialize in particular tasks. Transnationals decide where to produce things in response to characteristics of the local labor force, such as level of skills, prevailing wage rates, and attitudes toward unions. Transnationals may close factories in locations with high wage rates and strong labor unions. Particular production tasks are concentrated in specific geographic areas. is post-fordist production

range

Each service has a distinctive market area. To determine the extent of a market area, geographers need two pieces of information about a service: its range and its threshold (Figure 12-6). How far are you willing to travel for a pizza? To see a doctor for a serious illness? To watch a ball game? The range is 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. People are willing to go only a short distance for everyday consumer services, such as groceries and pharmacies. But they will travel longer distances for other services, such as a concert or professional ball game. Thus a convenience store has a small range, whereas a stadium has a large range. In a large urban settlement, for example, the range of a fast-food franchise such as McDonald's is roughly 5 kilometers (3 miles), the range of a casual dining chain such as Steak' n Shake is roughly 8 kilometers (5 miles), and the range of a stadium is more than 100 kilometers (60 miles). As a rule, people tend to go to the nearest available service. For example, someone in the mood for a McDonald's hamburger is likely to go to the nearest McDonald's. Therefore, the range of a service must be determined from the radius of a circle that is irregularly shaped rather than perfectly round. The irregularly shaped circle takes in the territory for which the proposed site is closer than competitors' sites. The range must be modified further because most people think of distance in terms of time rather than in terms of a linear measure such as kilometers or miles. If you ask people how far they are willing to travel to a restaurant or a baseball game, they are more likely to answer in minutes or hours than in distance. If the range of a good or service is expressed in travel time, then the irregularly shaped circle must be drawn to acknowledge that travel time varies with road conditions. "One hour" may translate into traveling 100 kilometers (60 miles) while driving on an expressway but only 50 kilometers (30 miles) while driving city streets.

geothermal energy

Energy from this hot water or steam is called geothermal energy. Natural nuclear reactions make Earth's interior hot. Toward the surface, in volcanic areas, this heat is especially pronounced. The hot rocks can encounter groundwater and produce heated water or steam that can be tapped by wells. Harnessing geothermal energy is most feasible at sites along Earth's surface where crustal plates meet, which are also the sites of many earthquakes and volcanoes. The United States, the Philippines, and Indonesia are the leading producers of geothermal power (Figure 11-54). Ironically, in Iceland, named for its glaciers, nearly all homes and businesses in the capital Reykjavik are heated with geothermal steam.

global cities

Geographers identify a handful of urban settlements known as global cities (also called world cities) that play an especially important role in global business services. Global cities can be subdivided according to a number of criteria. Global cities are most closely integrated into the global economic system because they are at the center of the flow of information and capital. Business services that concentrate in disproportionately large numbers in global cities include: Financial institutions. As centers for finance, global cities attract the headquarters of the major banks, insurance companies, and specialized financial institutions where corporations obtain and store funds for expansion of production (Figure 12-19). Headquarters of large corporations. Shares of these corporations are bought and sold on stock exchanges located in global cities. Obtaining information in a timely manner is essential in order to buy and sell shares at attractive prices. Executives of manufacturing firms meeting far from the factories make key decisions concerning what to make, how much to produce, and what prices to charge. Support staff far from the factory accounts for the flow of money and materials to and from the factories. This work is done in offices in global cities. Lawyers, accountants, and other professional services. Professional services cluster in global cities to provide advice to major corporations and financial institutions. Advertising agencies, marketing firms, and other services concerned with style and fashion locate in global cities to help corporations anticipate changes in taste and to help shape those changes. Global cities are divided into three levels: alpha, beta, and gamma. These three levels are further subdivided (Figure 12-20). The same hierarchy of business services can be used within countries or continents (Figure 12-21). A combination of factors is used to identify and rank global cities: Economic factors. Number of headquarters for multinational corporations, financial institutions, and law firms that influence the global economy. Political factors. Hosting headquarters for international organizations and capitals of countries that play a leading role in international events. Cultural factors. Presence of renowned cultural institutions, influential media outlets, sports facilities, and educational institutions. Infrastructure factors. A major international airport, health-care facilities, and advanced communications systems. Technology was expected to reduce the need for clustering of services in large cities, but it hasn't. Communications. The telegraph and telephone in the nineteenth century and the computer in the twentieth century made it possible to communicate immediately with coworkers, clients, and customers around the world. Transportation. The railroad in the nineteenth century and the motor vehicle and airplane in the twentieth century made it possible to deliver people, inputs, and products quickly. Modern transportation and communi-cations enable industry to decentralize, as discussed in Chapter 11, but they reinforce rather than diminish the primacy of global cities in the world economy. Because of their large size, global cities have consumer services with extensive market areas, but they may have even more consumer services than large size alone would predict. A disproportionately large number of wealthy people live in global cities, so luxury and highly specialized products are especially likely to be sold there. Leisure services of national significance are especially likely to cluster in global cities, in part because they require large thresholds and large ranges and in part because of the presence of wealthy patrons. Global cities typically offer the most plays, concerts, operas, night clubs, restaurants, bars, and professional sporting events. They contain the largest libraries, museums, and theaters Global cities may be centers of national or international political power. Most are national capitals, and they contain mansions or palaces for the head of state, imposing structures for the national legislature and courts, and offices for the government agencies. Also clustered in global cities are offices for groups having business with the government, such as representatives of foreign countries, trade associations, labor unions, and professional organizations. Unlike other global cities, New York is not a national capital. But as the home of the world's major international organization, the United Nations, it attracts thousands of diplomats and bureaucrats, as well as employees of organizations with business at the United Nations. Brussels is a global city because it is the most important center for European Union activities.

