World urbanization is not evenly distributed. However, urbanization is gaining rapidly elsewhere as a condition of economic development. Cities are growing together to form giant urban agglomerations or megalopolises. Read Chapter 10 to find examples of megacities in different regions of the world, notably North America, Western Europe, Japan, South and East Asia. Cities serve important functions in different societies.
Cities are places of incredible creativity, cultural creation, excitement, and innovation.
Central Place Theory helps to explain why small urban places like villages lie close together, while larger cities lie far apart. Cities are arranged in hierarchies. The locations of these cities follow a regular pattern, a pattern disturbed by physical barriers, resource distributions, and other factors. But by and large, cities are arranged in space in hexagonal regions. Cities show regularity in the arrangement of places within the city.