Revision Questions Flashcards
Urban rural fringe
This is found at the edge of a town or city and is where town meets country. It is common for this area to have a mixture of land uses such as some housing, golf courses, allotments, business parks and airports.
The suburbs
Suburban houses are usually larger than inner city terraces and most have a garden. Typically, they are detached or semi detached and the roads around them are arranged in cul de sacs and wide avenues. Land prices are generally cheaper than in the CBD and inner city, although the desirability of housing can make some areas expensive.
Inner city
The inner city is also known as the twilight zone. It is typically found next to the CBD and has mainly terraced houses in a grid like pattern. These were originally built to house factory workers who worked in the inner city factories. Many of these factories have now closed down.
Central business district (CBD)
The land in urban areas is used for many different purposes:
leisure and recreation - may include open land, eg parks or built facilities such as sports centres
residential - the building of houses and flats
transport - road and rail networks, stations and airports
business and commerce - the building of offices, shops and banks
industry - factories, warehouses and small production centres
The CBD in the city centre is where most business and commerce is located.
Enterprise Zones
An urban enterprise zone is an area in which policies to encourage economic growth and development are implemented. Urban enterprise zone policies generally offer tax concession, infrastructure incentives, and reduced regulations to attract investments and private companies into the zones.
Regional Development
Regional development is a broad term but can be seen as a general effort to reduce regional disparities by supporting (employment and wealth-generating) economic activities in regions. In the past, regional development policy tended to try to achieve these objectives by means of large-scale infrastructure development and by attracting inward investment.
Transport infrastructure
Transport infrastructure consists of the fixed installations including roads, railways, airways, waterways, canals and pipelines and terminals such as airports, railway stations, bus stations, warehouses, trucking terminals, refueling depots (including fueling docks and fuel stations) and seaports.
Different Nationalities in Britain
Between 1993 and 2015 the foreign-born population in the UK more than doubled from 3.8 million to around 8.7 million. During the same period, the number of foreign citizens increased from nearly 2 million to more than 5 million.
Globalisation
We now communicate and share each other’s cultures through travel and trade, transporting products around the world in hours or days. We are in a huge global economy where something that happens in one area can have knock on effects worldwide. This process is called globalisation.
Settlement functions
Most large settlements in MEDCs are multifunctional and perform a range of functions such as retail, education and industry.
When settlements first started to grow, most had only one distinct function, and others developed as the settlement grew.
Settlement
A settlement is a place where people live. A settlement may be as small as a single house in a remote area or as a large as a mega city (a city with over 10 million residents).
Site factors
Wet point sites - these have a good water supply. Many settlements grew around wet point sites, eg villages in the South Downs.
Dry point sites - these are away from the risk of flooding, eg Ely in Cambridgeshire.
Defensive sites - often found on higher ground so that in the past enemies could be seen from a distance, eg Corfe Castle, Dorset, or in the loop of a meander, eg Durham.
Aspect - settlements are often found on the sunny side of a deep valley. This is common in settlements in the Alps.
Shelter - from cold prevailing winds and rain.
Gap towns - Lincoln is found in a gap between two areas of higher ground.
Resources - important for industry, eg villages such as Aberfan in the Welsh valleys is close to coal reserves.
Bridging point - settlements with ‘ford’ in their name often grew around a fording point or bridging point, eg Watford is found on the River Colne.
Trading centres - often settlements grow where natural route ways and rivers meet, which helps the development of roads, railways and canals.
Inequallity
Income inequality in countries is at its highest level for the past half century. The average income of the richest 10% of the population is about nine times that of the poorest 10%, up from seven times 25 years ago. Only in Turkey, Chile, and Mexico has inequality fallen, but in the latter two countries the incomes of the richest are still more than 25 times those of the poorest. The economic crisis has added urgency to the need to address inequality. Uncertainty and fears of social decline and exclusion have reached the middle classes in many societies.
Deindustrialisation
Deindustrialisation involves a decrease in the relative size and importance of the industrial sector in an economy. It may involve a decrease in the absolute size of industry or it might just mean that manufacturing/industry takes a smaller share of GDP and employs a smaller % of the workforce.
Depopulation
A population decline in humans is any great reduction in a human population such as long-term demographic trends, as in sub-replacement fertility, urban decay, white flight or rural flight, or due to violence, disease, or other catastrophes.
Decentralisation
Decentralisation is the process of distributing power away from the centre of an organisation. In the case of a corporation this usually means divesting authority away from the head office and out to operators in the field. Debate centres on which is the more efficient structure for an organisation that has a number of far-flung arms, especially a multinational with operations in several different countries.
Changes in rural area - job losses
Several factors have led to a decline in employment in rural areas.
The mechanisation of agriculture means less people are needed to work on the land. Raw materials which may have been mined are becoming exhausted, so mines are closing.
Imported food and raw materials also decreases the demand from the countryside.
Changes in rural area - house price increases
Restrictions on new developments in National Parks means housing stock is restricted. Attractive areas found in National Parks create demand from second home owners pushing local people out of the price bracket.
Changes in rural area - new homes
The UK has a shortage of suitable homes. Greenfield sites are cheaper to build on than brownfield sites. Related problems, such as traffic congestion and increased car journeys are created.
