Density, Concentration, and Pattern
Mr. Koch’s Facebook friends

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

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
The total number of a
certain object in an
area
 Often compares
population in different
countries
 Myth: Large
population means high
population 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

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)
How spread out are features over space?

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)

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

The geometric arrangement of objects in space

Objects can be
organized in a
geometric pattern or
irregular shape
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
http://www.american-pictures.com/gallery/usa/book230t-a.jpg