AP Human Geography Unit 7

Annexation

Legally adding land area to a city in the United States

Barriadas

Squatter settlements found in the periphery of Latin American cities. Ex. Shelters

Central Business District (CBD)

The nucleus or "downtown" of a city, where retail stores, offices, and cultural activities are concentrated, mass transit systems converge, and land values and building densities are high. Ex. Skyscrapers

Central Place Theory

A deductive theory formulated by Walter Christaller to explain the size and distribution of settlements through reference to competitive supply of goods and services to dispersed rural populations.

Census Tract

Small country subdivisions delineated by the US Census Bureau as areas of relatively uniform population characteristics, economic status, and living conditions.

Centrality

The functional dominance of cities within an urban system

Christaller , Walter

German geographer credited with developing central place theory.

Cityscapes

An urban landscape

Colonial city

A city that was deliberately established or developed as an administrative or commercial center by colonial or imperial powers. Ex. United States

Command and control centers

A second-economic-level city, containing the headquarters of major corporations, well-developed banking facilities, and high concentrations of other services. Ex) Los Angeles, CA

Commercialization

The transformation of an area of a city into an area attractive to residents and tourists alike in terms of economic activity. Ex. Ft. Lauderdale

Commuter zone

The outer most zone of the Concentric Zone Model that represents people who choose to live in residential suburbia and take a daily commute in the CBD to work. Ex: Emigrants

Concentric zone model

A model describing urban land uses as a series of circular belts or rings around a core central business district, each ring housing a distinct type of land use.

Counter urbanization

Net migration from urban to rural areas in more developed countries. Ex: Immigration

Decentralization

Degree to which decision-making authority is given to lower levels in an organization's hierarchy. Ex: Europe

Density gradient

The gradual variation in density within an area.

Dendritic street pattern

street pattern characterized by fewer streets organized into a hierarchy based on the amount of traffic each is intended to carry--they form the "loop" or "lollipop" typical of urban sprawl neighborhoods.

Edge City

Distinct sizable nodal concentration of retail and office space of lower than central city densities and situated on the outer fringes of older metropolitan areas; usually localized by or near major highway intersections.

Employment structure

Number of people employed with both basic and nonbasic jobs

Entrepot

a port where merchandise can be imported and re-exported without paying import duties

European city model

cities in Europe that were mostly developed during the Medieval Period and that retain many of the same characteristics such as extreme density of development with narrow buildings and winding streets, an ornate church that prominently marks the city center, and high walls surrounding the city center that provided defense against attack

Favela

a slum community in a Brazilian city

Filtering (filter process)

A process of change in the use of a house, from single-family owner to abandonment.

Galactic city

A mini edge city that is connected to another city by beltways or highways

Gateway city

Cities that, because of their geographic location, act as ports of entry and distribution centers for large geographic areas.

Gentrification

The movement into the inner portions of American cities of middle and upper income people who replace low income populations, rehabilitate the structures they occupied, and change the social character of neighborhoods.

Great cities

a city with a population of more then 1 million

Greenbelts

A ring of land maintained as parks, agriculture, or other types of open space to limit the sprawl of an urban area

Latin American city model

Combines elements of Latin American Culture and globalization by combining radial sectors and concentric zones. Includes a thriving CBD with a commercial spine. The quality of houses decreases as one moves outward away from the CBD, and the areas of worse housing occurs in the Disamenity sectors.

Harris and Ulman model

Cities develop as areas with common requirements (land-use, financial) establish themselves near each other (ie. hotels and restaurants spring up near airports)

High-tech corridors

an area along a limited-access highway that houses offices and other services associated with high-tech industries

Hinterland

The market area or region served by an urban center.

Hydraulic civilization

a civilization based on large-scale irrigation systems as the prime mover behind urbanization and a class of technical specialists as the first urban dwellers. Cairo

In-filling

Building on empty parcels of land within a checkerboard pattern of development. Ex: Vacancy

Informal sector

That part of a national economy that involves productive labor not subject to formal systems of control or payment. Money that isn't regulated by the government; drug money, money from chores and odd jobs.

Lateral commuting

Commuting that occurs between suburban areas rather than towards the central city. Ex: Home to work

Market area

The area surrounding a central place, from which people are attracted to use the place's goods and services.

