APHG Unit 6 - Cities & Urban Land Use Vocab

African City Model

model that suggests that African cities have more than one CBD, which is a remanence of colonialism

air quality

The condition of the air based on the amount of pollution in it

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

Illegal practice of inducing homeowners to sell their properties by telling them that a certain people of a certain race, national origin or religion are moving into the area

Boomburbs

rapidly growing city that remains essentially suburban in character even as it reaches populations more typical of a large city

Brownfields

abandoned contaminated industrial or commercial sites that may require environmental cleanup before they can be redeveloped or expanded

Burgess Concentric Zone Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings.

Census

A complete enumeration of a population.

Christaller's 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. Range and threshold

City Government

the government of the local town or incorporate, provides services

City infrastructure

The infrastructure is the basic services that are available in a city. It includes things like roads, electricity, water

Climate change

a change in global or regional climate patterns due to a warming planet which scientists have discovered is partially caused by human activities (eg carbon emissions)

county government

the government unit that administers a county

de facto segregation

Segregation resulting from economic or social conditions, but not by law.

Decentralization

Degree to which decision-making authority is given to lower levels in an organization's hierarchy.

Disamenity Zones

The very poorest parts of cities that in extreme cases are not connected to regular city services and are sometimes controlled by gangs and drug lords.

ecological footprint

the impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources.

edge cities

A term introduced by Joel Garreau in order to describe the shifting focus of urbanization in the United States away from the CBD toward new loci of economic activity at the urban fringe. These cities are characterized by extensive amounts of office and retail space, few residential areas, and modern buildings

Energy Use

city activities require lots of electricity and energy to function

Exurbs

communities that arise farther out than the suburbs and are typically populated by residents of high socioeconomic status

Farmland Protection

A joint effort by non-governmental organizations and local governments to set aside and protect examples of a region's farmland for the use, education and enjoyment of future generations.

field studies

a method that involves observing everyday activities as they happen in a natural setting

food desert

an area typically in a highly populated, lower income urban environment, where healthy, fresh food is difficult to find

Galactic City Model

represents the post-industrial city with its several, dispersed business districts. This model represents a distinct decentralization of the commercial urban landscape as the economy has transitioned to services as the leading form of production. Manufacturing has declined significantly and become specialized.

Gentrification

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

Gravity Model

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

greenbelts

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

Griffin-Ford Model

Developed by geographers Ernst Griffin and Larry Ford, a model of the Latin American city showing a blend of traditional elements of Latin American culture with the forces of globalization that are reshaping the urban scene.

Harris-Ullman Multiple Nuclei Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of activities. Model developed for a North American city, shows loss of dominance of CBD, includes shifting of CBD into suburbs.

Housing Density

the number of dwelling units per unit of area

housing discrimination

The illegal practice of denying an individual or group the right to buy or rent a home based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability or family status.

Hoyt Sector Model

A model of the internal structure of a city in which social groups are arranged around a series of sectors or wedges radiating out from the CBD.

Infilling

The process by which population density in an urban centre is increased by building on waste land or underused land.

Megacities

cities with more than 10 million people

Metacity

A conurbation with more than 20 million people

Mixed land use development

urban or suburban development mixing residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, cultural uses in integrated ways

New Urbanism

A movement in urban planning to promote mixed use commercial and residential development and pedestrian friendly, community orientated cities. New urbanism is a reaction to the sprawling, automobile centered cities of the mid twentieth century.

periphery

the outermost part or boundary (edges of urban areas)

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

In a model urban hierarchy, the idea that the population of a city or town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy. A pattern of settlements in a country, such that the nth largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement.

Redlining

A process by which banks draw lines on a map and refuse to lend money to purchase or improve property within the boundaries. Illegal but was still uses, and the impacts are still present

semi-periphery

places where core and periphery processes are both occurring; places that are exploited by the core but in turn exploit the periphery

Site factors

Location factors related to the costs of factors of production inside the plant, such as land, labor, and capital.

Situation factors

Location factors related to the transportation of materials into and from a factory.

Slow-growth cities

urban communities where the planners have put into place smart growth initiatives to decrease the rate at which the city grows horizontally to avoid the adverse effects of sprawl

smart growth policies

any policy that tries to prevent the demanding effects of suburban sprawl and urban fragmentation

Southeast Asian City Model

Terry (T.G.) McGee developed a model showing similar land-use patterns among medium sized cities of Southeast Asia. Its focal point is the old colonial port zone. The model also does not find any CBD in Asia, but rather he found elements of the CBD present as separate clusters surrounding the port zone.

sprawl

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

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.

Suburbanization

Movement of upper and middle-class people from urban core areas to the surrounding outskirts to escape pollution as well as deteriorating social conditions (perceived and actual). In North America, the process began in the early nineteenth century and became a mass phenomenon by the second half of the twentieth century.

suburban sprawl

low-population-density developments that are built outside of a city

Sustainable Design Initiatives

Communities that use smart growth and green building techniques to create neighborhoods that are economically thriving and environmentally responsible

Transportation-oriented development

is a mixed-use residential and commercial area designed to maximize access to public transport, and often incorporates features to encourage transit ridership. A TOD neighborhood typically has a center with a transit station or stop (train station, metro station, tram stop, orbus stop), surrounded by relatively high-density development with progressively lower-density development spreading outward from the center.

urban growth boundaries

a restriction on development outside a designated area

Urban Hearths

Original areas of urban areas: Mesopotamia (Fertile Crescent), Indus River Valley, Nile River Valley, Yellow River Valley, and Mesoamerica

Urbanization

An increase in the percentage and in the number of people living in urban settlements.

urban hierarchy

A ranking of settlements according to their size and economic functions.

urban models

try to show how different cities have similar spatial relationships and economic or social structures

urban renewal

rebuilding of the poor areas of a city

Walkability

the overall level of comfort, access, enjoyment, and connectivity of an area that facilitates walking

water quality

used to describe the health of a water system

World Cities

A group of cities that form an interconnected, internationally dominant system of global control of finance and commerce

Zones of Abandonment

areas that have been deserted in a city for economic or environmental reasons

Zoning practices

land-use planning technique to divide certain areas of city into specific uses

Government Fragmentation

Several local, and sometimes state or federal, government agencies that are in charge of different aspects of the urban environment. Need to work together, but that is difficult