hearth

Global culture and economy are increasingly centered on the three core, or hearth, regions: North America, Europe, and Japan. The hearth of modern industry—meaning the manufacturing of goods in a factory—was in northern England and southern Scotland during the second half of the eighteenth century. From that hearth, industry diffused to Europe and to North America in the nineteenth century and to other regions in the twentieth century. he earliest permanent settlements may have been established to offer consumer services, specifically places to bury the dead. Having established a permanent resting place for the dead, the group might then install priests at the site to perform the service of saying prayers for the deceased. This would have encouraged the building of structures—places for ceremonies and dwellings. By the time recorded history began about 5,000 years ago, many settlements existed, and some of them featured places of worship. Settlements were places to house families, permitting unburdened males to travel farther and faster in their search for food. Women kept "home and hearth," making household objects, such as pots, tools, and clothing, and educating the children. People also needed tools, clothing, shelter, containers, fuel, and other material goods. Settlements therefore became manufacturing centers. Men gathered the materials needed to make a variety of objects: stones for tools and weapons, grass for containers and matting, animal hair for clothing, and wood for shelter and heat. Women used these materials to manufacture household objects and maintain their dwellings.

non-basic sector

Goods and services produced by urban workers for people employed within the urban area

Low-order goods

Goods purchased more frequently, less expensive made as quick purchases products that are replenished quickly such as food and other routine household objects

Agglomeration

Grouping together of many firms from the same industry in a single area for collective or cooperative use of infrastructure and sharing of labor resources.

basic industry

Industries that sell their products or services primarily to consumers outside the settlement

central place theory

Is a geographical theory that seeks to explain the number, size and location of human settlements in an urban system. The theory was created by the German geographer Walter Christaller, who asserted that settlements simply functioned as 'central places' providing services to surrounding areas. A central place is 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. Businesses in central places compete against each other to serve as markets for goods and services for the surrounding region. According to central place theory, this competition creates a regular pattern of settlements. The area surrounding a service from which customers are attracted is the market area, or hinterland. A market area is a good example of a nodal region—a region with a core where the characteristic is most intense. To establish the market area, a circle is drawn around the node of service on a map. The territory inside the circle is its market area. To represent market areas in central place theory, geographers draw hexagons around settlements (Figure 12-4). Hexagons represent a compromise between circles and squares. Like squares, hexagons nest without gaps. Although all points along a hexagon are not the same distance from the center, the variation is less than with a square. Because most people prefer to get services from the nearest location, consumers near the center of the circle obtain services from local establishments. The closer to the periphery of the circle, the greater the percentage of consumers who will choose to obtain services from other nodes. People on the circumference of the market-area circle are equally likely to use the service or go elsewhere. The United States can be divided into market areas based on the hinterlands surrounding the largest urban settlements (Figure 12-5). Studies conducted by C. A. Doxiadis, Brian Berry, and the U.S. Department of Commerce allocated the 48 contiguous states to 171 functional regions centered around commuting hubs, which they called "daily urban systems." Each service has a distinctive market area. To determine the extent of a market area, geographers need two pieces of information about a service: its range and its threshold (Figure 12-6). How far are you willing to travel for a pizza? To see a doctor for a serious illness? To watch a ball game? The range is 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. People are willing to go only a short distance for everyday consumer services, such as groceries and pharmacies. But they will travel longer distances for other services, such as a concert or professional ball game. Thus a convenience store has a small range, whereas a stadium has a large range. In a large urban settlement, for example, the range of a fast-food franchise such as McDonald's is roughly 5 kilometers (3 miles), the range of a casual dining chain such as Steak' n Shake is roughly 8 kilometers (5 miles), and the range of a stadium is more than 100 kilometers (60 miles). As a rule, people tend to go to the nearest available service. For example, someone in the mood for a McDonald's hamburger is likely to go to the nearest McDonald's. Therefore, the range of a service must be determined from the radius of a circle that is irregularly shaped rather than perfectly round. The irregularly shaped circle takes in the territory for which the proposed site is closer than competitors' sites. The range must be modified further because most people think of distance in terms of time rather than in terms of a linear measure such as kilometers or miles. If you ask people how far they are willing to travel to a restaurant or a baseball game, they are more likely to answer in minutes or hours than in distance. If the range of a good or service is expressed in travel time, then the irregularly shaped circle must be drawn to acknowledge that travel time varies with road conditions. "One hour" may translate into traveling 100 kilometers (60 miles) while driving on an expressway but only 50 kilometers (30 miles) while driving city streets. The second piece of geographic information needed to compute a market area is the threshold, which is the minimum number of people needed to support the service. Every enterprise has a minimum number of customers required to generate enough sales to make a profit. So once the range has been determined, a service provider must determine whether a location is suitable by counting the potential customers inside the irregularly shaped circle. Census data help to estimate the potential population within the circle. How expected consumers inside the range are counted depends on the product. Convenience stores and fast-food restaurants appeal to nearly everyone, whereas other goods and services appeal primarily to certain consumer groups. For example: Movie theaters attract younger people; chiropractors attract older folks. Poorer people are drawn to thrift stores; wealthier ones might frequent upscale department stores. Amusement parks attract families with children; nightclubs appeal to singles. Developers of shopping malls, department stores, and large supermarkets may count only higher-income people, perhaps those whose annual incomes exceed $50,000. Even though the stores may attract individuals of all incomes, higher-income people are likely to spend more and purchase items that carry higher profit margins for the retailer. A large retailer has many locations to choose from when deciding to build new stores. A suitable site is one with the potential for generating enough sales to justify using the company's scarce capital to build it.

LDC

Less Developed Country n the global economy, developing countries specialize in two distinctive types of business services: offshore financial services and back-office functions. These businesses tend to locate in developing countries for a number of reasons, including the presence of supportive laws, weak regulations, and low-wage workers. know about relationship between offshore and back office functions.

linear rural settlement

Linear rural settlements comprise buildings clustered along a road, river, or dike to facilitate communications. The fields extend behind the buildings in long, narrow strips. Long-lot farms can be seen today along the St. Lawrence River in Québec (Figure 12-32). Québec got the system from the French.

long-lot system

Linear rural settlements comprise buildings clustered along a road, river, or dike to facilitate communications. The fields extend behind the buildings in long, narrow strips. Long-lot farms can be seen today along the St. Lawrence River in Québec (Figure 12-32). Québec got the system from the French. distinct regional approach to land surveying found in the Canadian Maritimes, parts of Quebec, Louisiana, and Texas whereby land is divided into narrow parcels stretching back from rivers, roads, or canals

