6.1

Ecumene

A variety of community types with a range of population densities

Rural

Areas (farms and villages) with low concentrations of people

Urban

Areas (cities) with high concentrations of people

Suburbs

Areas that are primarily residential areas near cities

Settlement

A place with permanent human population

Urbanization

The process of developing towns and cities

Percent urban

An indicator of the proportion of the population that lives in cities and towns compared to those that live in rural areas

Site

The characteristics at the immediate location

Situation

The location of a place relative to its surroundings and its connectivity to other places

City-state

An urban center (the city) and its surrounding territory and agricultural villages

Urban hearth

An area generally associated with defensible sites and river valleys in which seasonal floods and fertile soils allowed for an agricultural surplus

Urban area

A central city plus land developed for commercial, industrial, or residential purposes, and includes the surrounding suburbs

City

A higher-density area with territory inside officially recognized boundaries

Metropolitan area (metro area)

A collection of adjacent cities economically connected, across which population density is high and continuous

Metropolitan statistical area (MSA)

A city consisting of at least 50,000 people, the county in which it is located, and adjacent counties that have a high degree of social and economic integration, or connection, with the urban core

Micropolitan statistical area

Cities of more than 10,000 inhabitants (but less than 50,000), the county in which they are located, and surrounding counties with a high degree of integration

Nodal region

The focal (center) point in a matrix of connections

Social heterogeneity

When the population of cities, as compared to other areas, contains a greater variety of people

Time-space compression

The relative distance between locations as a result of improved methods of transportation and communication

Borchert's transportation model

A model used to describe urban growth based on transportation technology

Pedestrian cities

Cities shaped by the distances people could walk

Streetcar suburbs

Communities that grew up along rail lines often creating a pinwheel shaped city