AP Human Geography

Inner Cities

An area near the center of a city, especially when associated with social and economic problems.

Underclass

A group in society prevented from participating in the material benefits of a more developed society because of a variety of social and economic characteristics.

Culture of Poverty

a way of life that perpetuates poverty from one generation to the next

Brownfields

Urban areas of abandoned industrial or residential sites that may be contaminated from past use

Filtering

Process of subdivision of houses and occupancy by successive waves of lower-income people.

Urban Redlining

Drawing of lines on a map to identify areas in which banks will refuse to loan money.

Redevelopment

Where old buildings and land are replaced by new buildings.

Eminent Domain

The right of government to acquire property, for a public purpose, after paying just compensation.

Gentrification

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

Scattered Site

site in which dwellings are dispersed throughout the city rather than clustered in a large project.

Ghetto

a part of a city, especially a slum area, occupied by a minority group or groups.

Urban Colonies

(ethnic enclave)

A neighborhood, or district which retains some cultural distinction from a larger, surrounding area.

Food Deserts

Urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Instead of supermarkets and grocery stores, these communities may have no food access or are served only by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options.

Racial Segregation

The separation of people based on their race

Blockbusting

As early as 1900, real estate agents and developers encouraged affluent white property owners to sell their homes and businesses at a loss by stoking fears that their neighborhoods were being overtaken by racial or ethnic minorities.

Informal Economy

(shadow economy)

A segment of the economy that is not regulated or taxed by the state

Urban Canyons

Streets lined with tall buildings that can channel and intensify winds as well as prevent sunlight from reaching the ground.

Urban Heat Island

Metropolitan area which there is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas

Urban Wildlife

Animals that thrive in cities but they can spread diseases and be a nuisance to people. Ex: rats, pigeons, raccoons

Rush Hour

The four consecutive 15-minute periods in the morning and evening with the heaviest volumes of traffic.

Urban Sprawl

Development of new housing sites at relatively low density and at locations that are not contiguous to the existing built-up areas

Sustainabilty

achieving a balance between society and nature that will permit both to exist in harmony

Greenbelts

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

Smart Growth

Legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland.

New Urbanism

urban revitalization with the goal of creating more livable and walkable space in mind

Mixed-use Neighborhoods

Neighborhoods with a mix of homes and businesses.

Urban Infill

The process of building up underused lands within a city.

Counter-urbanization

(deurbanization)

The net loss of population from cities to smaller towns and rural areas.

Exurbs

A small, usually prosperous, community situated beyond the suburbs of a city.

White Flight

The abandonment of cities affluent or middle class white residents. White flight was particularly problematic during the mid-20th century because it resulted in the loss of tax revenues to cities, which led to inner city decay. This process reversed itself somewhat during the 1990s and 2000s with urban revitalization.

Metropolis

The largest single urban settlement in a state (often the capital) or district. They not only have large populations, but also offer a broad range of high-order functions such as state government, legal and administrative services.

Wirth, Louis

American sociologist who pioneered in the study of urban problems.

Functional Zonation

The division of the city into different regions or zones for certain purposes or functions

Central Business District (CBD)

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

Concentric Zone Model

(Burgess Model)

Model that describes urban environments as a series of rings of distinct land use radiating out from a central core, or central business district.

Zone of Transition

Second ring of the concentric zone model, which surrounds the CBD, in the concentric zone model. This place typically contains industry and poor-quality housing.

Sector Model

(Hoyt's Model)

A model or urban land use that places the central business district in the middle with wedge shaped sectors radiating outwards from the center along transportation corridors.

Multiple-Nuclei Model

Type of urban model wherein urban areas have numerous centers of business and cultural activity instead of one central place. Developed by Harris and Ullman.

Peripheral Model

Model which describes how an urban area consists of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road.

Galactic City Model

A mini edge city where people move that is connected to another city by beltways or highways leaving a declining inner city.

Edge Cities

Cities that are located on the outskirts of larger cities nd serve many of the same functions of urban areas, but in sprawling, decentralized suburban environment.

Griffen-Ford Model

Model with a two-part CBD: a traditional market center adjacent to a modern high-rise center. Often used to describe Latin American cities.

