Unit 6 & 7 Vocab Flashcards
Urbanization
the process of developing towns and cities
Site
describes the characteristics at the immediate location
Situation
refers to the location of a place relative to its surroundings and its connectivity to other places
City-state
consisted of an urban center and its surrounding territory and agricultural villages
-has its own political system and functioned independently from others
Urban Hearth
area generally associated with defensible sites and river valleys in which seasonal floods and fertile soils allowed for an agricultural surplus
Urban area
a central city plus the land developed for commercial, industrial, or residential purposes
Metropolitan area
a collection of adjacent cities economically connected, across which population density it high and continuous
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)
consists of a city of a least 50,000 people
Micropolitan Statistical Ares
more than 10,000 people but less that 50,000 people
Time-space compression
the shrinking “time-distant”, or relative distance, between locations because of improved methods of transportation and communication
Suburbanization
involves the process of people moving, usually from cities, to residential areas on the outskirts of cities
Urban sprawl
the rapid expansion of the spatial extent of a city occurs for numerous reasons
spreads outwards
Edge Cities
nodes of economic activity that have developed in the periphery of large cities
Counter-urbanization or deurbanization
the counter-flow of urban residents leaving cities
Reurbanization
when some suburbs return to live in the city
Megacities
have a population of over 10 million people
Metacities
have a population of over 20 million people
Megalopolis
a chain of connected cities
World Cities
cities that exert influence far beyond their national boundaries
Urban hierarchy
ranking, based on influence or population size
Rank-size rule
states that nth largest city in any region will be 1/n the size of the largest city
Primate city
if the largest city in an urban system is more than twice as large as the next largest city
Central Place
the distance people go to receive goods and services
Threshold
the size of population needs for any particular service to exist and remain profitable