Barridas / Barrios / Favelas
illegal housing settlements/slums, usually made up of temporary shelters that surround large cities.
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.
Blockbusting
A process by which real estate agents convince white property owners to sell their houses at low prices because of fear that persons of color will soon move into the neighborhood.
CBD - Central Business District
the downtown heart of a central city, marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce and the clustering of the tallest buildings.
Census Tract
An area delineated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for which statistics are published; in urbanized areas, census tracts correspond roughly to neighborhoods.
Cityscape
the visual appearance of a city or urban area; a city landscape.
Colonial City
City established by colonizing empires as administrative centers. Often they were established on already existing native cities, completely overtaking their infrastructures.
Commercialization
The transformation of an area of a city into an area attractive to residents and tourists alike in terms of economic activity.
Commuter zone
the outer most zone of the Concentric Zone Model that represents people who choose to live in residential suburbia and take a daily commute in the CBD to work.
Counter urbanization
Net migration from urban to rural areas in more developed countries.
Decentralization
the tendency of people or businesses and industry to locate outside the central city.
Disamenity Zones
The very poorest parts of cities that in extreme cases are not connected to regular city services.
Economic Base
the manufacturing and service activities performed by the basic sector of a city's labor force; functions of a city performed to satisfy demands external to the city itself and, in that performance, earning income to support the urban population.
Basic Sector
those products or services of an urban economy that are exported outside the city itself, earning income for the community.
Nonbasic Sector
(service sector) those economic activities of an urban unit that supply the resident population with goods and services and that have no "export" implication.
Edge City
cities that are located on the outskirts of larger cities and serve many of the same functions of urban areas, but in a sprawling, decentralized suburban environment.
Emerging cities
City currently without much population but increasing in size at a fast rate.
Entrepot
a port, city, or other center to which goods are brought for import and export, and for collection and distribution.
Ethnic Neighborhoods/Enclaves
People of the same ethnicity that cluster together in a specific location, typically within a major city.
Gateway City
a city that serves as a link between one country or region and others because of its physical situation.
Gentrification
A process of converting an urban neighborhood from a predominantly low-income renter-occupied area to a predominantly middle-class owner-occupied area.
ghettoization
process occurring in many inner cities in which they become dilapidated center of poverty, as rich whites move out to the suburbs
Global Cities/World Cities
These refer to the most politically, economically, and socially important cities in the world. They tend to have a higher concentration of political power (like New York having the U.N. headquarters, Brussels having the EU government) and more business and financial services than other cities. The most important in the world are considered to be New York City, London, and Tokyo.
Greenbelt
A ring of land maintained as parks, agriculture, or other types of open space to limit the sprawl of an urban area.
High-tech corridors
an area along a limited-access highway that houses offices and other services associated with high-tech industries.
Hinterland (Market Area)
The area surrounding a central place, from which people are attracted to use the place's goods and services.
Informal sector
Network of business transactions that are not reported and therefore not included in GDP and official economic projection.
Infrastructure
the underlying framework of services and amenities needed to facilitate productive activity.
Inner city
the central area of a major city; in the US it often applied to the poorer parts of the city center.
Megacities
cities with more than 10 million people
Megalopolis/conurbation
a large, sprawled urban complex with contained open, nonurban land, created through the spread and joining of separate metropolitan areas; When capitalized, the name applied to the continuous functionally urban area of coastal northeastern United States from Maine to Virginia.
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)
In the United States, a central city of at least 50,000 population, the county within which the city is located, and adjacent counties meeting one of several tests indicating a functional connection to the central city.
Multiplier effect
the direct, indirect, and induced consequences of change in an activity; in urban geography, the expected addiction of nonbasic workers and dependents to a city's local employment and population that accompanies new basic sector employment.
Primate City
The largest settlement in a country, if it has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.
Rank-Size Rule
A pattern of settlements in a country, such that the nth largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement.
Redlining
A discriminatory process predominantly practiced in North America by which banks/lending organizations draw lines on a map, usually centered around low-income, minority neighborhoods, and refuse to lend money to purchase or improve property within the boundaries.
Restrictive Covenants
provision in a property deed preventing sale to a person of a particular race or religion; loan discrimination; ruled unconstitutional.
Segregation
the separation of people based on racial, ethnic, or other differences.
Squatter Settlement
Residential developments characterized by extreme poverty that usually exist on land just outside of cities that is neither owned nor rented by its occupants.
Suburb
a subsidiary urban area surrounding and connected to the central city. many are exclusively residential; others have their own commercial centers or shopping malls.
Suburbanization
The process of population movement from within towns and cities to the rural-urban fringe.
Tenement
A building in which several families rent rooms or apartments, often with little sanitation or safety.
Threshold
in the central place theory, the size of the population required to make provision of services economically feasible.
Range
in central-place theory, the average maximum distance people will travel to purchase a good or service.
Underemployment
workers are overqualified for their jobs or work fewer hours than they would prefer.
Urban growth rate
Rate of growth of an urban population. Ex: Degree of urbanization.
Urban hierarchy
A ranking of settlements (hamlet, village, town, city, metropolis) according to their size and economic functions.
Urbanized population
the proportion of a country's population living in cities.
Zoning
dividing an area into zones or sections reserved for different purposes such as residence and business and manufacturing etc.