Unit Six: Cities and Urban Land-use Patterns and Processes Flashcards
Annexation
Legally adding land area to a city in the United States.
Census Tract
An area delineated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for which statistics are published; in urban areas, census tracts correspond roughly to neighborhoods.
Central business district
The area of a city where retail and office activities are clustered.
Concentric zone model
A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings.
Core based statistical area
In the United States, the combination of all metropolitan statistical areas and micropolitan statistical areas.
Density gradient
The change in density in an urban area from the center to the periphery.
Edge city
A large node of office and retail activities on the edge of an urban area.
Filtering
A process of change in the use of a house, from single-family owner occupancy to abandonment.
Food desert
An area in a developed country where healthy food is difficult to obtain.
Gentrification
A process of converting an urban neighborhood from a predominantly low-income, renter-occupied area to a predominantly middle-class, owner-occupied area.
Greenbelt
A ring of land maintained as parks, agriculture, or other types of open space to limit the sprawl of an urban area.
Megalopolis
A continuous urban complex in the northeastern United States.
Multiple nuclei model
A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes activities.
Peripheral Model
A model of North American urban areas consisting of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road.
Redlining
A process by which banks draw lines on a map and refuse to lend money to purchase or improve property within the boundaries.
Sector Model
A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a series of sectors, or wedges, radiating out from the central business district (CBD).
Smart Growth
Legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland.
Squatter Settlement
An area within a city in a less developed country in which people illegally establish residences on land they do not own or rent and erect homemade structures.
Urban Area
A dense core of census tracts, densely settled suburbs, and low-density land that links the dense suburbs with the core
Urban Cluster
In the United States, an urban area with between 2,500 and 50,000 inhabitants.
Urbanized Area
In the United States, an urban area with at least 50,000 inhabitants.
Zoning Ordinance
A law that limits the permitted uses of land and maximum density of development in a community.
Central Place Theory
A theory that explains the distribution of services, based on the fact that settlements serve as centers of market areas for services; larger settlements are fewer and farther apart than smaller settlements and provide services for a larger number of people who are willing to travel farther.
Gravity Model
A model that holds that the potential use of a service at a particular location is directly related to the number of people in a location and inversely related to the distance people must travel to reach the service.
Hinterland
The market area surrounding an urban center, which that urban center serves.
Primate City
The largest settlement in a country, if it has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.
Primate City Rule
A pattern of settlements in a country, such that the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.
Range
The maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service.
Threshold
The minimum number of people needed to support the service
Urbanization
An increase in the percentage and in the number of people living in urban settlements.
Suburbanization
The process of population movement from within towns and cities to the rural-urban fringe.
Megacities
cities with more than 10 million people
Metacities
A new term used to describe cities that have 20 million or more people
Urban Sprawl
The process of urban areas expanding outwards, usually in the form of suburbs, and developing over fertile agricultural land.
Counterurbanization
Net migration from urban to rural areas in more developed countries.
Decentralization
a shift from central/national decision-making to regional/local decision-making
Boomburbs
rapidly growing city that remains essentially suburban in character even as it reaches populations more typical of a large city
Latin American City Model
Griffin-Ford model. Developed by Ernst Griffin and Larry Ford. Blends traditional culture with the forces of globalization. The CBD is dominant; it is divided into a market sector and a modern high-rise sector. The elite residential sector is on the extension of the CBD in the “spine”. The end of the spine of elite residency is the “mall” with high-priced residencies. The further out, less wealthy it gets. The poorest are on the outer edge.
Southeast Asian City Model
McGee model. Developed by T.G McGee. The focal point of the city is the colonial port zone combined with the large commercial district that surrounds it. McGee found no formal CBD but found seperate clusters of elements of the CBD surrounding the port zone: the government zone, the Western commercial zone, the alien commercial zone, and the mixed land-use zone with misc. economic activities.
African Urban Model
Three Central Business districts: European/colonial, informal, traditional
New Urbanism
A movement in urban planning to promote mixed use commercial and residential development and pedestrian friendly, community orientated cities. A reaction to the sprawling, automobile centered cities of the mid twentieth century.
Blockbustering
The rapid change in the racial composition of residential blocks in American cities that occurs when real estate agents and others stir up fears of neighborhood decline after encouraging ethnic minorities to move to previously white neighborhoods
Disamenity Zones
The very poorest parts of cities that in extreme cases are not connected to regular city services and are often controlled by gangs and drug lords.
Brownfields
Contaminated industrial or commercial sites that may require environmental cleanup before they can be redeveloped or expanded
Rust Belt
The northern industrial states of the United States, including Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, in which heavy industry was once the dominant economic activity. In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, these states lost much of their economic base to economically attractive regions of the United States and to countries where labor was cheaper, leaving old machinery to rust in the moist northern climate.
Municipal
Pertaining to a city (or town) and its government
Shadow Economy
An informal economy in more developed countries that is not regulated by local government.
Bid rent theory
Geographical economic theory that refers to how the price and demand on real estate changes as the distance towards the Central Business District (CBD) increases.
Market Area
The area surrounding a central place, from which people are attracted to use the place’s goods and services.
Exurbs
Areas of new development beyond the suburbs that are more rural but on the fringe of urbanized areas
