system of reference coordinates, typically based on a grid covering theEarth’s
surface—a commonly used grid would be that oflatitude and longitude,but
others such as the Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system might be used
to identify the absolute location of a place as well. Absolute location provides a
precise reference for a place or feature, but it tells us nothing about the specific
qualities of that place. Relative location, on the other hand, indicates how a place
is related to other places around it, how it interacts with those places, and brings
to light other factors of location that absolute location ignores or cannot identify.
The idea of location lies at the heart of every branch of geography. Urban geog-
raphy uses the locational aspects of “site” and “situation” to analyze patterns of
urban development. This approach is a more sophisticated extension of “absolute”
versus “relative” location in regard to the location of urban places. A central line
of inquiry for urban geographers is the question of why cities develop in certain
places, and what factors help to determine whether a city grows and possibly
emerges as aprimate city,or fails to increase in size and function, or perhaps even
declines and vanishes from thelandscapecompletely. The site of a city or town is
a key aspect of its location, because it includes the physical characteristics of the
place, and the manner in which the city is organized and functions, including its
morphology (layout) and internal spatial dynamics. When considering aspects of
site, the emphasis is on the immediate vicinity, meaning thelocalgeographical
considerations. The situation of the city, on the other hand, refers to the locational
context of the urban place in relation to the surroundingregion. The situation of
the urban settlement considers its connectivity to the broader environment, includ-
ing the availablenatural resources,the city’s economic and political integration
with other cities in the region, its relationship to the regional transport system,
and other factors. The situation may change quite rapidly, of course. A city that
has a major highway built adjacent to it, or is declared an administrative capital,
will likely reap significant benefits from its new situation.
Economic geographers are concerned with how location influences the activities
of development and commerce in a place, and the concept is central to much of the
theoretical underpinnings of the subdiscipline. “Location theory” in economic
geography has focused on the relevance of location in both agricultural production
and distribution, as well as how locational factors dictate the distribution, shape
and function of markets, and patterns of consumption. A well-known example of
the former is thevon Thunen model,developed in the early 1800s in Germany to
explain the locational distribution of various zones or rings of agricultural produc-
tion that formed around the locus of an urban market. Von Thunen was the first
scholar to observe the organizational structure and the spatial dynamics of agricul-
tural output in relation to transport costs, demand, and other market forces. The
location and functionality of market centers has also attracted a good deal of210 Location