Cities and Urban Land Use Patterns and Processes

Flashcards on Cities and Urban Land Use Patterns and Processes

Urbanization

Refers to the movement of people to towns/cities and the resulting expansion of the rural countryside.

Site

The actual physical qualities of the place that a city occupies which can influence origin, function, and growth (e.g., coastal plain, valley, mountains).

Situation

The relative location of a city (what is it near) which can influence origin, function, and growth (e.g., located near shipping routes like Hong Kong, Singapore).

Megacity

A large city with over 10 million people and found increasingly in the periphery and semi-periphery (e.g., Mumbai, São Paulo, Jakarta, Lima, Shenzhen, Paris).

Meta-city

A large city with over 20 million people and found increasingly in the periphery and semi-periphery (e.g., Delhi, Mexico City, Cairo, Beijing, Mumbai, Tokyo).

Suburbanization

The transformation of large areas of rural land to urban uses.

Suburb

A residential area located on the periphery of a city.

Suburban Sprawl

Unrestricted suburban growth and development over large areas spreading out from a city in which cars provide primary source of transportation.

Edge City

A concentration of residential and economic (business, shopping, entertainment) activity located in the suburbs.

Exurb

A residential area beyond the suburbs, often in more rural areas.

Boomburb

Residential and economic urban area that is not the largest city in their metropolitan area, but has a large population (100,000+) and tends to be spread along highways (e.g., Irvine, CA).

World City

City that functions as a service center of the world economy driving globalization at the top of the urban hierarchy (e.g., New York City, London, Tokyo, Paris).

Network

A system of interconnected people, goods, information, transportation, communication, finance.

Globalization

The process of increased interconnectedness among countries most notably in the areas of economics, politics, and culture.

Urban Hierarchy

Settlements ranked by population, number of services and sphere of influence (e.g., hamlet, village, town, city).

Rank-Size Rule

The idea that the population of a city or town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the urban hierarchy.

Primate City

A country's largest city, at least twice as large as the next largest city and more than twice as significant (usually the capital city) and represents national culture (e.g., Paris, France and London, England).

Gravity Model

A measure of the interaction of places used to predict the movement of people.

Christaller’s Central Place Theory

Explains the distribution, size, location, and interaction of settlements in an urban system.

Low-Order Goods

Products that are replenished frequently such as food and other routine household items.

High-Order Goods

Specialized items such as cars, furniture, fine jewelry, and household appliances that are bought less often.

Threshold

The minimum number of people needed for a business to prosper.

Range

The maximum distance people will travel to purchase goods and services.

Burgess Concentric Zone Model

A spatial model of the American city that suggests the existence of five concentric rings around a CBD (Central Business District).

Hoyt Sector Model

A spatial model of the American city that suggests that land-use areas conform to a wedge-shaped pattern focused on the downtown core (CBD).

Harris and Ullman Multiple Nuclei Model

A spatial model that shows the mid 20th century American city consisting of several land-use zones (nodes) arranged around a CBD (Central Business District).

Galactic City Model (Peripheral Model)

A spatial model in which American urban areas consist of a central city surrounded by a large suburban area, shopping malls, office parks, industrial areas, and service complexes tied together by a beltway, or ring road.

Bid-Rent Theory

Extension of the von Thünen model that implies that rent is equal to the value of the product minus production and transportation costs; shows what various land users are prepared and able to pay for access to the center market (CBD).

Latin American City Model

A spatial city model that includes a prestigious, commercial axis (spine) which emanates outward from the CBD and is surrounded by a peripheral area containing squatter settlements.

Southeast Asian City Model

A spatial city model that includes an old colonial port zone that is the focal point of the city reflecting a city oriented around exports, and radiating outward from the port zone are the Western commercial zone and Alien commercial zone.

Sub-Saharan African City Model

A spatial city model that is difficult to formulate due to the imprint of European colonialism, but often consists of a colonial CBD as well as a traditional CBD, and a market zone that is surrounded by squatter settlements (informal satellite townships).

Housing Discrimination

Discrimination in the purchase or rental of housing on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or veteran status.

Red-lining

A discriminatory real estate practice in North America in which members of minority groups are prevented from obtaining money to purchase homes or property in predominately white neighborhoods.

Blockbusting

A real estate technique used to encourage people to sell their property at a very low price by giving the impression that the neighborhood was changing for the worse, especially in reference to minorities moving in and led to a significant turnover in housing which benefited real estate agents and led to the “white flight” to the suburbs.

Affordable Housing

Residential units that are economical for the section of society whose income is below the median household income.

Access to Services

Measure of people’s ability to pay for services without financial hardship (health services, infrastructure).

Environmental Injustice

Disproportionate exposure to communities of color and the poor to pollution and its effects on health and the environment; includes inadequate access to healthy food, inadequate transportation, unsafe neighborhoods with poor air and water quality.

Disamenity Zone

Area located within the city characterized by slums and the homeless and in extreme cases are controlled by gangs or drug lords.

Zones of Abandonment

Areas with lack of jobs, declining land values and falling demand that cause people to leave and businesses to close.

Squatter Settlements

Residential areas characterized by extreme poverty with shelters constructed of found materials (scrap wood, etc.) that usually exist on land just outside of cities that is neither owned or rented by its occupants with little or no access to water, sewage, garbage removal, or education.

Land Tenure

System regulating the rights to ownership and control and usage of land.

Inclusionary Zoning

Planning ordinances that provide affordable housing to people with low to moderate incomes.

Local Food Movements

Food that is produced within a short distance of where it is consumed, often accompanied by a social structure and supply chain different from the large-scale supermarket system.

Urban Renewal

The redevelopment of areas within an urban area, typically neighborhoods in economic decline.

Gentrification

The restoration of deteriorated urban areas by wealthier (mostly middle-income) people who move into, renovate, and restore housing and sometimes businesses.

Functional Fragmentation of Government

Refers to the way governmental institutions are dispersed between many local agencies including state, county, city and neighborhood levels.

Urban Sustainability

The idea that a city can meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs in terms of economic, environmental and social impact.

Low Density Housing

Land use pattern meant for a small number of residential homes that include a lot of open space and contain the fewest people per geographic unit.

Medium Density Housing

Land use pattern in which residential units include multi-unit housing, such as townhomes as well as single-unit housing.

High Density Housing

Land use pattern in which land is occupied by residential units that include multi-unit housing such as high-rise buildings and contain the highest people per geographic unit.

Sustainable Development

Meeting human development goals while sustaining the natural systems that provide the natural resources upon which the economy and society depend.

Zoning

Classifying land and identifying the types of activities that are permitted (e.g., residential, industrial, commercial, agricultural).

Mixed Land Use

Land development that blends a combination of residential, commercial, cultural, institutional and/or industrial uses.

Walkability

A measure of how friendly an urban area is to walking.

Transportation-Oriented Development

Land use pattern that includes a mix of commercial, residential, office and entertainment space centered around or located near public transport.

Smart Growth Policies

Urban planning that avoids urban sprawl and focuses on long term implications with sustainable design initiatives and guides development into more convenient patterns and into areas where infrastructure allows growth to be sustained over the long term.

New Urbanism

Smart growth policy that creates walk-able, mixed land use neighborhoods with commercial and residential areas.

Green Belt

An area of natural land on which building is restricted and whose main purpose is to curb the outward expansion of a large urban area e.g. London

Slow Growth Cities

Smart growth policies that concentrate growth in walkable urban centers to decrease sprawl.

Quantitative Data

Census and survey data that provide information about changes in population composition and size.

Qualitative Data

Field studies and narratives that provide information about individual attitudes toward urban change.