HGAP Unit 6 Vocab

City

A large, densely populated settlement.

Urban

City related.

Agricultural Surplus

A crop that makes more food than the farmer and their family needs.

Socioeconomic Stratification

The structuring of society into different social classes, including leadership to control goods and people.

First Urban Revolution

The agricultural and socioeconomic innovations that led to the rise of the earliest cities.

Urban Hearth Areas

Regions where the world's first cities evolved.

Capitalism

An economic and political system where country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners.

Communism

An economic and political system where all property is publicly owned.

Streetcar Suburbs

Settlements outside of cities that had streetcar lines that took residents in and out of the city easily.

Second Urban Revolution

The industrial innovations in mining and manufacturing that led to increased urban growth.

Redevelopment

A set of acclivities to revive an areas that has fallen during hard times.

Metropolis

A large and densely populated city that is usually the capital or major city.

Urban Area

Self governing place in the US that contains at least 2500 people.

Urban Clusters

Urban areas with less than 50,000 residents.

Metropolitan Statistical Areas

A region with at least one urbanized area as its core.

Micropolitan Statistical Area

A region with 1 or more urban clusters of at least 10,000 people as its cores.

Suburbs

Populated areas on the outskirts of a city.

Urbanization Rate

The percentage of a nation's population living in towns and cities

Suburbanization

The movement of people from urban core areas to the surrounding outskirts.

Sprawl

The tendency for cities to grow outward in an unchecked manner.

Automobile Cities

Cities whose size and shape are dictated by and almost require individual automobile ownership.

Decentralization

Moving businesses form the center of the city to suburbs in an urban context.

Edge City

A suburban area with many businesses, shops, and entertainment options, located outside a city's downtown.

African City Model

A generalized diagram of an urban area in sub-Saharan Africa that contains pre-colonial, European colonial, and post-colonial elements and is or was segregated by race.

Blockbusting

Realtors persuaded white homeowners to sell their homes by saying the neighborhood is declining due to black families moving in.

Boomburbs

A place with more than 100,000 residents that is not a core city in a metropolitan area; a large suburb with its own government.

Brownfields

A property where use of development might be compromised due to hazardous substances or pollutants.

Burgess Concentric-Zone model

A model of a city's internal organization developed by EW Burgess that shows different residental zones coming out the CBD.

Christaller's Central Place Tehory

A model developed by Walter Christaller that attempts to understand why cities are located where they are.

City Infrastructure

The basic systems and facilities that support a city's functioning, including roads, water supply, electricity, communication networks, and public services.

County Government

The local governing body that manages public services, law enforcement, infrastructure, and regulations for a specific county.

Disamenity Zones

Areas with poor living conditions, such as high crime rate, pollution, or bad infrastructure.

Ecological Footprint

The total amount of natural resources used and their impact on the natural environment.

Edge Cities

Business, shopping, and entertainment developed in the suburbs, outside of a city's traditional downtown or CBD.

Exurbs

A semirural district located beyond the suburbs that is often inhabited bu well-to-do families.

Farmland Protection Policies

Measures taken by the government to preserve agricultural land from being developed for urban or industrial use. They help ensure land remains available for farming and helps sustain local food production and rural economies.

Galactic City Model

Describes a city's layout where the CBD stays at the center, but there are multiple shopping centers, office parks, and industrial areas spread out in the suburbs. They are connected with metropolitan expressways.

Garden City Movement

An urban planning idea that creates a self-sufficient community with green spaces, housing, and businesses, blending city and rural benefits.

Gentrification

Where a neighborhood undergoes changes due to an influx of wealthier residents, leading to rising property values, rents, and the displacement of lower-income residents.

Geographic Fragmentation of Government

The division of government authority across multiple, often overlapping, jurisdictions, such as cities, countries, and states. This can lead to a lack of coordination and inefficiency in policy-making and service delivery.

Gravity Model

The idea that the closer 2 places are, the more they will influence each other.

Greenbelts

A zone of grassy, forested, or agricultural land separating urban areas.

Griffin-Ford Latin America city model

A model of the internal structure of the Latin American city developed by Erast Griffin and Larry Ford.

Harris and Ullman Multiple-Nuclei Model

Made by Harris and Ullman in 1945 and suggests that cities develop around multiple centers, or nuclei, instead of a CBD.

Housing Density

The number of housing units per unit of land area, often measured with units per acre, or square kilometer, indicates how closely homes are built.

Housing Discrimination

The unfair treatment of individuals or groups in housing-related matters based on factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, disability, or income, violating fair housing laws.

