Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
catchment area
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Neither hospital was sufficiently remote from its catchment area to warrant the intervention of the centre to impose closure.
▪ Prep schools have no secure catchment area, they have always depended on the forces of the market place for their survival.
▪ The catchment area shown for the funnel is very small.
▪ The closure was doubly important because the catchment area covered the inner London districts of Westminster, Paddington and Hammersmith.
▪ The hospitals more remote from their catchment area were thus the natural early candidates for closure.
▪ To prevent your club becoming too large, restrict its catchment area.
WordNet
catchment area
n. the geographical area draining into a river or reservoir [syn: catchment basin, drainage area, drainage basin]
Wikipedia
Catchment area (disambiguation)
A catchment area may refer to:
- Catchment area (human geography), the area and population from which a facility or region attracts visitors or customers
- Drainage basin, an extent of land where water from precipitation drains into a body of water
Catchment area
In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a city, service or institution attracts a population that uses its services. For example, a school catchment area is the geographic area from which students are eligible to attend a local school.
Governments and community service organizations often define catchment areas for planning purposes and public safety such as ensuring universal access to services like fire departments, police departments, ambulance bases and hospitals.