Population, Urbanization and the Environment Flashcards
Asylum-Seekers:
Those whose claim to refugee status have not been validated.
Cancer Cluster:
A geographic area with high levels of cancer within its population.
Carrying Capacity:
The amount of people that can live in a given area considering the amount of available resources.
Climate Change:
Long-term shifts in temperature and climate due to human activity.
Concentric Zone Model:
A model of human ecology that views cities as a series of circular rings or zones.
Cornucopian Theory:
A theory that asserts human ingenuity will rise to the challenge of providing adequate resources for a growing population.
Demographic Transition Theory:
A theory that describes four stages of population growth, following patterns that connect birth and death rates with stages of industrial development.
Demography:
The study of population.
E-Waste:
The disposal of broken, obsolete, and worn-out electronics.
Environmental Racism:
The burdening of economically and socially disadvantaged communities with a disproportionate share of environmental hazards.
Environmental Sociology:
The sociological subfield that addresses the relationship between humans and the environment.
Exurbs:
Communities that arise farther out than the suburbs and are typically populated by residents of high socioeconomic status.
Fertility Rate:
A measure noting the actual number of children born.
Fracking:
Hydraulic fracturing, a method used to recover gas and oil from shale by drilling down into the earth and directing a high-pressure mixture of water, sand, and proprietary chemicals into the rock.
Gentrification:
The entry of upper-class and middle-class residents to city areas or communities that have been historically less affluent.
Human Ecology:
A functional perspective that looks at the relationship between people and their built and natural environment.
Internally Displaced Person:
Someone who fled their home while remaining inside the country’s borders.
Malthusian Theory:
A theory asserting that population is controlled through positive checks like war, famine, and disease as well as preventive checks such as measures to reduce fertility.
Megalopolis:
A large urban corridor that encompasses several cities and their surrounding suburbs and exurbs.
Metropolis:
The area that includes a city and its suburbs and exurbs.
Mortality Rate:
A measure of the number of people in a population who die.
Not In My Backyard:
The tendency of people to protest poor environmental practices when those practices will affect them directly.
Pollution:
The introduction of contaminants into an environment at levels that are damaging.
Population Composition:
A snapshot of the demographic profile of a population based on fertility, morality, and migration rates.
Population Pyramid:
A graphic representation that depicts population distribution according to age and sex.
Refugee:
An individual who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.
Sex Ratio:
The ratio of men to women in a given population.
Suburbs:
The communities surrounding cities, typically close enough for a daily commute.
Sustainable Development:
Development that occurs without depleting or damaging the natural environment.
Urban Sociology:
The subfield of sociology that focuses on the study of urbanization.
Urbanization:
The study of the social, political, and economic relationships of cities.
White Flight:
The migration of economically secure white people from racially mixed urban areas toward the suburbs.
Zero Population Growth:
A theoretical goal in which the number of people entering a population through birth or immigration is equal to the number of people leaving it via death or emigration.
