ABSTRACT

This chapter summarizes the major functions of settlements in an integrative manner to demonstrate how they form a functioning and interacting system. It describes some of the urban settlements with special characteristics of plan, function, and size. Maryland presents an interesting urban network with its national, regional, and local centers. The rural areas of Maryland are associated with their local urban centers in a complementary manner, and the whole system focuses up the ladder on the port city of Baltimore. The smallest settlements in Maryland are roadsides: isolated establishments. The next larger rural settlement is the hamlet, which has about 150 people. The urban system in Maryland has a distinctive pattern: a dominating concentration stretching from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., a number of smaller cities around the state serving as regional centers, and many smaller towns and villages serving very local areas.