Favelas (barrios)

a shanty town in or near a city, slum area

Disamenity Zones

Areas not connected to city services and under the control of drug lords and gangs.

Traditional CBD

Before European colonization; has small shops clustered along narrow, twisting streets.

Colonial CBD

Broad, straight avenues with large homes, parks, and administrative centers.

Informal Economy Zone

Small, mobile, and often temporary businesses that do not follow all regulations.

Squatter Settlements

Residential developments, characterized by extreme poverty that usually exist on land just outside of cities that is neither owned nor rented by its occupants.

Mosque

Islamic place of worship

Citadel

A fortress that overlooks and protects a city

McGee Model

Southeast Asian urban model; says colonial port city is focus, central point of economic activity

Residential Zones

Area of a city dedicated to where people live.

Zoning Ordinances

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

Urban Planning

determining and drawing up plans for the future physical arrangement and condition of a community

Filtering

process of subdivision of houses and occupancy by successive waves of lower-income people

Invasion and Succession

Process of neighborhood change whereby one social or ethnic group succeeds another

Gated Communities

Restricted neighborhoods or subdivisions where entry is limited to residents and their guests.

Suburbanization of Business

The movement of commerce out of cities to suburbs where rents are cheaper and commutes for employees are shorter.

Municipal

Relating to a city, town, village, or the like with local government

Annexation

The adding of a region to the territory of an existing political unit.

Incorporation

Residents choose to legally join together to form a new city.

Bedroom Communities

Commuter towns inhabited by people who drive or take public transport to another city for work.

Unincorporated Area

An area not located within the boundary of a municipality.

Census Tract

Small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county or equivalent entity that are updated by local participants prior to each census as part of the Census Bureau's Participant Statistical Areas Program.

Social Area Analysis

Statistical analysis used to identify where people of similar living standards, ethnic background, and life style live within an urban area.

Business Service

Services that primarily meet the needs of other businesses.

Public Services

Services offered by the government to provide security and protection for citizens and businesses.

Consumer Services

Businesses that provide services primarily to individual consumers, including retail services and personal services.

Service

Any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who provide it.

Ecumene

Inhabited land, refers to land where people have made their permanent home, and to all work areas that are considered occupied and used for agricultural or any other economic purpose.

Urban

Areas with high concentrations of people. (cities)

Rural

Areas with low concentrations of people. (farms and villages)

Suburb

Residential communities, located outside of city centers, which are usually relatively homogeneous in terms of population.

Settlement

A permanent collection of buildings and inhabitants.

Urbanization

The movement of people to, and the clustering of people in, towns and cities- a major force in every geographic realm today.

Suburbanization

The process of population movement from within towns and cities to residential areas on the outskirts(fringe) of cities.

Percent Urban

An indicator of the proportion of the population that lives in cities and towns as compared to those that live in rural areas.

Reurbanization

Movement from the suburbs to live back to the city.

Exurbanization

Movement from suburbs to live further out into rural areas.

Satellite City

When an established town near a very large city grows into a city independent of the larger one.

City-states

A sovereign state comprising a city and its immediate hinterland.

Urban Hearth

An area, like Mesopotamia or the Nile River Valley where large cities first existed.

Metropolitan Area (metro area)

Within the United States, an urban area consisting of one or more whole country units, usually containing several urbanized areas, or suburbs, that all act together as a coherent economic whole.

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)

Area studied using a method created by the US Bureau of the Census that measures the functional area of a city.

Micropolitan Statistical Area (USA)

Smaller urban areas that the census has designated to include in part of their measure.

Nodal Region

An area organized around a node or focal point. Also called a functional region.

Social Heterogeneity

The great variety of people found in cities as compared to other areas.

Time-space Compression

The shrinking of time distance between locations because of improved methods of transportation.

Borchert's Model

Model developed to describe urban growth based on transportation technology.

Pedestrian Cities

Cities shaped by the distances people could walk.

Streetcar Suburbs

Created by new transportation systems, these allowed people to move out of crowded cities and growth became concentrated along these small urban rail systems.

Gravity Model

A model that holds that the potential use of a services 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.

Rank-size Rule

A pattern of settlements in a country, such that the nth largest settlement is 1/n of the population of the largest settlement.

Primate City

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

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.