Hoyt Sector Model

A model of a city's internal organization, developed by Homer Hoyt, that focuses on transportation and communication as the drivers of the city's layout.

Infilling

The process of developing vacant or underused land within a built-up area, often by filling in gaps in the urban environment with new structures or development.

Land Use

The management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements, roads, and other infrastructure.

Infrastructure Projects

Large-scale construction efforts aimed at improving the physical foundation of cities, such as roads, bridges, water systems, and public transport.

Mass/Public Transit

Systems designed to transport large numbers of people efficiently, including buses, trains, subways, and other methods such as cycling or car-sharing.

Megacities

Cities with populations over 10 million people, often characterized by vast urban sprawl, economic significance, and high population density.

Metacities

Extremely large urban areas with populations over 20 million people, exceeding the size of megacities.

Metropolitan Area

A large urban area and its surrounding communities, typically defined by economic interdependence and a high degree of connectivity.

Mixed Land Use Development

Urban planning strategy where residential, commercial, and sometimes industrial spaces are integrated into a single development or neighborhood.

New Urbanism

A movement in urban planning aimed at creating walkable, sustainable, and community-oriented neighborhoods, promoting mixed-use development and reduced reliance on cars.

Periphery

The outermost or less developed areas of a region or country, often in contrast to the core or center, which is typically more urbanized and economically advanced.

Primate City

A city that is disproportionately larger and more influential than any other city in a country, often with a population more than twice as large as the next largest city.

Rank-Size Rule

A principle that suggests that the population of a city within a country will be inversely proportional to its rank in the urban hierarchy. For example, the second-largest city will have half the population of the largest city, and so on.

Redlining

The practice of denying services (such as loans or insurance) or placing restrictions on certain areas based on racial or economic demographics, often leading to discriminatory practices in housing and urban development.

Semi Periphery

Regions that are intermediate in terms of economic development, often having some level of industrialization but not as much as the core regions, and sometimes relying on peripheral regions for resources.

Slow-Growth Cities

Urban areas where population growth is stagnant or increasing very slowly, often due to economic challenges or outmigration.

Smart-Growth policies

Strategies for urban planning that focus on sustainable development, environmental preservation, and reducing urban sprawl, emphasizing density, mixed-use development, and public transportation.

Southeast Asian City Model

A model describing the typical urban structure of Southeast Asian cities, often centered around a port, with a mix of modern high-rise buildings and traditional housing, and influenced by colonial and global trade.

Squatter Settlements

Informal, often illegal housing developments that occur on land not owned by the residents, typically characterized by poor infrastructure and inadequate services.

Suburbs & Suburbanization

Urban Spraw

Suburbs are residential areas located on the outskirts of cities. Suburbanization refers to the process by which people move from urban areas to suburban areas, often due to factors like lower cost of living and desire for more space.

Suburban Sprawl

The spread of urban areas into surrounding rural land, often resulting in low-density development and increased reliance on cars.

Sustainable Urban Initiatives

Efforts and policies aimed at creating cities that are environmentally friendly, economically viable, and socially inclusive, often focusing on green building, energy efficiency, and waste management.

Transportation-Oriented Development

Development that is centered around the availability of public transportation, encouraging dense, mixed-use development close to transit hubs to reduce dependence on cars.

Urban Growth Boundaries

Legal limits set on the expansion of urban areas to prevent sprawl, encouraging more compact, sustainable development within existing urban areas.

Urbanization

The process by which an increasing percentage of a country's population lives in cities and urban areas, often linked to industrialization and economic development.

Urban Hierarchy

The ranking of cities within a country or region based on factors like population size, economic function, and political influence.

Urban Planning

The process of designing and organizing the development of cities and towns, considering land use, infrastructure, housing, and the environment to create efficient, livable spaces.

Urban Renewal

The redevelopment of dilapidated or underused urban areas, often involving the clearing of old buildings and the construction of new ones to revitalize the neighborhood.

Walkability

The degree to which an area is friendly to walking, often influenced by factors like safety, accessibility, proximity to services, and pedestrian infrastructure.

World Cities

Major cities that play a central role in the global economy, culture, and politics, often acting as hubs for finance, trade, and innovation.

Zones of Abandonment

Areas in cities that have experienced economic decline or physical decay, leading to high vacancy rates and often a reduction in public services and infrastructure.

Zoning

The process of dividing land into zones, or districts, based on allowable uses (residential, commercial, industrial) and regulating how property can be developed and used within those zones.