Post-Fordist Production

Many industries now follow a lean, or flexible, production approach. The term post-Fordist production is sometimes used to describe lean production, in contrast with Fordist production. Another carmaker is best known for pioneering lean production: Toyota. Four types of work rules distinguish post-Fordist lean production: Teams. Workers are placed in teams and told to figure out for themselves how to perform a variety of tasks. Companies are locating production in communities where workers are willing to adopt more flexible work rules. Problem solving. A problem is addressed through consensus after consulting with all affected parties rather than through filing a complaint or grievance. Leveling. Factory workers are treated alike, and managers and veterans do not get special treatment; they wear the same uniform, eat in the same cafeteria, park in the same lot, and participate in the same athletic and social activities. Productivity. Factories have become more productive through introduction of new machinery and processes. Rather than requiring physical strength, these new machines and processes require skilled operators, typically with college degrees.

BRIC

Much of the world's future growth in manufacturing is expected to cluster in a handful of countries known as BRIC, which is an acronym coined by the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs for Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The foreign ministers of these four countries started meeting in 2006. The four BRIC countries together encompass one-fourth of the world's land area and contain 3 billion of the world's 7 billion inhabitants, but the four countries combined account for only one-sixth of world GDP (Figure 11-74). Their economies rank second (China), seventh (Brazil), ninth (Russia), and eleventh (India). China is expected to pass the United States as the world's largest economy around 2020, and India is expected to become second around 2050. China and India have the two largest labor forces, whereas Russia and Brazil are especially rich in inputs critical for industry. China, India, and Russia could form a contiguous industrial region, but long-standing animosity among them has limited their economic interaction so far. Brazil, is of course, not contiguous to the other three. Still, the BRIC concept is that if the four giants work together, they can be the world's dominant industrial bloc in the twenty-first century.

nuclear energy

Nuclear power is not renewable, but some view it as an alternative to fossil fuels. The big advantage of nuclear power is the large amount of energy released from a small amount of material. One kilogram of enriched nuclear fuel contains more than 2 million times the energy in 1 kilogram of coal. However, nuclear power presents serious challenges. Nuclear power supplies 14 percent of the world's electricity. Two-thirds of the world's nuclear power is generated in developed countries, with Europe and North America responsible for generating one-third each. Only 30 of the world's nearly 200 countries make some use of nuclear power, including 19 developed countries and only 11 developing countries. The countries most highly dependent on nuclear power are clustered in Europe (Figure 11-47), where it supplies 80 percent of all electricity in France and more than 50 percent in Belgium, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Dependency on nuclear power varies widely among U.S. states (Figure 11-48). Nuclear power accounts for more than 70 percent of electricity in Vermont and more than one-half in Connecticut, New Jersey, and South Carolina. At the other extreme, 20 states and the District of Columbia have no nuclear power plants. A nuclear power plant produces electricity from energy released by splitting uranium atoms in a controlled environment, a process called fission. One product of all nuclear reactions is radioactive waste, certain types of which are lethal to people exposed to it. Elaborate safety precautions are taken to prevent the leaking of nuclear fuel from a power plant. Nuclear power plants cannot explode, like a nuclear bomb, because the quantities of uranium are too small and cannot be brought together fast enough. However, it is possible to have a runaway reaction, which overheats the reactor, causing a meltdown, possible steam explosions, and scattering of radioactive material into the atmosphere. This happened in 1986 at Chernobyl, then in the Soviet Union and now in the north of Ukraine, near the Belarus border. The accident caused 56 deaths due to exposure to high radiation doses and an estimated 4,000 cancer-related deaths to people who lived near the plant. Following an earthquake and tsunami in 2011, three of the six reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced full meltdown, resulting in release of radioactive materials. Three workers died; the death toll among nearby residents exposed to high levels of radioactivity won't be known for years. The waste from nuclear fission is highly radioactive and lethal, and it remains so for many years. Plutonium for making nuclear weapons can be harvested from this waste. Pipes, concrete, and water near the fissioning fuel also become "hot" with radioactivity. No one has yet devised permanent storage for radioactive waste. The waste cannot be burned or chemically treated, and it must be isolated for several thousand years until it loses its radioactivity. Spent fuel in the United States is stored "temporarily" in cooling tanks at nuclear power plants, but these tanks are nearly full. The United States is Earth's third-largest country in land area, yet it has failed to find a suitable underground storage site because of worry about groundwater contamination. In 2002, the U.S. Department of Energy approved a plan to store the waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountains. But soon after taking office in 2009, the Obama administration reversed the decision and halted construction on the nearly complete repository. Nuclear power has been used in warfare twice, in August 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, ending World War II. No government has dared to use these bombs in a war since then because leaders recognize that a full-scale nuclear conflict could terminate human civilization. The United States and Russia (previously the Soviet Union) each have several thousand nuclear weapons. China, France, and the United Kingdom have several hundred nuclear weapons each, India and Pakistan several dozen each, and North Korea a handful. Israel is suspected of possessing nuclear weapons but has not admitted to it, and Iran has been developing the capability. Other countries have initiated nuclear programs over the years but have not advanced to the weapons stage. The diffusion of nuclear programs to countries sympathetic to terrorists has been particularly worrying to the rest of the world and has been a major factor in long-time tensions between Iran and other countries that do not want Iran to gain the capability of building a nuclear weapon. Nuclear power plants cost several billion dollars to build, primarily because of the elaborate safety measures required. Without double and triple backup systems at nuclear power plants, nuclear energy would be too dangerous to use. Uranium is mined in one place, refined in another, and used in still another. As with coal, mining uranium can pollute land and water and damage miners' health. The complexities of safe transportation add to the cost. As a result, generating electricity from nuclear plants is much more expensive than from coal-burning plants. The future of nuclear power has been seriously hurt by the high costs associated with reducing risks. Some nuclear power issues might be addressed through nuclear fusion, which is the fusing of hydrogen atoms to form helium. Fusion can occur only at very high temperatures (millions of degrees) that cannot been generated on a sustained basis in a power-plant reactor with current technology.

