Studied by 2 people
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
settlement
place with a permanent human population.
urbanization
an ongoing process that does not end once a city is formed.
Site
describes the characteristics at the immediate
location—for example, physical features, climate, labor force, and human
structures.
situation
refers to the location of a place relative to its surroundings and its connectivity to other places. Examples would include near a gold mine, on the coast, or by the railroad.
city-state
consisted of an urban center (the city) and its
surrounding territory and agricultural villages.
urban hearth
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 political boundaries.
metropolitan area
A collection of adjacent cities economically connected, across which population density is high and continuous.
metropolitan statistical area (MSA)
consists of a city 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.
nodal region
Focal point in a matrix of
connections.
social heterogeneity
meaning that the population of cities, as compared to other areas, contains a greater variety of people.
time-space compression
the form of transportation improvements, has led to urban growth.
Borchert's transportation model
He divided urban history into four periods, which he called epochs. Each epoch had profound effects on the local scale related to a city's form (shape), size, density, and spatial arrangement.
Suburbanization
involves the process of people moving, usually from cities, to residential areas on the outskirts of cities.
Sprawl
the rapid expansion of the spatial extent of a city and occurs for numerous reasons
leap-frog development
where developers purchase land and build communities beyond the periphery of the city's built area.
Boomburbs
rapidly growing communities (over 10 percent per 10 years), have a total population of over 100,000 people and are not the largest city in the metro area.
edge cities
nodes of economic activity that have developed in the periphery of large cities.
counter-urbanization or deurbanization
the counter-flow of urban residents leaving cities.
exurbs
the prosperous residential districts beyond the suburbs.
reurbanization
some suburbanites return to live in the city
Megacities
have a population of more than 10 million people.
Metacities
continuous urban area with a population greater than 20 million people
attributes of a network of urban areas that have grown together to form a larger interconnected urban system
megalopolis
describes a chain of connected cities.
conurbation,
an uninterrupted urban area made of towns, suburbs, and cities.
Nodal cities
command centers on a regional and occasionally national
level.
urban system
an interdependent set of cities that interact on the
regional, national, and global scale.
rank-size rule
describes one way in which the sizes of cities within a region
may develop.
Higher-order services
usually expensive, need a large number of people to support, and are only occasionally utilized.
gravity model
states that larger and closer places will have more interactions than places that are smaller and farther from each other.
central place theory
states that in any given region there can only be one large central city, which is surrounded by a series of smaller cities, towns, and hamlets. The central city provides goods and services that meet the needs of the people living in the smaller communities; furthermore, the people living in the smaller communities provide part of the labor supply and market required by the city.
threshold
The size of population necessary for any particular service to exist and remain profitable.
range
The distance people will travel to obtain specific goods or services
functional zonation
the idea that portions ofan urban area—regions, or zones, within the city—have specific and distinct purposes.
Central Business District
the focus of transportation and services and the commercial heart of a city.
periferico
outer ring of the city showing poverty and lack of infrastructure
residential density gradient.
As one moves farther from the inner city, population and housing-unit density declines, and types of housing change,
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Flashcard (175)