Unit Six: Cities and Urban Land-use Patterns and Processes

Question 1

Annexation

Answer 1

Legally adding land area to a city in the United States.

Question 2

Census Tract

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

Central business district

Answer 3

The area of a city where retail and office activities are clustered.

Question 4

Concentric zone model

Answer 4

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings.

Question 5

Core based statistical area

Answer 5

In the United States, the combination of all metropolitan statistical areas and micropolitan statistical areas.

Question 6

Density gradient

Answer 6

The change in density in an urban area from the center to the periphery.

Question 7

Edge city

Answer 7

A large node of office and retail activities on the edge of an urban area.

Question 8

Filtering

Answer 8

A process of change in the use of a house, from single-family owner occupancy to abandonment.

Question 9

Food desert

Answer 9

An area in a developed country where healthy food is difficult to obtain.

Question 10

Gentrification

Answer 10

A process of converting an urban neighborhood from a predominantly low-income, renter-occupied area to a predominantly middle-class, owner-occupied area.

Question 11

Greenbelt

Answer 11

A ring of land maintained as parks, agriculture, or other types of open space to limit the sprawl of an urban area.

Question 12

Megalopolis

Answer 12

A continuous urban complex in the northeastern United States.

Question 13

Multiple nuclei model

Answer 13

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes activities.

Question 14

Peripheral Model

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

Redlining

Answer 15

A process by which banks draw lines on a map and refuse to lend money to purchase or improve property within the boundaries.

Question 16

Sector Model

Answer 16

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).

Question 17

Smart Growth

Answer 17

Legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland.

Question 18

Squatter Settlement

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

Urban Area

Answer 19

A dense core of census tracts, densely settled suburbs, and low-density land that links the dense suburbs with the core

Question 20

Urban Cluster

Answer 20

In the United States, an urban area with between 2,500 and 50,000 inhabitants.

Question 21

Urbanized Area

Answer 21

In the United States, an urban area with at least 50,000 inhabitants.

Question 22

Zoning Ordinance

Answer 22

A law that limits the permitted uses of land and maximum density of development in a community.

Question 23

Central Place Theory

Answer 23

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.

Question 24

Gravity Model

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

Hinterland

Answer 25

The market area surrounding an urban center, which that urban center serves.

Question 26

Primate City

Answer 26

The largest settlement in a country, if it has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.

Question 27

Primate City Rule

Answer 27

A pattern of settlements in a country, such that the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.

Question 28

Range

Answer 28

The maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service.

Question 29

Threshold

Answer 29

The minimum number of people needed to support the service

Question 30

Urbanization

Answer 30

An increase in the percentage and in the number of people living in urban settlements.

Question 31

Suburbanization

Answer 31

The process of population movement from within towns and cities to the rural-urban fringe.

Question 32

Megacities

Answer 32

cities with more than 10 million people

Question 33

Metacities

Answer 33

A new term used to describe cities that have 20 million or more people

Question 34

Urban Sprawl

Answer 34

The process of urban areas expanding outwards, usually in the form of suburbs, and developing over fertile agricultural land.

Question 35

Counterurbanization

Answer 35

Net migration from urban to rural areas in more developed countries.

Question 36

Decentralization

Answer 36

a shift from central/national decision-making to regional/local decision-making

Question 37

Boomburbs

Answer 37

rapidly growing city that remains essentially suburban in character even as it reaches populations more typical of a large city

Question 38

Latin American City Model

Answer 38

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.

Question 39

Southeast Asian City Model

Answer 39

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.

Question 40

African Urban Model

Answer 40

Three Central Business districts: European/colonial, informal, traditional

Question 41

New Urbanism

Answer 41

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.

Question 42

Blockbustering

Answer 42

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

Question 43

Disamenity Zones

Answer 43

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.

Question 44

Brownfields

Answer 44

Contaminated industrial or commercial sites that may require environmental cleanup before they can be redeveloped or expanded

Question 45

Rust Belt

Answer 45

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.

Question 46

Municipal

Answer 46

Pertaining to a city (or town) and its government

Question 47

Shadow Economy

Answer 47

An informal economy in more developed countries that is not regulated by local government.

Question 48

Bid rent theory

Answer 48

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.

Question 49

Market Area

Answer 49

The area surrounding a central place, from which people are attracted to use the place’s goods and services.

Question 50

Exurbs

Answer 50

Areas of new development beyond the suburbs that are more rural but on the fringe of urbanized areas