Vertical Integration

Outsourcing contrasts with the approach typical of traditional mass production, called vertical integration, in which a company controls all phases of a highly complex production process. Vertical integration was traditionally regarded as a source of strength for manufacturers because it gave them the ability to do and control everything. Carmakers once made nearly all their own parts, for example, but now most of this operation is outsourced to other companies that are able to make the parts cheaper and better.

cottage industry

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, industry was geographically dispersed across the landscape. People made household tools and agricultural equipment in their own homes or obtained them in the local village. Home-based manufacturing was known as the cottage industry system.

periodic markets

Services at the lower end of the central place hierarchy may be provided at a periodic market, which is a collection of individual vendors that come together to offer goods and services in a location on specified days. A periodic market typically is set up in a street or other public space early in the morning, taken down at the end of the day, and set up in another location the next day A periodic market provides goods to residents of developing countries, as well as rural areas in developed countries, where sparse populations and low incomes produce purchasing power too low to support full-time retailing. A periodic market makes services available in more villages than would otherwise be possible, at least on a part-time basis. In urban areas, periodic markets offer residents fresh food brought in that morning from the countryside. Many of the vendors in periodic markets are mobile, driving their trucks from farm to market, back to the farm to restock, then to another market. Other vendors, especially local residents who cannot or prefer not to travel to other villages, operate on a part-time basis, perhaps only a few times a year. Other part-time vendors are individuals who are capable of producing only a small quantity of food or handicrafts. The frequency of periodic markets varies by culture: Muslim countries. Markets in Muslim countries may conform to the weekly calendar—once a week in each of six cities and no market on Friday, the Muslim day of rest. Rural China. According to G. William Skinner, rural China has a three-city, 10-day cycle of periodic markets. The market operates in a central market on days 1, 4, and 7; in a second location on days 2, 5, and 8; in a third location on days 3, 6, and 9; and no market on the tenth day. Three 10-day cycles fit in a lunar month. Korea. Korea has two 15-day market cycles in a lunar month. Africa. In Africa, the markets occur every 3 to 7 days. Variations in the cycle stem from ethnic differences.

settlement

Services locate primarily in settlements. Rural settlements are centers for agriculture and provide a small number of services. Urban settlements are centers for consumer and business services. One-half of the people in the world live in rural settlements and the other half in urban settlements. Rural settlements are either clustered or dispersed: A clustered rural settlement is 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. Circular clustered rural settlements. A circular clustered rural settlement consists of a central open space surrounded by structures. In sub-Saharan Africa, the Maasai people, who are pastoral nomads, build circular settlements known as kraal (Figure 12-31). Women have the principal responsibility for constructing them. The kraal villages have enclosures for livestock in the center, surrounded by a ring of houses. von Thünen observed this circular pattern in Germany in his landmark agricultural studies in the early nineteenth century (refer to Figure 9-35). Linear clustered rural settlements. Linear rural settlements comprise buildings clustered along a road, river, or dike to facilitate communications. The fields extend behind the buildings in long, narrow strips. Long-lot farms can be seen today along the St. Lawrence River in Québec (Figure 12-32). Québec got the system from the French. A dispersed rural settlement is characterized by farmers living on individual farms isolated from neighbors rather than alongside other farmers in settlements.

Fordist production

Some geographers call this approach Fordist production, or mass production, because the Ford Motor Company was one of the first companies to organize its production this way early in the twentieth century.

CBD (central business district)

The area of a city where retail and office activities are clustered. Downtown is the best-known and the most visually distinctive area of most cities. Downtown is known to geographers by the more precise term central business district (CBD). The CBD is compact—less than 1 percent of the urban land area—but contains a large percentage of the public, business, and consumer services (Figure 13-5). Services are attracted to the CBD because of its accessibility. The CBD is the easiest part of the city to reach from the rest of the region and is the focal point of the region's transportation network.

Deglomeration

The dispersal of an industry that formerly existed in an established agglomeration.

hinterland

The market area surrounding an urban center, which that urban center serves. Early settlements housed political leaders as well as defense forces to guard the residents of the settlement and defend the surrounding hinterland from seizure by other groups. Settlements were first established in the eastern Mediterranean about 2500 b.c. These settlements were trading centers for the thousands of islands dotting the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean and provided the government, military protection, and other public services for their surrounding hinterlands. They were organized into city-states, which were defined in Chapter 8 as independent self-governing communities that included the settlement and nearby countryside.

threshold

The minimum number of people needed to support the service The second piece of geographic information needed to compute a market area is the threshold, which is the minimum number of people needed to support the service. Every enterprise has a minimum number of customers required to generate enough sales to make a profit. So once the range has been determined, a service provider must determine whether a location is suitable by counting the potential customers inside the irregularly shaped circle. Census data help to estimate the potential population within the circle. How expected consumers inside the range are counted depends on the product. Convenience stores and fast-food restaurants appeal to nearly everyone, whereas other goods and services appeal primarily to certain consumer groups. For example: Movie theaters attract younger people; chiropractors attract older folks. Poorer people are drawn to thrift stores; wealthier ones might frequent upscale department stores. Amusement parks attract families with children; nightclubs appeal to singles. Developers of shopping malls, department stores, and large supermarkets may count only higher-income people, perhaps those whose annual incomes exceed $50,000. Even though the stores may attract individuals of all incomes, higher-income people are likely to spend more and purchase items that carry higher profit margins for the retailer. A large retailer has many locations to choose from when deciding to build new stores. A suitable site is one with the potential for generating enough sales to justify using the company's scarce capital to build it.

primate sector

The portion of the economy concerned with the direct extraction of materials from Earth, generally through agriculture.

Enclosure Movement

The process of consolidating small landholdings into a smaller number of larger farms in England during the eighteenth century. In Europe, some clustered settlements were converted to dispersed settlements in order to make agriculture more efficient. Clustered rural settlements worked when the population was low, but they had no spare land to meet the needs of a growing population. With the introduction of machinery, farms operated more efficiently at a larger scale. For example, in the United Kingdom, the enclosure movement between 1750 and 1850 resulted in the consolidation of individually owned strips of land surrounding villages into large farms owned by single individuals (Figure 12-35). When necessary, the government forced people to give up their holdings. As displaced farmers moved to urban settlements, the population of clustered rural settlements declined drastically. Because the enclosure movement coincided with the Industrial Revolution, villagers displaced from farming became workers in urban factories.

