Changing Urban Environments

Question 1

Urbanisation

Answer 1

A process where an increasing proportion of the population lives in towns and cities resulting in their growth.

Question 2

Rural-to-urban migration

Answer 2

Moving home from a rural area to settle in a town or city.

Question 3

Land use

Answer 3

The type of buildings or other features that are found in the area, e.g. terraced housing, banks, industrial estates, roads, parks.

Question 4

Function

Answer 4

The purpose of a particular area, e.g. for residential use, recreation or shopping.

Question 5

Central Business District (CBD)

Answer 5

The main shopping area in a city. The CBD is usually found in the middle of the city so that it is easily accessible.

Question 6

Inner city

Answer 6

The area around the CBD – usually built before 1918 in the UK.

Question 7

Outer city or suburbs

Answer 7

The area on the edge of the city. Many suburbs were built after 1945 and get newer as they reach the edge of the city.

Question 8

Household

Answer 8

A person living alone, or two or more people living at the same address, sharing a living room.

Question 9

Brownfield sites

Answer 9

Land that has been built on before and is to be cleared and reused. These sites are often in the inner city.

Question 10

Greenfield sites

Answer 10

Land that has not been built on before. Usually in the countryside on the edge of the built up area.

Question 11

Urban Development Corporations (UDCs)

Answer 11

Set up in the 1980s and 1990s using public funding to buy land and improve inner areas of cities, partly by attracting private investment.

Question 12

City Challenge

Answer 12

A strategy in which local authorities had to design a scheme and submit a bid for funding, competing against other councils. They also had to become part of a partnership involving the local community and private companies who would fund part of the development.

Question 13

Regeneration

Answer 13

Improving an area.

Question 14

Sustainable community

Answer 14

Community (offering housing, employment and recreation opportunities) that is broadly in balance with the environment and offers people a good quality of life.

Question 15

Quality of life

Answer 15

How god a person’s life is measured by such things as quality of housing an environment, access to education, heath care, how secure people feel and how happy they are with their lifestyle.

Question 16

Park-and-ride scheme

Answer 16

A bus service run to key places from car parks on the edge of busy areas in order to reduce traffic flows and congestion in the city centre. Costs are low to encourage people to use the system – they are generally cheaper than fuel and car parking charges in the city centre..

Question 17

Segregation

Answer 17

Occurs where people of a particular ethic group choose to live with others from the same ethnic group, separate from other groups.

Question 18

Squatter Settlements

Answer 18

Areas of cities (usually on the outskirts) that are built by people from any materials they can find on land that does not belong to them. They have different names in different parts of the world (e.g. favela in Brazil) and are often known as shanty towns.

Question 19

Informal Sector

Answer 19

That part of the economy where jobs are created by people to try to get an income (e.g. taking in washing, mending bikes) and are not recognised in official figures.

Question 20

Self-help

Answer 20

Sometimes known as assisted self-help (ASH), this is where local authorities help the squatter settlement residents to improve their homes by offering finance in the form of loan or grants and often installing water, sanitation, etc.

Question 21

Site and service

Answer 21

Occur where land is divided into individual plots and water, sanitation, electricity and basic track layout are supplied before any building by residents begins.

Question 22

Industrialisation

Answer 22

A process usually associated with the development of an economy, where an increasing proportion of people work in industry.

Question 23

Disposal of waste

Answer 23

Safely getting rid of unwanted items such as solid waste.

Question 24

Landfill

Answer 24

A means of disposing of waste by digging a large hole in the ground and lining it before filling it with waste.

Question 25

Recycling

Answer 25

Collection and subsequent reprocessing of products such as paper, aluminium cans, plastic containers and mobile phones, instead of throwing them away

Question 26

Air pollution

Answer 26

Putting harmful substances into the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide.

Question 27

Transnational Corporations (TNCs)

Answer 27

Companies that spread their operations around the world to try to reduce costs.

Question 28

Water Pollution

Answer 28

Putting poisonous substances into water courses such as sewage, industrial effluent and harmful chemicals.

Question 29

Sustainable city

Answer 29

An urban area where residents have a way of life that will last a long time. The environment is not damaged and the economic and social fabric are able to stand the test of time.

Question 30

Green belt

Answer 30

Land on the edge of the built-up area, where restrictions are placed on building to prevent the expansion of towns and cities and to protect the natural environment.

Question 31

Urban sprawl

Answer 31

The spreading or urban areas in to the surrounding rural/rural-urban fringe areas.

Question 32

Sustainability

Answer 32

Development that looks after future resources and considers the needs of future generations.