10 Functional Region Examples

What is a functional region and what are the examples of a functional region?

If you never missed a geography class while in high school, I believe you may have heard about functional regions.

According to the functional region definition, it states that it’s a kind of region that is defined by an economic or social attribute. It’s a region with a central node upon which everything within that region relies on.

A transportation hub and shopping centres would all be considered functional regions. Additionally, examples of central nodes around which a region functions include city centres, hospitals, and airports.

Besides discussing functional region examples, we will also be looking at formal regions.

Definition of a Functional Region

According to the functional region definition, it states that it’s a kind of region that is defined by an economic or social attribute. Generally, the attribute is placed in the centre of the region.

Functional regions are also referred to as nodal regions. This is because the attribute that defines the region is centred in a nodal point and serves as a type of focal point.

Let’s say you want to order a pepperoni pizza and after typing in your address in the delivery system, it comes up with notice that the restaurant doesn’t deliver to your address.

The reason the restaurant can’t deliver to your address is because you are not in the functional region of their delivery.

Formal Region

A formal region describes an area defined by official boundaries. It may include a county, city, state, or country as well as a geographic region.

Its definition refers to a type of region characterised by a very uniform attribute that exists across the entire region. From climate to political, the attribute here could be anything provided the attribute is distributed throughout the region.

For example, you travelled all the way to Maine to go hunting with your friends. The state of Maine is a formal region of the U.S. that has a common state government.

Let’s say there is a state law prohibiting hunting in Maine while you and your friends were visiting. The law will apply to the entire region of the state, which means you and your friends can’t even hunt a rabbit in the state of Maine while the law still stands.

Functional Region Examples

Let’s explore functional region examples.

#1. School Catchment Areas

In several countries around the world, their public schools have catchment areas. The catchment area consists of many schools and students who live inside these zones automatically have the right to attend any school they want.

The students living inside these zones may also be required to attend schools within the catchment area.

For any reason a student moves too far out of the catchment area, they may have to attend a different school.

Generally, school catchment areas tend to play a role in the price of houses. A school with a reputable background will attract more students to move in within the catchment area.

This will cause the prices of homes to go up as more families will be moving into the catchment area.

#2. Branch Banks

A bank branch functions in an area to enable people living within that area to gain access to certain services without going to the home branch of the bank. The bank branch helps customers carry out important transactions.

Generally, the main bank creates various branches in order to cover other areas. In a branch banking system, creating various branches is important. This helps people living in different small communities access their bank accounts and complete important transactions.

We can consider branch banks as a functional region as the main branch serves as the focal point.

Additionally, functional regions can be subdivided into smaller regions. For example, you have local bank branches that act as the central hub of a sub-region. These local bank branches are still a part of a larger functional region which include the whole banking company.

Also Read: What Are the Sociological Concepts? (Tips for Students)

#3. Transportation Zones

According to Helpfulprofessor.com, functional regions are usually defined by the reach of a transportation network.

In cities like New York and London, the suburbs served by these cities’ subway systems allow people to gain access to fast transport to move around these cities.

These suburbs are within the city’s functional region and anyone outside this region falls outside of the city’s functional region.

#4. Castle Walls

During the medieval period, cities were built with walls surrounding them. Even castles were built with walls to keep out enemies.

Castle walls were built to keep out raiders, which was very common in the middle ages. Towns and cities began building castle towers and walls to surround their inner market regions.

Not everyone living in towns and cities was living inside a castle wall. Most of the townspeople lived outside the wall. They owned farmlands and when it was to sell their products, they enter the castle walls to sell in the market.

During a raid or war, the people living outside the castle wall would run inside where they will be safe from the raiders.

In this situation, the castle was the node that acted as a protector keeping the people safe.

#5. Cities

One of the functional region examples that is considered the most obvious is a city. It’s a region with lots of opportunities, where people attend the best schools and secure lucrative jobs.

There is so much going on within a city each day. Every industry within a city functions at full capacity and it hardly lacks supplies where (hospitals, supermarkets, etc.) they are needed.

We see more people from rural areas moving to the cities in search of lucrative jobs. Because of this, cities are becoming overpopulated and as a result, new areas are developed for people to live in.

Those who live too far away from the city would be outside the functional region.

#6. Mining Towns

National resources are mostly found in remote areas. To extract the resources in these remote areas, heavy machinery and a large workforce is needed.

Workers come into these remote areas for work, hence the mining town is established to serve a purpose.

People living in these remote areas are employed to work in order to service the mine. But once the natural resources are all extracted, the town goes back to what it used to be.

#7. Radio Reception Areas

You always listen to your favourite program on the radio while driving around the city. Now when you drive away from the city, you will notice that your radio reception will start to fade.

This happens because you are moving too far away from a central node which is the radio tower.

Because of this, radio stations in cities target an audience within an area where their radio waves can reach.

#8. Pizza Delivery Zones

You decide to order a pizza from a restaurant and after typing in your address in the delivery system, it comes up with a notice that the restaurant doesn’t deliver to your address.

The reason the restaurant can’t deliver to your address is because you are not in the functional region of their delivery.

#9. Emergency Services Zones

Emergency services are organized into service regions to ensure first responders arrive quickly on scene.

When there is a fire outbreak and you call the fire brigade right away. They will respond and send out a fire truck from any of the nearest fire stations closest to your location.

You will get a quick response from the fire department in your city. However, when you are leaving town, you will see a notification that reads “Now leaving city fire service region”.

Once you are outside the functional region, the city’s fire service will not attend to any fire emergency.

#10. Power Grids

Living in a city where you have access to the power grid keeps you within the functional region of a specific power plant. Residents who live “off grid” are outside of the functional region.

You also experience the same thing for internet service if you are too far away from a cell tower.

The Texas power grid is a real-life example to look at. The Texas power grid is disconnected from the entire country’s power grid. So, when power surges occur in the Lone Star state, they can’t tap into the power grids of neighbouring states.

Conclusion

According to the functional region definition, it states that it’s a kind of region that is defined by an economic or social attribute.

Functional regions are also referred to as nodal regions. This is because the attribute that defines the region are centred in a nodal point and serve as a type of focal point.

We hope this article on functional region examples was helpful.

Recommendations

References

Sciencestruck: Functional Region: Definition and Examples
Study.com: Region Types and Examples
HelpfulProfessor: 10 Functional Region Examples
Sciencedirect: Functional Region
Sciencetrends: Functional Region: Definition And Examples
MGR. PAVEL KLAPKA, PhD et al (2013) : FUNCTIONAL REGIONS: CONCEPT AND TYPES
LA Brown, J Holmes – Ekistics, 1971 : The delimitation of functional regions, nodal regions, and hierarchies by functional distance approaches

Definition of a Functional Region

Formal Region