APHG Unit 6 Vocab

Urbanization

The process of developing towns and cities

Site

Describes the characteristics at the immediate location

Example: Cincinnati is on the north bank of the Ohio River and is a valley surrounded by hills with a temperate climate and fertile soil.

Situation

refers to the location of a place relative to its surrounding and connectivity to other places

example: Cincinnati emerged as a river port after 1811. River commerce reached its height in 1852, stimulated steamboat building and industry, specifically pork. 

near a gold mine, on the coast, by the railroad

City state

consisted of an urban centers and the surrounding territory and agricultural villages

example: classical Greece, middle ages in Europe, Venice, Italian city states during the renissance Monaco.

Metropolitan statistical area

Another way to define a city

City with at least 50k people adjacent counties have a high degree of social and economic integration and connection

Micropolitan statistical area

More than 10k less than 50k

Adjacent areas have a level of high integration

Borchert’s Transportation Model

-John Borchet developed

• describes urban growth based on transportation technology.

• ends in 1970

Suburbanization

The process of people moving usually from cities to residential areas on the outskirts of cities

ex; post WWII, Neighborhoods were developed with tract/prefab housing

Boomburbs

Suburb growing fast into a large and sprawling city with more than 100,000 residents. Made up of planned communities that have began to merge together.

• Plano, Texas

• Riverside, California

• Mesa, Arizona

Edge Cities

Community on the outside edge of traditional suburbs, “exurban.” Function like a suburb, but more rural and less connected to the central city core. 

• Not usually residential - mostly economic activities. 

• Newly developed in the past 30 years.  

Megacities

Have a population of more than 10 million people. Because of the rapid growth of cities

Ex; Seoul, Shanghai, and Delhi. 

Metacities

continuous urban area with a population greater than 20 million people or attributes of a network of urban areas that have grown together to form a larger interconnected urban system.

ex;

• Tokyo, Japan

• New York City

• Shenzhen, China

Megalopolis

Goes back to the early 1900s and describes a chain of connected cities.

Ex; Tokyo through Yokohama is a megalopolis in Japan.

Conurbation

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

Ex; New York metropolitan area

Exurbs

Community on the outside edge of traditional suburbs, “exurban.” Function like a suburb, but more rural and less connected to the central city core. 

• Low-density residential communities

• May include wealthy estates or small rural towns. 

• Little diversity 

Deurbanization

Demographic and social process whereby people move from urban areas to rural areas.

World cities

exert influence far beyond their national boundaries.

ex; New York, London, Tokyo, and Paris

Urban Hierarchy

ranking, based on influence or population size

Rank Size Rule

describes one way in which the sizes of cities within a region may develop. It states that the nth largest city in any region will be 1/n the size of the largest city.

ex; the third-largest city in a system that exhibits the rank-size distribution would be approximately one-third the size of the largest city.

Primate City

Is more developed than other cities in the system, and consequently, disproportionately more powerful.

ex; United Kingdom, Mexico City

The 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

• proposed by Walter Christaller

• explain the distribution of cities of different sizes across a region.

Threshold

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

Range

The maximum distance people are willing to travel to get a product or service.

High Order Services

usually expensive, need a large number of people to support, and are only occasionally utilized.

Ex; major sports teams, large malls, luxury car dealerships, and large specialized research hospitals.

Low Order Services

usually less expensive than higher-order services, require a small population to support, and are used on a daily or weekly basis.

Ex; gas stations, local grocery stores, or small restaurants.

Hexagonal Hinterlands

This shape was a compromise between a square- in which people living in the corners would be farther from the central place-and a circle-in which there would be overlapping areas of service.

Concentric Zone Model

describes a city as a series of rings that surrounds a central business district. Known as the Burgess model because sociologist E. W Burgess proposed it in the 1920s.

Hoyt Sector Model

describes sectors of land use for low-, medium-, and high-income housing. developed by Homer Hoyt in the 1930’s.

Multiple Nuclei Model

Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman developed the multiple-nuclei model in the 1940s. This model suggested that functional zonation occurred around multiple centers, or nodes.

Galactic City Model

Based in Detroit and is made up of an inner city, with large suburban residential and business areas surrounding it. Created by Chauncy Harris.

Squatter zones

Densely populated areas where people establish homes on land they do not own or have legal rights to, often arising due to rapid urbanization and a lack of affordable housing.

Ex; favelas and barriadas

Disamenity Zones

areas not connected to city services and under the control of criminals. They are often in physically unsafe locations.

ex; on steep, unstable mountain slopes.

Traditional CBD

Existed before European colonization, has small shops clustered along narrow, twisting streets. Includes the formal economy-permanent stores with full-time jobs that comply with local regulations and have set wages.

