This book presents a selection of readings to present varied opinions, approaches and reports from various international professional journals. Among the journals represented are: Regional Science Association Journal, The Canadian Geographer, The Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Economic Geography, Landscape, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation and Land Economics. This book was first published in 1970.

This is Volume II of a series of six on Urban and Regional Economics originally published in 1960. This study discusses the future of urban developments in America. Has they already have megapolitan belts, sprawling regions of quasi-urban settlement stretching along coast lines or major transportation routes, current concepts of the community stand to be challenged. What will remain of local government and institutions if locality ceases to have any historically recognizable form? The situations described in this book pertain to the mid-century United States of some 150 million people. What serviceable image of metropolis and region can we fashion for a country of 300 million? The prospect for such a population size by the end of the twentieth century is implicit in current growth rates, as is the channeling of much of the growth into areas now called metropolitan or in process of transfer to that class.

Contents: Statements of central place theory Studies of systems of central places Studies of urban spheres of influence and the trade areas of cities Ideas of areal functional organization Fairs and markets The internal business structure of the city On town-country relations, rural neighborhoods and communities Medical service areas Planned shopping centers On measuring retail trade areas and urban domin ance fields; store location research Relations of business structure and consumer shopping and travel habits Central place theory as location theory Ecological theory and central places Planning concepts, community organization, and business centers Business structure and the theory of retailing Urban business structure and urban land use theory.