To understand the dynamics shaping the urban hierarchy in China.

Below them in the urban hierarchy came 100 or so towns with between 1,500 to 7,000 people each.

In the orderly arrangement of an urban hierarchy, seven different principal orders of settlement have been identified by Christaller, providing different groups of goods and services.

Since December 2004, the Costa da Caparica has been designated as city within the urban hierarchy of Portugal.

A primate city is the leading city in its country or region, disproportionately larger than any others in the urban hierarchy.

Decentralization from the inner parts of cities accelerated from about 1960, affecting the largest places first and then spreading down through the urban hierarchy.

The decentralization process operated in association with the urban hierarchy, beginning with the largest place then moving successively downwards (table 3.2).

A secondary city often follows after a primate city and can be seen in the urban hierarchy.

The question they ask is whether the heavily damaged cities recovered to their prewar place in Japan's urban hierarchy, or whether they entered into a downward spiral.

Even in postwar Japan there were no downward spirals, and cities quickly returned to their original positions in the urban hierarchy.