Colonial CBD

Has broad, straight avenues and large homes, parks, and administrative centers.

Latin America City Model

developed by Ernest Griffin and Larry Ford, describes the spatial structure of many Latin American cities, featuring a core CBD, a commercial spine, and surrounding zones of housing that decrease in quality as one moves away from the city center

African City Model

describes the urban structure of many cities in sub-Saharan Africa, characterized by three distinct CBDs (Central Business Districts) and concentric rings radiating outward

Southeast Asian CIty Model

Also known as the McGee model describes the land use of many large cities in Southeast Asia, where the focus of the modern city is often a former colonial port zone.

Infilling/ Urban Infill

the process of increasing the residential density of an area by replacing open space and vacant housing with residences.

Zoning Ordinances

regulations that define how property in specific geographic regions may be used. (tool for urban planning)

Urban Planning

a process of promoting growth and controlling change in land use.

Infrastructure

the fundamental facilities and systems that support the functioning of a society

ex; transportation, sanitation and water systems

Municipal

refers to the local government of a city or town and the services it provides.

Ex; a mayor and city council make up the core of the municipal government, and the local water supply is the municipal water supply.

Municipality

refers to a local entity that is all under the same jurisdiction.

Sustainability

using resources properly to meet current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same, focusing on environmental, social, and economic aspects.

Greenbelts

areas of undeveloped land around an urban area, have been created to limit a city's growth and preserve farmland. sometimes referred to as an urban growth boundary. 

ex; Historically used in Great Britain, but the idea has widely spread as a characteristic of sustainable urban design. And many communities in the United States.

New Urban Design

To put smart growth into action within communities.

Ex;

• creating human-scale neighborhoods (designed for optimum human use)

• reclaiming neglected spaces, giving access to multiple modes of transportation

• increasing affordable housing, and creating mixed use neighborhoods.

Mixed-Use Development

Planned urban development that includes multiple uses such as retail, residential, educational, recreational and businesses. Hallmark characteristic of smart growth policies and New Urbanism. 

Ex; a building may have residential or hotel rooms on the upper floors and retail shops, grocery stores, or restaurants on the first levels

Smart Growth Policies

To combat urban sprawl and create a new vision for cities that are more sustainable and equitable. Focuses on city planning and transportation systems of an urban region.

Ex; London and other European cities use these policies to preserve farmland and other open, undeveloped spaces.

Slow Growth Policies

Another sustainable urban design policy that intends to decrease the rate that cities grow outward in an attempt to reduce urban sprawl.

Ex; The cities of Boulder, Colorado, and Portland, Oregon.

Quantitative Data

Data that involves numbers and statistics - can be measured. 

Ex;

• the Census and other surveys as well as population or development statistics.

• information to city governments about changes in population composition and size of urban areas. 

Qualitative Data

Data that involves descriptive depictions or characteristics of a research topic often based on people’s perceptions or opinions. 

Ex;  

• fieldwork and narratives, personal interviews, photographs.

• Open-ended questions about how individuals feel about urban change and conditions such as growth, zoning changes, crime rates, traffic, etc.

• When a new housing development is being built in a neighborhood, researchers seek out multiple viewpoints about the project.

Redlining

The process by which banks refuse loans to those who want to purchase and improve properties in certain urban areas, was common.

Blockbusting

When people of an ethnic group sold their homes upon learning that members of another ethnic group were moving into the neighborhood.

Inclusionary Zoning

practices offer incentives for developers to set aside a percentage of housing for low-income renters or buyers

Zones of Abandonment

areas of a city that have been deserted by their owners for either economic or environmental reasons.

ex; Detroit, Michigan, or Kowloon, near Hong Kong.

Urban Renewal

policy allowed governments to clearout the blighted inner-city slums, which usually displaced the residents to low-income government housing complexes, and built new development projects.

Eminent Domain

Allows the government to claim private property from individuals, pay them for the property, and then use the land for the public good.

Gentrification

the process of converting an urban inner-city neighborhood from a mostly low-income, renter-occupiedarea to a predominately wealthier, owner-occupied area of a city.

Informal Settlements

Densely populated areas built without coordinated planning and without sufficient public services for electricity, water, and sewage.

Ex; Mumbra India, slums, squatter settlements

Suburban Sprawl

Rapid spread of development outward from the inner city.

Ecological Footprint

the impact of human activity on the environment.

Brownfields

visual reminders on the landscape of how the centers of cities have changed over time. consists of dilapidated buildings and polluted or contaminated soils.

Ex; in most core countries and in some semiperiphery countries such as China.

Urban Redevelopment

Involves renovating a site within a city by removing the existing landscape and rebuilding from the ground up.