Ch 6: Cities and Urban Land-Use Patterns and Processes Vocab

Question 1

Action Space

Answer 1

The geographical area that contains the space an individual interacts with on a daily basis.

Question 2

Beaux Arts

Answer 2

The movement within city planning and urban design that stressed the marriage of older, classical forms with newer, industrial ones. Common characteristics of this period include wide thoroughfares, spacious parks, and civic monuments that stressed progress, freedom, and national unity.

Question 3

Blockbusting

Answer 3

As early as 1900, real estate agents and developers encouraged affluent white property owners to sell their homes and businesses at a loss by stoking fears that their neighborhoods were being overtaken by racial or ethnic minorities.

Question 4

Boomburg

Answer 4

A large, rapidly growing city that is suburban in character but resembles population totals of large urban cores.

Question 5

Borchert’s Epochs

Answer 5

According to the geographer John R. Borchert, American cities have undergone five major epochs, or periods, of development shaped by the dominant forms of transportation and communication at the time. These include the sil-wagon epoch (1790-1830), iron horse epoch (1830-1870), steel rail epoch (1870-1920), auto-air amenity epoch (1920-1970), and satellite-electronic jet propulsion and high-technology epoch (1970-present).

Question 6

Central Business District

Answer 6

The downtown or nucleus of a city where retail stores, offices, and cultural activities are concentrated; building densities are usually quite high; and transportation systems converge.

Question 7

Central-Place Theory

Answer 7

A theory formulated by Walter Christaller in the early 1900s that explains the size and distribution of cities in terms of a competitive supply of goods and services to dispersed populations.

Question 8

City Beautiful Movement

Answer 8

Movement in environmental design that drew directly from the Beaux Arts school. Architects from this movement strove to impart order on hectic industrial centers by creating urban spaces that conveyed a sense of morality and civic pride, which many feared was absent from the frenzied new industrial world.

Question 9

Colonial Cities

Answer 9

Cities established by colonizing empires as administrative centers. Often they were established on already existing native cities, completely overtaking their infrastructures.

Question 10

Concentric-Zone Model

Answer 10

Model that describes urban environments as a series of rings of distinct land uses radiating out from a central core, or central business district.

Question 11

Edge Cities

Answer 11

Cities that are located on the outskirts of larger cities and serve many of the same functions of urban areas, but in a sprawling, decentralized suburban environment.

Question 12

Environmental Justice

Answer 12

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulation, and policies.”

Question 13

European Cities

Answer 13

Cities in Europe that were mostly developed during the Medieval Period and that retain many of the same characteristics, such as extreme density of development with narrow buildings and winding streets, an ornate church that prominently marks the city center, and high walls surrounding the city center that provided defense against attack.

Question 14

Exurbanite

Answer 14

Person who has left the inner city and moved to outlying suburbs or rural areas.

Question 15

Feudal Cities

Answer 15

Cities that arose during the Middle Ages and that actually represent time of relative stagnation in urban growth. This system fostered a dependent relationship between wealthy landowners and peasants who worked their land, providing very little alternative economic opportunities.

Question 16

Forward Capital

Answer 16

A capital city placed in a remote or peripheral area for economic, strategic or symbolic reasons.

Question 17

Galactic City Model

Answer 17

A circular-city model that characterizes the role of the automobile in the postindustrial era.

Question 18

Gateway Cities

Answer 18

Cities that, because of their geographic location, act as ports of entry and distribution centers for large geographic areas.

Question 19

Gentrification

Answer 19

The trend of middle and upper income Americans moving into city centers and rehabilitating much of the architecture but also replacing low income populations, and changing the social character of certain neighborhoods.

Question 20

Ghettoization

Answer 20

A process occurring in many inner cities in which they become dilapidated centers of poverty, as affluent whites move out to the suburbs and immigrants and people of color vie for scarce jobs and resources.

Question 21

Great Migration

Answer 21

An early 20th century mass movement of African Americans from the Deep South to the industrial North, particularly Chicago.

Question 22

Hinterland

Answer 22

The market area surrounding an urban center, which that urban center serves.

Question 23

Industrial Revolution

Answer 23

Period characterized by the rapid social and economic changes in manufacturing and agriculture that occurred in England during the late 18th century and rapidly diffused to other parts of the developed world.

Question 24

Inner-City Decay

Answer 24

Those parts of large urban areas that lose significant portions of their populations as a result of change in industry or migration to suburbs. Because of these changes, the inner city loses its tax base and becomes a center of poverty.

