Unit 6

site

the physical location a place is

differentiate between the terms site and situation

Site refers to physical and exact location, whereas situation refers to relative location and the connection between places

Megacity

Metropolitan areas with populations of more than 10 million people

Metacities

Metropolitan areas with populations of more than 20 million people

Edge cities

Community located on the outskirts of a larger city with commercial centers, office space, retail complexes, and amenities typically found in an urban center

Exurbs

Community on the outside edge of traditional suburbs

Boomburbs

Suburb that has grown rapidly into a large and sprawling city with more than 100,000 residents

Urban sprawl

The spread of urban areas and cities to other, rural areas.

Explain how the automobile has transformed modern American cities. How are American cities that evolved after the automobile different from earlier cities

Automobiles have transformed American cities by allowing them to spread out over a further distance because people were able to travel further, faster. American cities after the creation of the automobile were more spread out because the business district was able to be separate from the residential district, and the commercial district didn’t have to be close to the business and residential district. Because people were able to drive instead of walking, American cities created after these advancements in transportation and infrastructure were spatially placed with these technologies in mind. Cities before these advancements were, in turn, smaller and more densely populated.

Describe how suburbanization relates to urban sprawl

Suburbanisation caused families to move and reside further away from the city and had them commute to the city for work. These advancements in transportation and infrastructure allowed cities to spread out because people were able to move quickly.

Suburbanisation

the process of housing shifting to surrounding

situation

The relative location of a place and it’s connections to other places

Compare edge cities, boomburbs, and exurbs

Edge cities are small cities or communities that develop on the edge of cities which have businesses and things like the real city does. A boomburb is a city that forms very rapidly and has more than 100,000 residents. Exurbs are the community on the outside of a tradition suburb. Exurbs separate the suburb and rural land. Exurbs and Edge Cities are both located on the outskirts of something, Edge Cities and Boomburbs are both functional like cities, and Exurbs and Boomburbs both have a lot of residents.

Explain how urban planners attempt to reduce urban sprawl

Urban sprawl is currently trying to be reduced by implementing green belts or other hard cut offs dictating how far out a city is allowed to spread before it reaches protected land. Urban planners have also been focusing on building their city more dense and walkable, so that everything is close together and easily accessible. Urban planners have also been building their city so that it is more vertical and has mixed use zoning, which allows for apartments and housing to be built on the same land as commercial and retail buildings. By stacking these buildings atop one another, you can limit how much land you take up.

World city

Large cities that exert global economic, cultural, and political influence and make up a network of economic, social, and information flows

Compare the characteristics of world cities with those of other cities

World cities are at the top of the influential hierarchy. This means that these cities are more likely to start trends that then spread to other cities slowly. World cities are also more likely to have prospering economies and make a lot more money than other cities because they are big and have a lot of businesses and partners to trade with. World Cities also mainly communicate with other world cities. World cities also usually have a much larger population than the average city, though a large population is not what makes a city a world city, it is more of a byproduct of being a world city.

Explain how world cities may influence the culture of people halfway around the world.

World Cities can impact people’s culture halfway around the world because of hierarchical diffusion. People naturally adopt habits, trends, and cultures of people more important than them and more influential. World Cities are like celebrities, they impact and influence other, lesser cities. Cultures diffuse to other world cities, then mega and meta cities, and then smaller cities until it gets to suburbs and rural areas as well.

Rank-Size Rule

The rank size rule dictates that the population of the second city will be half of the first city, the 3rd biggest city will be a third of the biggest cities population and so on.

Primate city

The primate city rule i when there is one city with a much larger population than any other city in the country. This rule indicates an uneven pattern of development.

Gravity model

The gravity model indicates that the large cities will be attracted to other large cities and medium cities will be attracted to both large and small cities, and small cities will be attracted to large and medium cities. This model also takes into account the distances of each city as well as the size. The closer the city, the more likely the cities are to react.

Christaller’s Central Place Theory

The theory that everything is placed around a central area (the city)

Threshold

The number of people needed to support a business

Range

The distance people are willing to travel for a certain good or service

Explain the rank-size rule for cities two through five given the largest city has a population of 15 million.

The second largest city has a population of 7.5 million people because you divide the population of the largest city by two. The third largest city has a population of 5 million people because it is a third of the population of the largest city. The fourth largest city has a population of 3.75 million people because you divide the population of the largest city by four. The last city would have a population of 3 million people because you divide the population of the largest city by 5.

Explain why high-order goods have larger thresholds and ranges than low-order goods

High order goods are goods that are in high demand. Goods that are in high demand mean that people are more expensive because people want them a lot more than they want low order goods. Because of this increased demand, people are more likely to travel a further distance to buy high order goods. High order goods have a higher threshold though because expensive goods need more money to maintain.

Explain central place theory using the terms threshold and range

A city is located in the center of the central place theory because that is where the most high order goods are located. The towns, hamlets and markets are located around the city because their range is much smaller than the cities. People are willing to travel much further to get to a city then they are to travel to a hamlet. A city also has a high threshold, meaning that it needs to have a higher population and more people using the city and living their everyday lives in the city to function than a smaller town, hamlet, or market does.