Richard Florida

To some extent, talented individuals are attracted to the cities with the most job opportunities and financial incentives. But the principal enticement for talented individuals is cultural rather than economic, according to research conducted by Richard Florida. Florida found that individuals with special talents gravitate toward cities that offer more cultural diversity. He used a "coolness" index developed by POV Magazine that combined the percentage of population in their 20s, the number of bars and other nightlife places per capita, and the number of art galleries per capita

outsourcing

Transnational corporations have been especially aggressive in using low-cost labor in developing countries. To remain competitive in the global economy, they carefully review their production processes to identify steps that can be performed by low-paid, low-skilled workers in developing countries. Despite the greater transportation cost, transnational corporations can profitably transfer some work to developing countries, given their substantially lower wages compared to those in developed countries. At the same time, operations that require highly skilled workers remain in factories in developed countries. This selective transfer of some jobs to developing countries is known as the new international division of labor. Transnational corporations allocate production to low-wage countries through outsourcing, which is turning over much of the responsibility for production to independent suppliers. Outsourcing has had a major impact on the distribution of manufacturing because each step in the production process is now scrutinized closely in order to determine the optimal location. Outsourcing contrasts with the approach typical of traditional mass production, called vertical integration, in which a company controls all phases of a highly complex production process. Vertical integration was traditionally regarded as a source of strength for manufacturers because it gave them the ability to do and control everything. Carmakers once made nearly all their own parts, for example, but now most of this operation is outsourced to other companies that are able to make the parts cheaper and better. Outsourcing is especially important in the electronics industry. The world's largest electronics contractor is Foxconn, a major supplier of chips and other electronics components for such companies as Apple and Intel. Foxconn employs around 1 million people in China, including several hundred thousand at its Foxconn City complex in Shenzhen (Figure 11-71). Working conditions at Foxconn have been scrutinized by Chinese and international organizations. A large percentage of Foxconn's employees live in dormitories near the factories, and they work long hours for low wages and limited benefits. More controversial is an internship program employing young people during the summers that critics charge is a way for the company to get free child labor A second distinctive type of business service found in peripheral regions is back-office functions, also known as business-process outsourcing (BPO). Typical back-office functions include insurance claims processing, payroll management, transcription work, and other routine clerical activities. Back-office work also includes centers for responding to billing inquiries related to credit cards, shipments, and claims, or technical inquiries related to installation, operation, and repair. Traditionally, companies housed their back-office staff in the same office building downtown as their management staff, or at least in nearby buildings. A large percentage of the employees in a downtown bank building, for example, would be responsible for sorting paper checks and deposit slips. Proximity was considered important to assure close supervision of routine office workers and rapid turnaround of information. Rising rents downtown have induced many business services to move routine work to lower-rent buildings elsewhere. In most cases, sufficiently low rents can be obtained in buildings in suburbs or nearby small towns. For many business services, improved telecommunications is the most important factor in eliminating the need for spatial proximity. Selected developing countries have attracted back offices for two reasons related to labor: low way or ability to speak English

conurbation

a continuous, extended urban area formed by the growing together of several formerly separate, expanding cities

global city

a former industrial center that has reinvented itself as a command center for global production Geographers identify a handful of urban settlements known as global cities (also called world cities) that play an especially important role in global business services. Global cities can be subdivided according to a number of criteria. Global cities are most closely integrated into the global economic system because they are at the center of the flow of information and capital. Business services that concentrate in disproportionately large numbers in global cities include: Financial institutions. As centers for finance, global cities attract the headquarters of the major banks, insurance companies, and specialized financial institutions where corporations obtain and store funds for expansion of production (Figure 12-19). Headquarters of large corporations. Shares of these corporations are bought and sold on stock exchanges located in global cities. Obtaining information in a timely manner is essential in order to buy and sell shares at attractive prices. Executives of manufacturing firms meeting far from the factories make key decisions concerning what to make, how much to produce, and what prices to charge. Support staff far from the factory accounts for the flow of money and materials to and from the factories. This work is done in offices in global cities. Lawyers, accountants, and other professional services. Professional services cluster in global cities to provide advice to major corporations and financial institutions. Advertising agencies, marketing firms, and other services concerned with style and fashion locate in global cities to help corporations anticipate changes in taste and to help shape those changes. Global cities are divided into three levels: alpha, beta, and gamma. These three levels are further subdivided (Figure 12-20). The same hierarchy of business services can be used within countries or continents (Figure 12-21). A combination of factors is used to identify and rank global cities: Economic factors. Number of headquarters for multinational corporations, financial institutions, and law firms that influence the global economy. Political factors. Hosting headquarters for international organizations and capitals of countries that play a leading role in international events. Cultural factors. Presence of renowned cultural institutions, influential media outlets, sports facilities, and educational institutions. Infrastructure factors. A major international airport, health-care facilities, and advanced communications systems. Technology was expected to reduce the need for clustering of services in large cities, but it hasn't. Communications. The telegraph and telephone in the nineteenth century and the computer in the twentieth century made it possible to communicate immediately with coworkers, clients, and customers around the world. Transportation. The railroad in the nineteenth century and the motor vehicle and airplane in the twentieth century made it possible to deliver people, inputs, and products quickly. Modern transportation and communi-cations enable industry to decentralize, as discussed in Chapter 11, but they reinforce rather than diminish the primacy of global cities in the world economy. Because of their large size, global cities have consumer services with extensive market areas, but they may have even more consumer services than large size alone would predict. A disproportionately large number of wealthy people live in global cities, so luxury and highly specialized products are especially likely to be sold there. Leisure services of national significance are especially likely to cluster in global cities, in part because they require large thresholds and large ranges and in part because of the presence of wealthy patrons. Global cities typically offer the most plays, concerts, operas, night clubs, restaurants, bars, and professional sporting events. They contain the largest libraries, museums, and theaters (Figure 12-22). Global cities may be centers of national or international political power. Most are national capitals, and they contain mansions or palaces for the head of state, imposing structures for the national legislature and courts, and offices for the government agencies. Also clustered in global cities are offices for groups having business with the government, such as representatives of foreign countries, trade associations, labor unions, and professional organizations. Unlike other global cities, New York is not a national capital. But as the home of the world's major international organization, the United Nations, it attracts thousands of diplomats and bureaucrats, as well as employees of organizations with business at the United Nations. Brussels is a global city because it is the most important center for European Union activities.

