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The idea of the Transect originated as an ecological tool used to describe a series of natural environments. A classic example of the Transect is illustrated below; it runs from ocean to beach to dune ridge to palmetto grove to oak canopy forest and beyond. Each Transect zone has its own distinct set of rules. Certain plants and certain animals live in each, but not in others, and things behave differently in each.

The idea, however, applies equally well to the human habitat. The Transect of the human habitat is divided into six Context Zones. Each zone is defined by very specific rules that set it apart from the others. The Context Zones begin with t1 Natural, then move into t2 Rural, t3 Suburban Neighborhood, t4 General Urban, t5 Urban Center, and t6 Urban Core.

The illustrations to the immediate right are plan and section views of each zone. The text on the opposite page describes some of the differences as you move from rural to urban, such as environments that are dark to well-lit, quiet to bustling, and that have rustic materials to refined materials, curving lines to straight lines, open spaces to bounded spaces, and some of the other characteristics that change as you move from wild nature to civilization. But the list of things that change along the transect is far too long to fully include here. Just look around you; you'll see it in all the great old places.

The Natural Zone includes all lands that have been permanently protected from development. This includes national parks, state parks and most land trust lands. Here, in the wilderness, nature trumps mankind every time. This is actually a place that is just a bit dangerous to humans; something could bite you or even eat you, for example. The only buildings you're likely to find here are forest rangers' cabins or campground structures. This is the quietest place you can find (except in a thunderstorm or a buffalo stampede), and it's the place where the stars shine the brightest at night.

The Rural Zone includes lands that are not currently slated for development, but that have not been permanently protected, either. Most of the Rural Zone in the eastern United States is farmland and countryside. This zone isn't quite as dangerous, but stay out of the fence where the bulls live. Humans begin to shape this zone, but they uses natural or rustic materials to do it, like the lonely lines of barbed wire strung along cedar posts at the edge of a field. You may hear a distant tractor plowing the fields by day. The blips of the fireflies over the fresh-mown fields are still the most numerous lights, but you may occasionally see a light in the window of a farmhouse as you go by, at least until bedtime.

The Suburban Neighborhood Zone isn't exactly the 'burbs. It's close, to be sure, but it doesn't include some things like the big box retail that you might find in a highway business district. The Suburban Zone is most similar to the areas at the outskirts of town where the town grid begins to give way to nature. Here, lots are usually larger, streets begin to curve with the contour of the land, and fences, if you have them, look more like their country cousins around the homestead. Streetlights and sidewalks begin to occur in this Zone, but only on the busiest streets. Natural features such as streams still trump things built by humans, in part because of the cost of modifying things so large.

The General Urban Zone is the place that settlements finally start coalescing into strongly identifiable neighborhoods, each with their own center that you can walk to in five minutes or less. This is the place where the houses pull up close enough to the street that you can sit on your porch and talk to your neighbor leaning over your fence with the latest news. And this is the place that kids love after having been held hostage at the end of a cul-de-sac for the past half-century by anyone with a drivers' license. Here, the neighborhood is compact enough that they can safely walk down tree-lined sidewalks to the ice cream store down on the corner, and return home before they finish the cone.

The Urban Center Zone is Main Street America. There was always a good selection of apartments over the Street itself, and over the square. Young people just getting started would often live in an apartment over Main Street, but they weren't alone. The Main Street neighborhood was as diverse as any, including merchants living over their shops and old folks who didn't want to have to saddle up to get to all the necessities. You could see lights on in the windows over the square every evening, and could hear mothers calling their kids to come in and do their homework long after the old men out in front of the general store had folded up their checkerboard and gone home for the day.

The Urban Core Zone only occurs in cities. It is the brightest, noisiest, most exciting part of the city, with the city's tallest buildings, busiest streets, and most variety. It's the place where you should find one-of-a-kind functions like City Hall, but it's also the place with all the galleries and the biggest selection of restaurants. The Urban Core is the place where mankind trumps nature; it's where the only trees are lined up in tree wells beside the street, and where the river running through the city is contained in grand stone embankments. The Urban Core is so intriguing that thousands or more stay there for months on end, leaving the wilderness to grow in peace.