Randomness and order in the topology of settlement systems.

The frequency distribution of settlement links forms the basis of a linear programming methodology which can be utilized to analyze the structure of settlement systems. The resulting index of system topology is compared to a more conventional measure, Geary's contiguity coefficient, which may be applied when the problem is conceptualized as one of spatial autocorrelation on a k-color map. The index of linkage similarity that is introduced appears to have a useful advantage over the Geary measure. The Geary and linkage similarity indices are used to examine the topology of four Canadian and two hypothetical settlement systems.-Authors