Unit 6: Cities and Urban Land Use

AP exam review

Megacitites

a very large city, typically with a population of over 10 million people

Metacities

contains a megacity with several other large satellite cities on their fringes

Suburbanization

communities with neighborhoods of homes

Boomburbs

rapidly growing suburban cities

Edge cities

cities that exist on the fringes of a larger city and act as a regional home for the suburban population

Exurbs

small communities lying beyond the suburbs of a city

Decentralization

the process in which population and industry moves from urban centers to outlying districts

Rank-size rule

a country’s 2nd largest city will be half the size of the largest city

Primate city

a country’s largest city will be more than 2x the size of its 2nd largest city

Mixed-land use

the development of urban areas that mix residential, commercial, and recreational areas within close proximity

New urbanism

mixed commercial/residential areas that are walkable

Greenbelts

an area of open land around a city, buildings are restricted

Slow-growth cities

cities that grow slowly rather than rapidly, have different policy issues

Redlining

banks illegal refusal to lend loans to certain parts of a city

Blockbusting

practice of persuading owners to sell property cheaply because of the fear of people of another race or class moving in

Dasamenity zones

areas in urban settlements that experience significant social and economic decline

Zones of abandonment

areas of a city in which people have permanently left

Urban renewal

the process of taking old dilapidated buildings and improving them

Gentrification

middle-class people moving into low-income areas and improving the living conditions, but displacing original low-income residents

Brownfields

a former industrial/commercial site where future use is affected by potential environmental contamination

concentric zone model (Burgess)

centered around rings of a city, 5 zones

sector model (Hoyt)

cities develop in series of sectors extending from center

multiple nuclei model (ullman-harris)

a city is a complex structure with multiple centers where activities revolve

galactic/peripheral model (Harris)

suburbs spread outward from a declining CBD; functions of CBD begin to appear in suburbs

urban realms theory (vance)

each realm of a city is seperated and used for a different purpose

latin American city model (griffin-ford)

cities in developing countries follow similar pattern to European cities because of colonialism; build around core CBD with a church and central plaza

southeastern Asian city model (McGee)

no CBD, but components of CBD are present in seperate areas of the city (old colonial port, western commercial zone, hybrid sectors and zones, industrial parks on outskirts)

sub-saharan African cities model (De Bijj)

central city has 3 CBDs; former colonial CBD has vertical development, traditional CBD is zone of one story buildings, market CBD is informal