GEOG 1050: Lecture 6 Review (Demographics 4: Cities & Urbanization)

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering urban definitions, metrics, processes, and major urbanism narratives from Demographics 2.

Rural-Urban Continuum

A model recognizing that places possess a wide variety of characteristics, highlighting a full spectrum of settlement types ranging from rural wilderness and farms to world cities like Hong Kong and New York City.

Planetary Urbanization Thesis

A theoretical framework advanced by Neil Brenner and others asserting that urbanization has become planetary in scale, challenging traditional bounded definitions of urban and rural spaces.

Urban Population Thresholds

The minimum population size required for a settlement to be formally defined as urban, which varies internationally (e.g., $1\,000$ people in Canada, $2\,000$ people in the United States, and $50\,000$ people in Japan).

Urbanization

An increase in the share of people living in urban areas, driven by the movement of people to towns and cities, physical expansion into rural countryside, and natural population growth in urban centers.

Urbanization Level ($U$)

A quantitative metric representing the percentage of a total population living in cities, calculated as $U = \frac{P_c}{P_t}$, where $P_c$ is the urban population and $P_t$ is the total population.

Cities as 'Black Holes'

A narrative of urbanism framing cities as primary sources of global problems due to disproportionate resource consumption, sprawl, inequality, spatial segregation, and infrastructure fragility.

Cities as 'White Knights'

A narrative of urbanism framing cities as essential sources of solutions to global challenges through density efficiencies, technological innovation, social diversity, green infrastructure, and agile governance.

Urban Metabolism

The system in which cities consume inputs of energy, water, and raw materials from distant regions, metabolizing them and releasing outputs such as heat, greenhouse gases, wastewater, and solid waste.

De-densification of Urban Settlements

The global trend of cities sprawling outward into prime farmland, causing a steady decrease in urban population density at a rate of approximately $-2\%$ per annum (Behnisch et al. 2022).

Urban Density and Transport Energy Relationship

An inverse relationship documented by Newman and Kenworthy (1999) showing that higher urban density (people per hectare) leads to lower per-capita transport energy consumption due to non-motorized and public transit options.

Smart Cities

Urban areas that combine information and communications technology (ICT) and environmental sensors with traditional infrastructure to integrate and manage industrial, commercial, and community operations.

Sanctuary Cities

Municipal jurisdictions that restrict local police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement requests, demonstrating local urban leadership in equity and inclusion policies.

Highline in New York

An adaptive reuse project in New York City that converted an elevated historic railway line into a public park, serving as an example of green urban infrastructure.

15-Minute City Prototype

An urban planning initiative implemented along Rue de Rivoli in Paris designed so that residents can reach work, shops, and government services within a $15\text{-minute}$ walk or bike ride.