A theory that explains the distribution of services, treating settlements as centers of market areas; larger settlements are fewer and farther apart.

• A. Non-basic industries
• B. Basic Industries
• C. Public Services
• D. Central Place Theory

Answer: (D)

Central Place Theory describes how settlements function as centers of market areas and predicts that larger settlements require a larger surrounding population to support higher-order services, leading to fewer and more widely spaced large towns or cities. As a settlement grows, it can offer more specialized goods and services that have higher thresholds and longer ranges, so they attract customers from greater distances. To cover space efficiently, market areas are arranged so that every location is within a reasonable travel distance of a central place, often visualized as a hexagonal lattice. This framework directly matches the description in the question, where services are distributed with settlements acting as market centers and larger ones being fewer and farther apart. The other options don’t describe a theory of spatial distribution of services and market areas.