1. How are features distributed?
Density, Concentration, and Pattern
How are features distributed?

2. Distribution, Density, and Concentration
Mr. Koch’s Facebook friends

3. Distribution The arrangement of features in space
May be numerous (friends in Iowa) or scarce (friends in Australia)
Close or far apart
Three main properties of space:
Density
Concentration
Pattern

4. Density Definition: How often something occurs in space.
High density=something occurs often
Low density= something occurs rarely
Kinds of density
Arithmetic density (including population density)
Physiological density
Agricultural density

5. Arithmetic Density The total number of a certain object in an area
Often compares population in different countries
Myth: Large population means high population density

6. Physiological Density
The number of people per unit of land suitable for agriculture (farming).
A high physiological density may mean a country can’t grow enough food to feed its population

7. Agricultural Density
Number of farmers per unit of area suitable for agriculture
High agricultural density means that most people grow just enough to feed themselves and their families (subsistence farming)

8. How spread out are features over space?
Concentration

9. Concentration, continued
Clustered: If objects in an area are relatively close together, they are clustered
Mr. Koch’s Facebook friends are mostly clustered in the United States (or even the Midwest)

10. Concentration, continued
Dispersed: If objects in an area are relatively far apart, they are dispersed.
Major League
baseball teams
are dispersed across the U.S. and Canada

11. The geometric arrangement of objects in space
Pattern

12. Pattern
Objects can be organized in a geometric pattern or irregular shape

13. Space and Segregation It’s illegal to discriminate, but…
Many aspects of American society are segregated by space
Inner-city neighborhoods
San Francisco’s gay/lesbian community
True on a global level as well