Question 25

Islamic Cities

Answer 25

Cities in Muslim countries that owe their structure to their religious beliefs. Islamic cities contain mosques at their center and walls guarding their perimeter. Open-air markets, courtyards surrounded by high walls, and dead-end streets, which limit foot traffic in residential neighborhoods, also characterize Islamic cities.

Question 26

Latin American Cities

Answer 26

Cities in Latin America that owe much of their structure to colonialism, the rapid rise of industrialization, and continual rapid increases in population. Similar to other colonial cities, they also demonstrate distinctive sectors of industrial or residential development radiating out from the central business district, where most industrial and financial activity occurs.

Question 27

Medieval Cities

Answer 27

Cities that developed in Europe during the Medieval Period and that contain such unique features as extreme density of development with narrow buildings and winding streets, and ornate church that prominently marks the city center, and high walls surrounding the city center that provided defense against attack.

Question 28

Megacities

Answer 28

Cities, mostly characteristic of the developing world, where high population growth and migration have caused them to explode in population since World War 11. All mega cities are plagued by chaotic and unplanned growth, terrible pollution, and widespread poverty.

Question 29

Megalopolis

Answer 29

Several metropolitan areas that were originally separate but that have joined together to form a large, sprawling urban complex.

Question 30

Metacities

Answer 30

Larger than megacities, metacities describe an urban region where multiple dense areas/cores are interspersed with suburbs and green spaces (and squatter settlements in the case of developing countries.)

Question 31

Metropolitan Area

Answer 31

Within the United States, and urban area consisting of one or more whole county units, usually containing several urbanized areas, or suburbs, that all act together as a coherent economic whole.

Question 32

Multiple-Nuclei Model

Answer 32

Type of urban form wherein cities have numerous centers of business and cultural activity instead of one central place.

Question 33

New Urbanism

Answer 33

A movement in urban planning to promote mixed-use commercial and residential development and pedestrian-friendly, community-oriented cities. New urbanism is a reaction to the sprawling, automobile-centered cities of the mid 20th century.

Question 34

Node

Answer 34

Geographical center of activity. A large city, such as Los Angeles, has numerous nodes.

Question 35

Postmodern Architecture

Answer 35

A reaction in architectural design to the feeling of sterile alienation that many people get from modern architecture. Postmodernism uses older, historical styles and a sense of lightheartedness and eclecticism. Buildings combine pleasant-looking forms and playful colors to convey new ideas and to create spaces that are more people-friendly than their modernist predecessors.

Question 36

Primate City

Answer 36

A country’s leading city, with a population that is disproportionately greater than other urban areas within the same country.

Question 37

Rank-Size Rule

Answer 37

Rule that states that the population of any given town should be inversely proportional to its rank in the country’s hierarchy when the distribution of cities according to their sizes follows a certain pattern.

Question 38

Sector Model

Answer 38

A model of urban land use that places the central business district in the middle, with wedge shaped sectors radiating outward from the center along transportation corridors.

Question 39

Segregation

Answer 39

The process that results from sub-urbanization when affluent individuals leave the city center for homogeneous suburban neighborhoods. This process isolates those individuals who cannot afford to consider relocating to suburban neighborhoods and must remain in certain pockets of the central city.

Question 40

Squatter Settlements

Answer 40

Residential developments characterized by extreme poverty that usually exist on land just outside of cities that is neither owned nor rented by its occupants.

Question 41

Suburbs

Answer 41

Residential communities, located outside of city centers, that are usually relatively homogeneous in terms of population.

Question 42

Urban-Growth Boundaries

Answer 42

Geographical boundaries placed around a city to limit suburban growth within that city.

Question 43

Urban Morphology

Answer 43

The physical form of a city or urban region.

Question 44

Urban Revitalization

Answer 44

The process occurring in some urban area experiencing inner-city decay that usually involves the construction of new shopping districts, entertainment venues, and cultural attractions to entice young urban professionals back into the cities, where nightlife and culture are more accessible.

Question 45

Urban Sprawl

Answer 45

The process of expansive suburban development t over large areas spreading out from a city, in which the automobile provides the primary source of transportation.

Question 46

White Flight

Answer 46

The abandonment of cites by affluent or middle-class white residents. White flight was particularly problematic during the mid-20th century because it resulted in the loss of tax revenues to cities, which led to inner-city decay. This process reversed itself somewhat during the 1990s and 2000s with urban revitalization projects.

Question 47

World Cities

Answer 47

Centers of economic, cultural or political activity that are strongly interconnected and together control the global systems of finance and commerce.