Unit 6- 49 words Flashcards
inhabited land
ecumene
a place with a permanent human population
settlement
areas with low concentration of people
rural
areas with high concentration of people
urban
primarily residential areas near cities
suburbs
an ongoing process that does not end once a city is formed.
urbanization
an indicator of the proportion of the population that lives in cities and towns as compares to those that live in rural areas
percent urban
describes the characteristics at the immediate location
site
refers to the location of a place relative to its surroundings and its connectivity to other places
situation
consisted of an urban center and its surrounding territory and agricultural villages.
city-state
area generally associated with defensible sites and river valleys in which seasonal floods and fertile soils allowed for an agricultural surplus
urban hearth
defined as a central city plus land developed for commercial, industrial, or residential purposes, and includes the surrounding suburbs
urban area
The higher-density area with territory inside officially recognized political boundaries
city
a collection of adjacent cities economically connected, across which population density is high and continuous
metropolitan area
another way to define a city. Consists of a city of at least 50,000 people, the county in which it is located, and adjacent counties that have a high degree of social ad economic integration, or connection, with the urban core.
Metropolitan statistical area
focal point in a matrix of connections
nodal region
particularly high in cities, meaning that the population cities, as compared to other areas, contains a greater variety of people
social heterogeneity
the shrinking “time-distance”, or relative distance, between locations because of improved methods of transportation and communication
time-space compression
model to describe urban growth based on transportation technology. Each new form of technology produced a new system that changed how people moved themselves and goods in and between urban areas.
Brochert’s transportation model
cities shaped by distances people could walk
pedestrian cities
communities that grew up along rail lines, emerged, often creating a pinwheel shaped city
streetcar suburbs
involves the process of people moving, usually from cities, to residential areas on the outskirts of cities
suburbanization
rapid expansion of the spatial extent of a city and occurs for numerous reasons:
growth of suburbs, lower land costs in suburbs compared to inner cities, lower density single family housing, weak planning laws, the continuing growth of car culture
sprawl
where developers purchase land and build communities beyond the periphery of the city’s built area
leap-frog development
nodes of economic activity that have developed in the periphery of large cities.
edge cities
the counter-flow of urban residents leaving cities is known as…
counter-urbanization or deurbanization
the prosperous residential districts beyond the suburbs
exurbs
as some suburbanites return to live in the city
reurbanization
rapidly growing communities
boomburgs
have a population of more than 10 million people
megacities
continuous urban area with a population greater than 20 million people. Attributes of a network of urban areas that have grown together to form a larger interconnected urban system
metacities
goes back to the early 1900s and describes a chain of connected cities
megalopolis
an uninterrupted urban area made of towns, suburbs, and cities.
conurbation
cities that exert influence far beyond their national boundaries
world or global cities
ranking based on influence or population size
urban hierarchy
command centers on a regional and occasionally national level
nodal cities
interdependent set of cities that interact on the regional, national, and global scale
urban system
describes one way in which the sizes of cities within a region may develop
rank-size rule
usually expensive, need a large number of people to support, and are only occasionally utilized
higher-order services
usually less expensive, require a small population to support, and are used on a daily or weekly basis.
lower-order services
if the largest city in an urban system is more than twice as large as the next larges city, the largest city is said to have…
primate city
states that larger and closer places will have more interactions than places that are smaller and farther from each other
gravity model
explains the distribution of cities of different sizes across a region
central place theory
a location where people go to receive goods and services.
central place
zone that contains people who will purchase goods or services
market place
Christaller chose to depict these market areas, because this shape was a compromise between a square- in which people living in the corners would be farther from the central place- and a circle- in which there would be overlapping areas of service
hexagonal hinterlands
the size of population necessary for any particular service to exist and remain profitable
threshold
the distance people will travel to obtain specific goods or services
range
cities of more than 10,000 inhabitants, the country in which they are located, and surrounding counties with a high degree of integration
micropolitan statistical area
