Urban Geography Concepts

Flashcards covering key concepts from urban geography, including definitions of terms related to urbanization, community types, and city structures.

Ecumene

A variety of community types within a range of population densities.

Urban

Areas/cities with high concentrations of people.

Rural

Areas such as farms and villages with low concentrations of people.

Suburban

Primarily residential areas near cities.

Settlement

A place with a permanent human population.

Urbanization

An ongoing process of developing towns and cities.

Percent Urban

An indicator of the proportion of the population that lives in cities compared to rural areas.

Site

Describes the characteristics of the immediate location, such as physical features and climate.

Situation

Refers to the location of a place relative to its surroundings.

City-state

An urban center with its own political system and surrounding agricultural villages.

Urban Hearth

Generally associated with defensible sites and river valleys that allow for agricultural surpluses.

Urban Area

Defined as a central city plus developed land for commercial, industrial, or residential purposes.

City

A higher density area within officially recognized political boundaries.

Metropolitan Area

A collection of adjacent cities with high population density and economic connections.

Metropolitan Statistical Area

Consists of a city of at least 50,000 people and adjacent counties with high social and economic integration.

Micropolitan Statistical Area

Cities of more than 10,000 but less than 50,000 inhabitants with high degrees of integration.

Nodal Region

A focal point in a matrix of connections upon which a city is based.

Social Heterogeneity

Refers to a greater variety of people found in cities compared to other areas.

Time-Space Compression

Reduction in the time it takes to travel or communicate between two places due to technological advancements.

Borchert's Transportation Model

Describes urban growth based on transportation technology across epochs.

Pedestrian Cities

Cities shaped by the distances people could walk.

Streetcar Suburbs

Communities that grew along rail lines, often creating pinwheel-shaped cities.

Suburbanization

The process of people moving from cities to less densely populated residential areas.

Sprawl

Rapid expansion of the spatial extent of a city due to various reasons.

Leap Frog Development

When developers build communities beyond the periphery of a city's built area.

Boomburbs

Rapidly growing communities with more than 100,000 people and growth rates exceeding 10% per decade.

Edge Cities

Nodes of economic activity developed on the periphery of large cities.

Counter Urbanization

The flow of residents leaving cities for rural areas.

Exurbs

Prosperous residential districts beyond the suburbs.

Reurbanization

The movement of suburban residents back to live in the city.

Mega Cities

Urban areas with populations exceeding 10 million people.

Metacities

Continuous urban areas with populations greater than 20 million people.

Urban System

An interdependent set of cities that interact on regional, national, and global scales.

Megalopolis

A chain of connected cities, often described as continuously developed urban strings.

Conurbation

An uninterrupted urban area made of towns, suburbs, and cities.

World Cities

Cities that exert influence far beyond their national boundaries.

Urban Hierarchy

Rankings of cities based on influence or population size.

Nodal Cities

Command centers at regional and national levels holding significant power.

Rank Size Rule

A principle stating that the nth largest city in a region will be 1/n the size of the largest city.

Higher Order Services

Expensive services requiring a large population to support.

Lower Order Services

Less expensive services requiring a smaller population to support.

Primate City

The largest city in an urban system, more than twice the size of the next largest city.

Gravity Model

A model stating that larger and closer places will have more interactions than smaller, further places.

Central Place Theory

Explains the distribution of cities of different sizes based on consumer behavior.

Central Place

A location where people go to receive goods and services.