1. URBAN HIERARCHY Urban hierarchy – a ranking of settlements (hamlet, village, town, city, metropolis) according to their size, economic status, and functional complexity. Hamlet Villages Towns City Metropolis Megalopolis (a.k.a. conurbation) Several metropolitan areas linked together Ex: Boston to Washington on Eastern U.S.

4. OTHER URBAN HIERARCHIES Megacity Megacities – cities with 10 million or more residents. World City World city – one of a small number of interconnected, internationality dominant centers at the top of the global hierarchy (e.g., New York, London, Tokyo); not necessarily the world’s biggest cities in terms of population or industrial output, but rather centers of strategic control of the world economy. London, New York & Tokyo are generally considered the leading world cities Alpha World City Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore Beta Mexico City, Sao Paulo, San Francisco, Moscow, Madrid, Seoul, Brussels Gamma Boston, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Beijing, Shanghai, Rome, Prague

6. RANK-SIZE RULE Rank-size rule – in a model urban hierarchy, it is a pattern of settlements such that the nth largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement. Relatively developed societies produce a ranking in the hierarchy of their cities according to a mathematical formula The n th largest settlement in a region is 1/n the population of the largest settlement in the region Felix Auerbach (1913) suggested George Zipf (1941) created formula Generally applies more to MDCs than LDCs

8. URBAN PRIMACY In less developed countries/regions, the largest city is overly populated. The pattern of settlements is such that the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second largest settlement. These large cities are known as primate cities Primate city – The largest city in a country that is much greater than the second largest, overwhelming the rest of the country in terms of population, as well as cultural and economic importance. Binary Distribution: when there are two very large cities of almost equal population within the same region India: New Delhi (25 million) & Mumbai (21 million)

9. PRIMATE CITIES Primate Cities Mexico City, Mexico 20.999 million Seoul, South Korea 9.774 million Luanda, Angola 5.506 million Bangkok, Thailand 9.27 million London, UK 10.313 million Paris, France 10.843 million Copenhagen, Denmark 1.268 million 2 nd Largest City Guadalajara 4.843 milllion Busan 3.216 million Huambo 1.269 million Samut Prakan 1.814 million Manchester 2.646 million Lyon 1.609 million Århus 242,000