urban agglomeration economy

a localized economy in which a large number of companies, services, and industries exist in close proximity to one another and benefit from the cost reductions and gains in efficiency that result from this proximity

hierarchal region

a region in which business are broken down into what is most important and placed in specific locations based on importance

vernacular region

a region perceived and defined by its inhabitants, usually with a popularly given or accepted nickname; popular region example: southwest of US

photovoltaic

active solar energy in direct electric conversion, solar radiation is captured with photovoltaic cells, which convert light energy to electrical energy. Bell Laboratories invented the photovoltaic cell in 1954. Each cell generates only a small electric current, but large numbers of these cells wired together produce significant electricity. These cells are made primarily of silicon (also used in computers), the second most abundant element in Earth's crust. When the silicon is combined with one or more other materials, it exhibits distinctive electrical properties in the presence of sunlight, known as the photovoltaic effect. Electrons excited by the light move through the silicon, producing direct current (DC) electricity. In developing countries, the largest and fastest-growing market for photovoltaic cells includes the 2 billion people who lack electricity, especially residents of remote villages. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, more homes have been electrified in recent years using photovoltaic cells than by hooking up to the central power grid. In Morocco, solar panels are sold in bazaars and open markets, next to carpets and tinware. The cost of cells must drop and their efficiency must improve for solar power to expand rapidly, with or without government support. Solar energy will become more attractive as other energy sources become more expensive. A bright future for solar energy is indicated by the fact that petroleum companies now own the major U.S. manufacturers of photovoltaic cells.

service industry

any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who provide it. Any kind of economic activity that produces a service rather than a product a business that provides services to people instead of producing goods a business that does work for a customer, and occasionally provides goods but is not involved in manufacturing.

dispersed services settlement

characterized by farmers living on individual farms isolated from neighbors rather than alongside other farmers in settlements. isolated farms are typical of most of the rural United States. A dispersed pattern developed from the time of initial settlement of the Middle Atlantic colonies because most immigrants to these colonies arrived individually rather than as members of a cohesive group, as in New England. As people moved westward from the Middle Atlantic region, they took with them their preference for isolated individual farms. The land was plentiful and cheap, so people bought as much as they could manage In Europe, some clustered settlements were converted to dispersed settlements in order to make agriculture more efficient. Clustered rural settlements worked when the population was low, but they had no spare land to meet the needs of a growing population. With the introduction of machinery, farms operated more efficiently at a larger scale. For example, in the United Kingdom, the enclosure movement between 1750 and 1850 resulted in the consolidation of individually owned strips of land surrounding villages into large farms owned by single individuals (Figure 12-35). When necessary, the government forced people to give up their holdings. As displaced farmers moved to urban settlements, the population of clustered rural settlements declined drastically. Because the enclosure movement coincided with the Industrial Revolution, villagers displaced from farming became workers in urban factories

Offshore Financial Center

country or territory whose financial sector features very few regulations and few, if any, taxes Small countries, usually islands and microstates, exploit niches in the circulation of global capital by offering offshore financial services. Offshore centers provide two important functions in the global circulation of capital: Taxes. Taxes on income, profits, and capital gains are typically low or nonexistent. Companies incorporated in an offshore center also have tax-free status, regardless of the nationality of the owners. The United States loses an estimated $150 billion in tax revenue each year because companies operating in the country conceal their assets in offshore tax havens. Privacy. Bank secrecy laws can help individuals and businesses evade disclosure in their home countries. Corporations and people who may be accused of malpractice, such as a doctor or lawyer, or the developer of a collapsed building, can protect some of their assets from lawsuits by storing them in offshore centers. So can a wealthy individual who wants to protect assets in a divorce. Creditors cannot reach such assets in bankruptcy hearings. Short statutes of limitation protect offshore accounts from long-term investigation. The privacy laws and low tax rates in offshore centers can also provide havens to tax dodges and other illegal schemes. By definition, the extent of illegal activities is unknown and unknowable. The International Monetary Fund, the Tax Justice Network's Financial Secrecy Index, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development all maintain lists of offshore financial services centers. Figure 12-23 shows locations that appear on all three organizations' lists. These include: Dependencies of the United Kingdom, such as Anguilla and Montserrat in the Caribbean, Isle of Man and Jersey in the English Channel, and Gibraltar off Spain. Dependencies of other countries, such as Cook Island (controlled by New Zealand), Aruba and Curaçao (controlled by the Netherlands), and Hong Kong and Macau (controlled by China). Independent island countries, such as The Bahamas and Grenada in the Caribbean, Nauru and Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean, and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Other independent countries, such as Liechtenstein and Switzerland in Europe, Belize and Uruguay in Latin America, and Bahrain and Brunei in Asia

metropolitan area

he economic and cultural area of influence of a settlement extends beyond the urban area in the United States as well as other countries (Figure 13-4). The U.S. Bureau of the Census has created a method of measuring the larger functional area of a settlement, known as the metropolitan statistical area (MSA). An MSA includes the following: An urbanized area with a population of at least 50,000. The county within which the city is located. In New England, towns are sometimes used instead of counties. Adjacent counties with a high population density and a large percentage of residents working in the central city's county (specifically, a county with a density of 25 persons per square mile and at least 50 percent working in the central city's county). Studies of metropolitan areas in the United States are usually based on information about MSAs. MSAs are widely used because many statistics are published for counties, the basic MSA building block in most states. The Census Bureau designated 388 MSAs as of 2013, encompassing 84 percent of the U.S. population.

