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To illuminate the process of urban patterns, we examine the physical layout of the urban centers; changes in that layout, or spatial order, have a major impact on the lives of the city's residents. This examination charts a process of growth and development, decay and transformation. Since the early twentieth century, geographers have been grappling with the subject of urban development, searching for theories that explain the city's internal structure and external relations. No one theory can adequately explain how cities grow, but the questions theories raise and attempt to answer are at the heart of any examination of urbanization. In Chapter 13 we explore four key issues of urban patterns:
We examine the causes and consequences of today's evolving urban patterns. Even though characterization of internal structures of urban areas in the United States and elsewhere are different, the problems arising from current spatial trends are very similar. As geographers, we describe where different types of people live, and we try to explain the reasons for the observed patterns.
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