6.1 to 6.6

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,