right to work

he principal lure for many manufacturers has been right-to-work laws. A right-to-work law requires a factory to maintain a "open shop" and prohibits a "closed shop." In a closed shop, a company and a union agree that everyone must join the union to work in the factory. In an open shop, a union and a company may not negotiate a contract that requires workers to join a union as a condition of employment. Twenty-five U.S. states (refer to Figure 11-75) have right-to-work laws that make it much more difficult for unions to organize factory workers, collect dues, and bargain with employers from a position of strength. Right-to-work laws send a powerful signal that anti-union attitudes will be tolerated and perhaps even actively supported. As a result, the percentage of workers who are members of a union is much lower in the South than elsewhere in the United States. More importantly, the region has been especially attractive for companies working hard to keep out unions altogether.

primary sector

includes activities that directly extract materials from Earth through agriculture (as discussed in Chapter 9) and sometimes by mining, fishing, and forestry. he share of GNI accounted for by the primary sector has decreased in developing countries, but it remains higher than in developed countries. The low share in developed countries indicates that a handful of farmers produce enough food for the rest of society.

meridian

is an arc drawn between the North and South poles. The location of each meridian is identified on Earth's surface according to a numbering system known as longitude. The meridian that passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England, is 0° longitude, also called the prime meridian. The meridian on the opposite side of the globe from the prime meridian is 180° longitude. All other meridians have numbers between 0° and 180° east or west, depending on whether they are east or west of the prime meridian. For example, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, is located at 44° west longitude and Baghdad, Iraq, at 44° east longitude By international agreement, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or Universal Time (UT), which is the time at the prime meridian (0° longitude), is the master reference time for all points on Earth.

remanufacturing

is the rebuilding of a product to specifications of the original manufactured product using a combination of reused, repaired and new parts. Both (this and recycling) are increasingly used in industry as ways to promote a more sustainable production process. Recycled materials can be remanufactured into new products. Four major manufacturing sectors accounted for more than half of the recycling activity: paper mills, steel mills, plastic converters, and iron and steel foundries (see Sustainability & Our Environment feature). Common household items that contain remanufactured materials include newspapers and paper towels; aluminum, plastic, and glass soft-drink containers; steel cans; and plastic laundry detergent bottles. Recycled materials are also used in such industrial applications as recovered glass in roadway asphalt ("glassphalt") and recovered plastic in carpet, park benches, and pedestrian bridges. One of the world's most extreme instances requiring a form of remanufacturing is the Aral Sea, divided between the countries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Aral Sea was the world's fourth-largest lake in 1960, at 68,000 square kilometers (26,000 square miles). It had shrunk to approximately 5,000 square kilometers (2,000 square miles) in 2010, and it could disappear altogether by 2020 (Figure 11-84). The shrinking has been captured in aerial photos and satellite imagery. The Aral Sea died because beginning in 1954, the Soviet Union diverted its tributary rivers, the Amu Dar'ya and the Syr Dar'ya, to irrigate cotton fields. Ironically, the cotton now is withering because winds pick up salt from the exposed lakebed and deposit it on the cotton fields. Carp, sturgeon, and other fish species have disappeared; the last fish died in 1983. Large ships lie aground in salt flats that were once the lakebed, outside abandoned fishing villages that now lay tens of kilometers from the rapidly receding shore. Remanufacturing contributes to a more sustainable environment. The principal challenge is to increase its economic sustainability. Paper. Most types of paper can be recycled. Newspapers have been recycled profitably for decades, and recycling of other paper, especially computer paper, is growing. Rapid increases in virgin paper pulp prices have stimulated construction of more plants capable of using waste paper. The key to recycling is collecting large quantities of clean, well-sorted, uncontaminated, dry paper. Plastic. The plastic industry has developed a system of numbers marked inside triangles. Symbols 2 (milk jugs), 4 (shopping bags), and 5 (such as yogurt containers) are considered to be safest for recycling. The plastics in symbols 3 (such as food wrap), 6 (Styrofoam), and 7 (such as iPad cases) may contain carcinogens. Symbol 1 (soda and water bottles) can allow bacteria to accumulate. Aluminum. The principal source of recycled aluminum is beverage containers. Aluminum cans began to replace glass bottles for beer during the 1950s and for soft drinks during the 1960s. Aluminum scrap is readily accepted for recycling, although other metals are rarely accepted. Glass. Glass can be used repeatedly with no loss in quality and is 100 percent recyclable. The process of creating new glass from old is extremely efficient, producing virtually no waste or unwanted by-products. Though unbroken clear glass is valuable, mixed-color glass is nearly worthless, and broken glass is hard to sort

recycling

is the separation, collection, processing, marketing, and reuse of unwanted material. Remanufacturing is the rebuilding of a product to specifications of the original manufactured product using a combination of reused, repaired and new parts. Both are increasingly used in industry as ways to promote a more sustainble production process. Recycling increased in the United States from 7 percent of all solid waste in 1970 to 10 percent in 1980, 17 percent in 1990, and 34 percent in 2013 (Figure 11-82). As a result of recycling, about 87 million of the 254 million tons of solid waste generated in the United States in 2013 did not have to go to landfills and incinerators, compared to 34 million of the 200 million tons generated in 1990. The percentage of materials recovered by recycling varies widely by product: 50 percent of paper products and 24 percent of yard trimmings are recycled, compared to less than 10 percent for other sources of solid waste (Figure 11-83). Materials that would otherwise be "thrown away" are collected and sorted, in four principal ways: Curbside programs, drop-off centers, buy-back centers, and deposit programs. Regardless of the collection method, recyclables are sent to a materials recovery facility to be sorted and prepared as marketable commodities for manufacturing. Recyclables are bought and sold just like any other commodity; typical prices per ton in recent years have been $300 for clear plastic bottles, $30 for clear glass, and $100 for newspaper. Prices for the materials change and fluctuate with the market.

function classification

know which service fits into each category Consumer services. The principal purpose of consumer services is to provide services to individual consumers who desire them and can afford to pay for them. Around one-half of all jobs in the United States are in consumer services. Four main types of consumer services are retail, health, education, and leisure. Business services. The principal purpose of business services is to facilitate the activities of other businesses. One-fourth of all jobs in the United States are in business services. Professional services, transportation services, and financial services are the three main types of business services. Public services. The purpose of public services is to provide security and protection for citizens and businesses. About 10 percent of all U.S. jobs are in the public sector. Excluding educators, one-sixth of public-sector employees work for the federal government, one-fourth for one of the 50 state governments, and three-fifths for one of the tens of thousands of local governments.