Explain how the rank-size rule is related to primate cities

The rank size rule indicates that the population of the biggest city could be divided by half to give you the population of the second largest city. The population of the third largest city is a third of the population of the largest city and so forth. The primate city rule states that the largest city is exponentially larger and more economically, politically, and culturally more important than all of the other cities in the country. The rank size rule and primate city are similar because they both discuss and predict the populational pattern between cities in a country.

Burgess Concentric-Zone Model

Perfect rings are surrounding a CBD center to indicate the different land use patterns at certain distances from the central city.

Hoyt Sector Model

Uses sector wedges to classify each land use pattern in relation to the CBD instead of perfect rings. These wedges are usually created because of transportation lines.

Harris and Ullman Multiple-Nuclei Model

Cities develop around multiple focal points (multiple business areas) and build outwards to create a functional region

Galactic City Model

The most modern model. Accounts for suburbanisation and edge cities.

Latin American Model

Contains a spine connecting the mall (secondary CBD) to the traditional CBD. Also contains disamenity zones or dangerous zones people don’t want to live in because of safety reasons (mountains , floods etc) so favelas are formed in these areas.

Southeast Asian Model

Contains a port instead of a CBD and has two commercial zones (alien commercial zone for the natives and western commercial zone for the westerners.)

African Model

Contains three CBDs, the traditional CBD, the Colonist CBD, and the market CBD.

Provide an example of an urban area that fits the galactic city model

LA

Why does Hoyt’s sector model explain the way cities are arranged better than Burgess’ concentric-zone model

Hoyt’s sector model accounts for lines of transportation

Compare the differences between the three central business districts in the African city model

The three CBDs in the African city model are the traditional CBD, Market CBD, and the colonist CBD. The colonist CBD was created when colonizers were in Africa and are very geometric. The market CBD is filled with small, narrow streets and traditional shops, and the traditional CBD is more of an open air market. The colonist CBD was filled with more western items, whereas the market and traditional CBD have more items that appeal to the natives. Despite the fact these African cities are no longer under the westerners and European control, these CBDs remained.

What is the difference between infilling and gentrification

Infilling is redeveloping vacant land to make it better, gentrification is buying land and making it better to be sold at a higher price for profit.

High density housing

Small plots of land, tall buildings like apartments

medium density housing

Houses that are touching like condos or townhouses

low density housing

Single family homes

Infilling

The redevelopment of vacant lots to better the area

Where can infilling take place in a city?

In vacant, broken, or abandoned lots

How do the types of housing in a city affect its population density

Each type of housing comes with its own population density. For example, single family homes are low density housing, condos and townhouses are medium density housing, and apartments are high density housing. If a city has a lot of apartments, the city’s population density will be high.

Infrastructure

the basic support systems needed to keep a society and economy running smoothly.

Why do countries with strong economies have stronger infrastructures

Strong infrastructures cause more money to build, and the cities use taxes to build and maintain infrastructures.

How can better bus and bike infrastructure address economic inequality within an urban area

It allows poor people to get to work quickly and make money to support themselves.

Mixed land use

Land that is used for multiple types of buildings

walkability

Safe, convenient ways to walk or bike places

Transportation-Oriented Development

access to public transportation

smart growth policies

Policies that are promoting healthier ways of urbanising cities

new urbanisism

The utilization of mixed land use and other smart growth policies to create a sustainable city

greenbelts

Area of protected, green land that surrounds a city and stops it from spreading

slow growth cities

Decreases the rate at which cities grow

Qualitative

descriptive, personal data

quantitative

measurable, numerical data

Identify what distinguishes qualitative and quantitative data

The difference between qualitative data and quantitative data is that qualitative data is personal opinion, whereas quantitative data is facts and numbers that can be measured.

Describe the value in combining qualitative and quantitative data

The value of combining quantitative and qualitative data is that you get to see people’s opinions on the numbers you are looking at. Qualitative data paired with quantitative data allows the geographer to better understand and comprehend the numbers they are looking at. By paying attention to these 2 separate types of data, it allows you to create a more effective picture of the state of the city.

Identify examples of challenges resulting from urban populations moving within a city

pollution and lack of access to services

squatter settlements

Squatter settlements are areas where people without land tenure make makeshift homes because they don’t have enough money to buy a house or car. These people normally live in disamenity zones, or dangerous zones, because all of the safe areas are already owned.

What are the positives of urban renewal and gentrification

improving houses, attracting businesses, people, and investors to the area, infrastructure improvements, revitalised historical buildings and lower crime rates

What are the negatives of urban renewal and gentrification

displaced people and the demolition of historical buildings.

How can functional and geographic fragmentation of governments present challenges in addressing urban issues

The more opinions different parties have over an issue, the more hurdles people have to jump in order to make change. The government wants to make as many people happy as possible, and they all have their own opinions and motives, which can make change hard to start.

Brownfields

Large, abandoned industrial sites in central cities and suburbs, due to the shift from manufacturing to service-based economies.Typically unsafe and polluted.

what does UGB stand for

urban growth boundaries

Identify challenges to urban sustainability

Suburban Sprawl and Ecological Footprint, sanitation, climate change and energy consumption, and air and water quality.

Identify possible responses to urban sustainability challenges

Regional planning, Remediation and Redevelopment of Brownfields, and Establishment of Urban Growth Boundaries and farmland protection policies