Urban Geography Flashcards
City
Conglomeration of people and buildings clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture, and economics.
Urban morphology
The study of the physical form and structure of urban places.
Urban
The entire build-up, nonrural area and it’s population, including the most recently constructed suburban appendages.
Agricultural village
A relatively small, egalitarian village, where most of the population was involved in agriculture
Agricultural surplus
Agricultural production in excess of that which the producer need for his or her own sustenance and the rest is sold for profit.
Social stratification
The differentiation of society onto classes based on wealth power, production, and prestige.
Leadership class
Group of decision-makers and organizers in early cities who controlled the resources and often the lives of others
First urban revolution
The innovation of the city which occurred independence in five separate hearths
Mesopotamia
Region of great cities located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The first urban hearth dating back to 3500 BCE, in the fertile crest
Nile River Valley
The second urban hearth dating to 3200 BCE
Indus River Valley
The third urban hearth, dating back to 2200 BCE
Huang He Wei River Valleys
Rivera I’m present day china, fourth urban hearth established around 1500 BCE
Mesoamerica
The fifth urban hearth dating back to 200 BCE
Acropolis
The high point of Ancient Greece usually devoted for religious purposes
Agora
A public market place (ancient Greece)
Site
The absolute location
Situation
The relative location of a place
Forum
The focal point of ancient roman life combining the functions of the Ancient Greek acropolis and agora
Trade area
Region adjacent to every Town and city within which it’s influence is dominant
Rank size rule
In a model urban hierarchy, the idea that the population of a city or town will be inversely proportional to it’s rank in the hierarchy.
Central place theory
Where central places in the urban hierarchy should be functionally and spatially distributed with respect to one another
Sunbelt phenomenon
The movement of millions of Americans from the northern and northeastern to the south and southwest.
Functional zonation
The division of a city into different regions or zones for certain purposes of functions
Zone
Area of a city with a relatively uniform land use.
Central business district
The downtown heart of a central city the CBD is marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce and the clustering of the tallest buildings
Central city
The urban area that isn’t a suburban. Generally, the older part of the city
Suburb
A subsidiary urban area surrounding and connected to the central city
Suburbanization
Movement of upper and middle class people from urban core areas to the surrounding outskirts to escape pollution as well as deteriorating social conditions
Concentric zone model
A model of the American central city the suggests the existence of five conventic land use rings arranged around a center
Edge cities
The shifting focus of urbanization in the US away from the CBD toward new loci of economic activity at the urban fringe
Urban realm
A spatial generalization of the larger the twentieth century city on the US (a widely dispersed multi-centered metropolis with independent zones)
Griffin-ford- model
A model of the Latin American city showing a blend of traditional elements of Latin Americans cultures of globalization
Disamenity sector
The very poorest parts of cities that aren’t connected to regular city services
McGee model
A model showing similar band-use patterns of medium sized cities of southwest Asia
Shantytowns
Unplanned slum development on the margins of cities dominated by crude dwellings and shelters
Zoning laws
Legal restrictions on land use that determine what types of building and economic activities are allowed on certain areas
Redlining
A real estate practice in North America where members o minority groups are prevented from obtaining money to buy houses in white neighborhoods
Blockbusting
Rapid change in the racial composition of residential blocks in American cities that occurs when real estate agents stir up fears of a neighborhood decline
Commercialization
The transformation of an area of a city into a area attractive to residents and tourists alike in terms of economic activity
Gentrification
The rehabilitation of deteriorated often abandoned housing of low income inner city residents
Tear-downs
Houses bought in many American suburbs with the intent of tearing them down and replacing them with McMansions
McMansions
- super size
- similar to each other
Urban sprawl
A widely dispersed multi centered metropolis consisting of increasingly independent zones
New urbanism
An urban design that calls for development, urban revitalization, and Suburban reforms that create walkable neighborhoods
Gated communities
Restricted neighborhoods that are often gated in
Informal economy
Economic activity that is neither taxed nor monitored by a government
World cities
Dominant cities in the global political economy
Primate city
A county’s largest city
Spaces of consumption
Areas of a city, the main purpose is to encourage people to buy stuff