High-order service

more complex services for example: doctors, financial services,

bulk reduction

n industry in which the inputs weigh more than the final products is a bulk-reducing industry. To minimize transport costs, a bulk-reducing industry locates near its sources of inputs. An example of a bulk-reducing industry is most of the steps of copper production. Copper production involves several steps: Mining. Mining in general is bulk reducing because the heavy, bulky ore extracted from mines is mostly waste, known as gangue (Figure 11-10). Concentration. The ore is crushed and ground into fine particles, mixed with water and chemicals, filtered, and dried. Concentration mills are near copper mines because concentration transforms the heavy, bulky copper ore into a product of much higher value per weight. Smelting. The concentrated copper becomes the input for smelters, which remove more impurities. Because smelting is a bulk-reducing industry, smelters are built near their main inputs—the concentration mills—again to minimize transportation costs. Refining. The purified copper produced by smelters is treated at refineries to produce copper cathodes, about 99.99 percent pure copper. Most refineries are located near smelters. Manufacturing. Copper that is ready for use in other products is produced in foundries. Mining, concentration, smelting, and refining are bulk-reducing industries; because two-thirds of U.S. copper is mined in Arizona, the state also has most of the concentration mills, smelters, and refineries. The first four steps are good examples of bulk-reducing activities that need to be located near their sources of inputs. The fifth step—manufacturing—is not bulk reducing, so foundries are located near markets on the East and West coasts rather than near inputs.

logarithmic paper-shapes

n many developed countries, ranking settlements from largest to smallest (population) produces a regular pattern. This is the rank-size rule, in which the country's nth-largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement. According to the rank-size rule, the second-largest city is one-half the size of the largest, the fourth-largest city is one-fourth the size of the largest, and so on. When plotted on logarithmic paper, the rank-size distribution forms a fairly straight line. In the United States the distribution of settlements closely follows the rank-size rule If the settlement hierarchy does not graph as a straight line, then the country does not follow the rank-size rule. Instead, it may follow the primate city rule, in which the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement. In this distribution, the country's largest city is called the primate city. Mexico is an example of a country that follows the primate city distribution. Its largest settlement, Mexico City, is five times larger than its second-largest settlement, Guadalajara, rather than two times larger (Figure 12-11).

lean production

post-Fordist production

non-basic industry

serves primarily customers living in the same settlement. A settlement's economic base is important because exporting by the basic businesses brings more money into the local economy, thus stimulating the provision of more nonbasic services for the settlement. It works like this: New basic businesses attract new workers to a settlement. The new basic business workers bring their families with them. New nonbasic services are opened to meet the needs of the new workers and their families. f a settlement's basic businesses are growing, they attract other basic and nonbasic businesses that can benefit from proximity. The result can be a cluster of businesses that reinforce each other's growth. For example, Boston's basic sector in biotechnology consists of a cluster of business sectors that complement each other (Figure 12-28). Conversely, if a settlement's basic businesses are shedding jobs—such as Detroit's auto industry—then other businesses in the cluster may also decline.

median

the middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it the between of range and threshold

basic sector

those products or services of an urban economy that are exported outside the city itself, earning income for the community exports primarily to customers outside the settlement.

public services industry

to provide security and protection for citizens and businesses. About 10 percent of all U.S. jobs are in the public sector. Excluding educators, one-sixth of public-sector employees work for the federal government, one-fourth for one of the 50 state governments, and three-fifths for one of the tens of thousands of local governments.

consumer service industry

to provide services to individual consumers who desire them and can afford to pay for them. Around one-half of all jobs in the United States are in consumer services. Four main types of consumer services are retail, health, education, and leisure. generally follow a regular pattern based on size of settlements, with larger settlements offering more consumer services than smaller ones. The earliest permanent settlements may have been established to offer consumer services, specifically places to bury the dead. Having established a permanent resting place for the dead, the group might then install priests at the site to perform the service of saying prayers for the deceased. This would have encouraged the building of structures—places for ceremonies and dwellings. By the time recorded history began about 5,000 years ago, many settlements existed, and some of them featured places of worship. Settlements were places to house families, permitting unburdened males to travel farther and faster in their search for food. Women kept "home and hearth," making household objects, such as pots, tools, and clothing, and educating the children. People also needed tools, clothing, shelter, containers, fuel, and other material goods. Settlements therefore became manufacturing centers. Men gathered the materials needed to make a variety of objects: stones for tools and weapons, grass for containers and matting, animal hair for clothing, and wood for shelter and heat. Women used these materials to manufacture household objects and maintain their dwellings. With much of Europe and Southwest Asia & North Africa under Roman rule, settlements were established as centers of administrative, military, and other public services, as well as retail and other consumer services. Large consumer service centers such as a mega-mall often attract other consumer services nearby.

restoration

to rebuild a service??? maybe a a false answer

food desert

upermarkets, as well as most other retailers, avoid low-income neighborhoods. This can lead to the existence of food deserts. The U.S. government defines a food desert as an area that has a substantial amount of low-income residents and has poor access to a grocery store. Poor access is defined by the government in most cases as further than 1 mile. A distance of 1 mile is not far for people to travel in a car, but it is far for low-income people who do not own cars. Not surprisingly, food deserts in Dayton are located in areas that lack supermarkets operated by Kroger and its competitors

sphere of influence

when a country carved priority in a foreign land its an exclusive trade zone to that country happening to China when British arrived. could refer to an area where a business will have absolute control

export processing zones

zones established by many countries in the periphery and semi-periphery where they offer favorable tax, regulatory, and trade arrangements to attract foreign trade and investment