Megacity

Cities with over 10 million people in population. Ex: New York City

Conurbation

A large, sprawled urban complex with contained open, nonurban land, created through the spread and joining of separate metropolitan areas.

Metes and Bounds

A system of land surveying east of the Appalachian Mountains. It is a system that relies on descriptions of land ownership and natural features such as streams or trees.

Metropolitan area

In the United States, a large functionally integrated settlement area comprising one or more whole county units and usually containing several urbanized areas.

MSA (and CMSA)

In the United States, a central city of at least 50000 population, the country within which the city is located, and adjacent countries meeting one of several tests indicating a functional connection to the central city.

Multiple nuclei model (Hoyt)

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of activities.

Multiplier effect

describes how an initial economic activity (like a new business or government spending) can lead to a larger overall increase in economic activity within a region

New urbanism

Outlined by a group of architects, urban planners, and developers from over 20 countries, an urban design that calls for development, urban revitalization, and suburban reforms that create walkable neighborhoods with a diversity of housing and jobs.

Peak land value intersection

Is the land within a settlement with the greatest land value and commerce

Peripheral model

A Model of North American urban areas consisting of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road

Planned communities

Any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area.

Primate city

A country's leading city, disproportionately large and functionally more complex than any other; a city dominating an urban hierarchy composed.

Public housing

Housing owned by the government; in the United States, it is rented to low-income residents, and the rents are set at 30 percent of the families' incomes.

Rank-size ruling

An observed regularity in the city-size distribution of some countries. In a rank-size hierarchy, the population of any given town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy; that is the nth-ranked city will be 1/nth the size of the largest city.

Redlining

A process by which banks draw lines on a map and refuse to lend money to purchase or improve property within boundaries.

Renovated housing

Housing maintained as result of the alternative to demolishing houses.

Restrictive covenants

Provision in a property deed preventing sale to a person of a particular race or religion; loan discrimination; ruled unconstitutional.

Rural areas

Sparsely settled places away from the influence of large cities. Live in villages, hamlets on farms, or in other isolated houses. Typically have an agricultural character, with an economy based on logging, mining, petroleum, natural gas or tourism (ecotourism).

Scattered site

Site in which dwellings are dispersed throughout the city rather than clustered in a large project.

Sector model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a series of sectors, or wedges, radiating out from the central business district (CBD).

Slum

A heavily populated urban area characterized by substandard housing and squalor.

Squatter settlement

An area within a city in a less developed country in which people illegally establish residences on land they do not own or rent and erect homemade structures.

Smart growth

Legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland

Survey systems

Houses erected on narrow lots perpendicular along a river, so that each original settler had equal river access.

Sprawl

Development of new housing sites at relatively low density and at locations that are not contiguous to the existing built-up area

Tenement

An apartment building, especially one meeting minimum standards of sanitation, safety or maintenance up keep.

Threshold

In economic geography and central place theory, the minimum market needed to support the supply of a product or service.

Township and Range System

Survey's used west of Ohio, after the purchase of the Louisiana Purchase. Land is divided into six-mile square blocks (township), which is then divided into one-mile square blocks (range). Ranges were then broken into smaller parcels to be sold or given to people to develop.

Underclass

A group in society prevented from participating in the material benefits of a more developed society because of a variety of social and economic characteristics.

Underemployment

Employed at a job that does not fully use one's skills or abilities.

Urban primacy

When primate city receives a large majority of a country's economic development and investment.

Urban realms model

A spatial generalization of the large, late-twentieth-century city in the United States. It is shown to be a widely dispersed, multicentered metropolis consisting of increasingly independent zones or realms, each focused on its own suburban downtown; the only exception is the shrunken central realm, which is focused on the Central Business District (CBD).

Urban renewal

Program in which cities identify blighted inner-city neighborhoods, acquire the properties from private owners, relocate the residents and businesses, clear the site, build new roads and utilities, and turn the land over to private developers.

World city

One of a small number of interconnected, internationally dominant centers that together control the global systems of finance and commerce. Ex. New York, London, Tokyo

Zone in transition

Area of mixed commercial and residential land uses surrounding the CBD; mixture of growth, change, and decline.

Zoning

Designating by ordinance areas in a municipality for particular types of land use.