6.1 (Pgs. 367-374) Flashcards
Ecumene
The permanently inhabited portion of the earth’s surface.
Rural
Areas (farms and villages) with low concentrations of people.
Urban
Areas (cities) with high concentrations of people.
Suburbs
Areas that are primarily residential areas near cities.
Settlement
A place with a permanent human population.
^ Factors driving urbanization
- The presence of an agricultural surplus
- The rise of social stratification and a leadership class or urban elite
- The beginning of job specialization
Urbanization
The process of developing towns and cities.
Percent Urban
An indicator of the proportion of the population that lives in cities and towns as compared to those that live in rural areas.
Site
Describes the characteristics at the immediate location.
Situation
Refers to the location of a place relative to its surroundings and its connectivity to other places.
City-state
Consisted of an urban center and its surrounding territory and agricultural villages. Had its own political system and functioned independently from other city-states.
^ Urban hearth (historical examples)
Area generally associated with defensible sites and river valleys in which seasonal floods and fertile soils allowed for an agricultural surplus:
- The Tigris-Euphrates Valley (Mesopotamia) in modern Iraq
- The Nile River Valley and Nile Delta in modern Egypt
- The Indus River Valley in modern Pakistan
- The Huang-He floodplain in modern China
Urban area
Defined as a central city plus land developed for commercial, industrial, or residential purposes, and includes the surrounding suburb.
City
A higher-density area with territory inside officially recognized political boundaries.
Metropolitan Area (metro area)
A collection of adjacent cities economically connected, across which population density is high and continuous.
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)
Another way to define a city. Consists of a city of at least 50,000 people, the country in which it is located, and adjacent counties that have a high degree of social and economic integration, or connection, with the urban core.
Micropolitan Statistical Area
Cities of more than 10,000 inhabitants (but less than 50,000), the country in which they are located, and surrounding counties with a high degree of integration.
Nodal region
Focal point in a matrix of connections.
Morphology
Physical characteristics, such as buildings, streets, public places, and homes.
^ Population characteristics of cities (3)
- The built-up area is where the landscape has a high concentration of people and structures
- The places where built-up areas begin to give way to open spaces and underdeveloped areas are the outskirts of the city
- This end of the continuously built-up area is often considered an urban border, whether or not it coincides with a legally defined city boundary.
Time-space compression
How the relationship of places changes due to improvements in transportation.
^ Borchert’s Transportation Model (chart)
Describes urban growth based on transportation technology,
Sail-Wagon (1790-1830): Water ports became very important. Poor road conditions made long-distance travel between cities difficult.
Iron Horse (1830-1870): Steam engines powered boats, which promoted the growth of river cities. Regional rail networks connected cities. Rail lines connected resources and industrial sites.
Steel Rail (1870-1920): Transcontinental railways emerged. Cities emerged along rail lines in the interior of continents.
Auto-Air-Amenity (1920-1970): Cars allowed cities to spread out. Airport hubs emerged. Cities became far more interconnected.
^ Transportation impacts on cities
Allowed for city size to increase as people could move farther from the center and its concentration of services and jobs. Using cars and highways facilitated movement. Major cities that want to grow economically must have access to multiple modes of national and international transportation, as well as trade networks with air travel becoming increasingly important.
Pedestrian Cities
Cities shaped by the distances people could walk.
Streetcar suburbs
Communities that grew up along rail lines. Often create a pinwheel-shaped city.
^ Communications impacts on cities
Communication networks are essential to attract large corporations, factories, or high-tech companies to an urban area in order to encourage further economic growth.
^ Population and migration impacts on cities
Population growth pressure, cultural tension, environmental strain, and lack of economic opportunities create push factors in agricultural communities. Cities promise the hope of economic opportunities and cultural freedoms. Rapid growth from migration has stretched resources and created challenges for cities, such as substandard housing, overcrowding, and stressed infrastructure (transportation, sanitation, and water systems).
^ Economic Development and government policies impact on cities.
Economic and political leaders develop policies to guide and encourage the growth of cities. Local policies that created economic incentives, such as low-cost loans, lower taxes, or cheap available land, were used to encourage economic development.