a population’s ability to access services outside that area. In the case of a school catchment area, children may be unable to enroll in a school outside their catchment to prevent the school's services being exceeded. Examples Airports can be built and maintained in locations which minimize the driving distance for the surrounding population to reach them. A neighborhood or district of a city often has several small convenience shops, each with a catchment area of several streets. Supermarkets, on the other hand, have a much lower density, with catchment areas of several neighborhoods (or several villages in rural areas). This principle, similar to the central place theory, makes catchment areas an important area of study for geographers, economists, and urban planners. In order to compensate for income inequalities, distances, variations in secondary educational level, and other similar factors, a nation may structure its higher education catchment areas to ensure a good mixture of students from different backgrounds. Hong Kong divides its primary schools into School Nets under its Primary One Admission System, functioning as catchment areas for allocation of school places. To inform prospective employers, transport providers, planners and local authorities, data detailing the travel to work patterns of seven towns in the Western Region of Ireland were used to define each towns’ labour catchments. See also City region Commuting zone Hinterland Larger urban zone Rural-urban commuting area School district Urban planning References External links http://www.owlapps.net/application-geomarketing: catchment area calculations free webapp List of Nigerian Universities Catchment Areas Global visualization of Urban–Rural Catchment Areas Human geography Economic geography