APHUG 07 Vocab

Agglomeration

an urban agglomeration is an extended city or town area comprising the built-up area of a central place (usually a municipality) and any suburbs linked by continuous urban area

CBD (central business district)

part of urban areas that typically contain a concentration of office and retail activities

City

large and densely populated urban area

Infrastructure

the stock of basic facilities and capital equipment needed for the functioning of a country or area

Megacities

have high population growth and migration. Population of over 10,000,000

Megalopolis/conurbation

a very large urban complex (usually involving several cities and towns)

Metropolitan area

a major population center made up of a large city and the smaller suburbs and towns that surround it

Site/situation

site is physical features and absolute location, situation is relative location - in relation to cultural characteristics of surrounding areas

Specialization

the special line of work adopted as a career

Town

the people living in a municipality smaller than a city

Urban growth rate

Rate of growth of an urban population.

Urban function

Services that are provided in a certain metropolitan area

Urban hearth area

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

Economic base (basic/nonbasic)

economic activities that allow a community to exist. For example, a town might exist because a mineral resource in the area is being developed

World city

Centers of economic, culture, and political activity that are strongly interconnected and together control the global systems of finance and commerce.

Bid-rent theory

a graph representing the variations in land rents payable by different users with distance from some point in the market, usually the CBD.

Central-place theory

A theory, advanced by W. Christaller, concerned with the way that settlements evolve and are spaced out.

Colonial city

Colonial cities arose in societies that fell under the domination of Europe and North America in the early expansion of the capitalist world system

Commuter zone

The commuter zone is the outermost ring of the concentric zone model. It represents the upper-class residential area. It is called the commuter zone because of the people who go to the city to work.

Concentric zone model

Also known as the bull's eye model, the concentric zone model holds that a city begins with a business district surrounded by a transition zone filled with low-income, high-crime area. Outside of that is a working-class residential zone, then a middle-class residential zone, and finally an upper-class residential zone.

Edge city

City that is located on the outskirts of larger cities and serves many of the same functions of urban areas, but in a sprawling, decentralized suburban environment.

High-tech corridors

an area along a limited-access highway that houses offices and other services associated with high-tech industries

Hinterland

a remote and undeveloped area

Lateral commuting

commuting that occurs between suburban areas rather than towards the central city.

Multiple nuclei model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of activities.

Office park

A cluster of office buildings, usually located along an interstate, often forming the nucleus of an edge city

Postindustrial city

a city in which global finances and the electronic flow of information dominate the economy

Primate city

a city that ranks first in a nation in terms of population and economy

Rank-size rule

descending sizes of cities in the country, no primate city

Sector model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a series of sectors, or wedges, radiating out from the central business district (CBD).

Threshold/range

range (the distance a consumer is willing to travel in order to acquire a certain good). There is also a threshold, which is the minimum number of customers required to keep an area profitable

Urban hierarchy

a ranking of settlements according to their size and economic functions

Zone in transition

area of mixed commercial and residential land uses surrounding the CBD

Zoning

dividing an area into zones or sections reserved for different purposes such as residence and business and manufacturing etc

Census tract

A census tract is a small statistical subdivision of a county. Census tract data identifies population and housing statistics about a specific part of an urban area.

Suburb

a residential district located on the outskirts of a city

Suburbanization

The process of population movement from within cities to the rural-urban fringe.

Symbolic landscape

smaller landscapes that symbolize a bigger area or category. iconic landscapes, i.e. the capitol symbolizes Washington. Every landscape can symbolize something, but these are focal points for people's attention

Cityscapes

the urban equivalent of a landscape

Postmodern urban landscape

Attempts to reconnect people to place through its architecture, the preservation of historical buildings, the re-emergence of mixed land uses and connections among developments

Planned communities

A city built to a definite plan

Favela

Slum area in Brazil

Female-headed household

a household dominated by a woman

Gentrification

the restoration of run-down urban areas by the middle class (resulting in the displacement of lower-income people)

Blockbusting

A racially discriminatory and illegal practice of coercing a party to sell a home to someone of a minority race or ethnic background, then using scare tactics to cause others in the neighborhood to sell at depressed prices.

Ghetto

a poor densely populated city district occupied by a minority ethnic group linked together by economic hardship and social restrictions

In-filling

new building on empty parcels of land within a checkerboard pattern of development

Placelessness

everything looks the same

Racial steering

real estate agents advising customers to purchase homes in neighborhoods depending on their race

Redlining

Illegal practice of refusing to make mortgage loans or issue insurance policies in specific areas for reasons other than economic qualifications of applicants

Segregation

the act of segregating or sequestering

Slum

a district of a city marked by poverty and inferior living conditions

Squatter settlement

An area within a city in a less developed country in which people illegally establish residences on land they do not own or rent and erect homemade structures.

Urban morphology

the study of the physical form and structure of urban places

Urbanization

the social process whereby cities grow and societies become more urban

Urbanized population

the proportion of a country's population living in cities

Barriadas

Squatter settlements or shantytowns that surround Lima and other urban centers. Since the late 1960s, these settlements have been also known as pueblos jóvenes (young towns).

Counterurbanization

a demographic and social process whereby people move from urban areas to rural areas

Decentralization

the removal or reduction of industrial activity in a country or region, especially heavy industry or manufacturing industry

Informal sector

the portion of an economy largely outside government control in which employees work without contracts or benefits

Inner city

the older and more populated and (usually) poorer central section of a city