AP Human Geography - Urban Patterns and Processes

megacity

a city with more than 10m inhabitants

Where are the world’s fastest growing cities?

LDCs in Asia/Africa

Potential reasons for population decline

Women’s education, better healthcare

Megacity environment concerns

Responsible for 70% of world carbon emissions

Advantages to urban living

• Public transportation

• Cheaper access to public services and education

Megacity disadvantages

• often dirty and overcrowded

• economic corruption

• socially caused disease (ex STD)

• urban violence

• unsafe infrastructure

Process of urbanization

• sped up enormously in Asia

• faster growth in the early 2000s

edge city

any major developed center that experienced growth as a result of proximity to a suburban freeway interchange

edge city characteristics

• over 5 million square feet of office space

• over 600k square feet of retail space

• population rises in morning and drops in afternoons (commuters)

• “single end destination” - all facilities

• rapid development over the past 30 years

exurb

district out of a prosperous urban area that has connection to the other area economically and socially

exurb characteristics

• lower housing costs than larger cities

• high commuter population

• population density below 250 people per square km

• at least 20% of workers commute to jobs in urban areas

boomburb

settlements on the peripheries of metropolitan areas

boomburb characteristics

• rapid growth

• high population of young professionals with families

• primarily family homes and some luxury items (cars)

rank-size rule

the country’s nth largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement

law of the primate city

the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement - this is the “primate” city and center of activity

criticism of primate cities

unequal wealth distribution

• better infrastructure, services, etc

• higher paying jobs

• overcrowding

• economically depressed rural areast

gravitational pull

directly related to the population and inversely related to the distance people must travel to access

ideal location

minimizes distance from potential customers while having the most number of people in its range and reducing overlap with similar services

Christaller’s Central Place Theory

• central place = market center for exchange of goods/services by people from surrounding area

• land around the central place = market area / hinterlands

• organized in a matrix of hexagons of varying sizes

basic rules of CPT

1. more small settlements than large

2. big places are farther apart than small places

3. ratio of large settlements to small is pretty constant

CPT concepts

1. threshold - minimum market needed sustain a business firm/city

2. range - average maximum distance people will travel to access the goods and services

quantitative data

census/survey data that provides information about changes in population composition and size in urban areas

qualitative data

field studies and narratives provide information about individual attitudes toward urban change

gentrification

changing the character of neighborhood through influx of wealthier residents/businesses

mixed land use

Clustered developments that range from the same block to the same building

compact design

Using previously developed land in order to expand vertically

range of housing opportunities and choices

Developing for a more extensive range of incomes and family needs

walkability

Compact neighborhoods in which people can easily walk to facilities

DISTINCTIVE, ATTRACTIVE COMMUNITIES WITH A STRONG SENSE OF PLACE

Sites that are allowed to reflect diverse cultures, values, and heritages

preservation

Maintaining green spaces, such as prairies, wetlands, parks, and farms

direct development towards existing communities

Developing in previously developed land in order to take advantage of older infrastructure investments

provide a variety of transportation choices

Providing forms of transportation that can be accessed by citizens from all earning tiers, ranging from biking infrastructure to well-maintained roads

transportation-oriented development

Developing compact, walkable communities with quality train systems

new urbanism

Developing human-scaled urban communities with walkable streets, clustered facilities, and accessible public spaces

greenbelts

Preserving natural and undeveloped land around urban areas

North American urban models

1. concentric zone model

2. Hoyt sector model

3. multiple nuclei models

4. galactic/peripheral model

redlining

process propagated by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) in which city assessors created color-coded security maps that designated predominantly non-Caucasian communities as less desirable loan recipients

urban heat islands

areas with sparse vegetation where there’s an increase in land surface temperature

business services

help other business

1. producer services - banks, insurance, lawyers, etc

2. transportation and information services

enclosure movement

In GB, individually owned strips were consolidated into single, large farms

command and control centers

contain the HQ of large corporations, bank facilities, and concentrated businesses

specialized producer-service centers

responsible for creating a specific good or service

dependent centers

provide unskilled jobs and depend on decisions made in world cities

basic industry

industries that export primarily to consumers outside the settlement - bring in foreign capital

nonbasic industries

enterprises whose customers live in the same community

central business district

commonly referred to as downtown

CBD vs. suburbia

suburban areas have cheaper and more available land —> business and residents would rather cluster there

city

• large size

• high density

• social heterogeneity

metropolitan statistical area

census official method of measuring functional area of a city

• urbanized area with a pop of at least 50,000

• country within which city is located

• adjacent countries with high pop density and large % of residents working in central city’s country

concentric zone model

CBD; zone of transition (industry/slums); working class zone; middle-class family zone; commuter zone

sector model

instead of concentric rings, model uses sectors that lead out from the CBD in a radial pattern

• transportation and industry sectors run alongside the CBD

• wealth increases as one moves out from the CBD

• shows clustered ethnicities

multiple nuclei model

no urban development pattern - cities include more than one center

census tract

urban areas that contain approx 5,000 residents and try to correspond to neighborhood boundaries

filtering

subdividing homes by successive waves of increasingly lower-income people

annexation

the process of legally adding land area to a city

peripheral model

urban area ringed by suburban residential/business areas that contribute to inefficient urban sprawl

density gradient

density drops from high in the CBS to low in rural surroundings