AP Human Geography Vocab Unit 6

Megalopolis

A chain of interconnected cities.

Megacity

City with 10 million or more people.

Metacity

A city with a population of over 20 million people.

World City

A city that exerts influence far beyond its national boundaries.

Suburbanization

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

Urbanization

The ongoing process of developing towns and cities.

Boomburb

Large (100,000+ residents), fast-growing suburbs.

Edge cities

A suburb that grows to the point that it develops its own economic core and can exist independently of the city it borders.

Exurbs

Wealthy commuter communities located beyond the suburbs.

Gravity Model

Places that are larger and closer together will have more interaction than places that are smaller and farther away from each other.

Rank-Size Rule

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

Second largest city will be ½ the population of the first largest city.

Primate Cities Rule

If the largest city in an urban system is more than twice as large as the next largest city.

Central Place Theory

A model that explains the size and spacing of centers that specialize in different goods and services.

Infilling

Adding services and housing after the city has already been built.

Redlining

The process by which banks refused loans to those who wanted to purchase/improve properties in certain urban areas.

Filitering

The change in the use of a house from a single-family home to rented units in a multifamily dwelling to eventual abandonment.

Gentrification

The process of wealthier residents moving into a neighborhood, renovating properties, and making it unaffordable for existing residents.

Blockbusting

When people of one ethnic group are frightened into selling their homes at low prices when they hear a family or another race or ethnicity is moving in.

Informal Economy

The portion of the economy that is not taxed, regulated, or managed by the government.

Urban Sprawl

The rapid spread of development outward from the inner city.

Brownfield

An abandoned industrial property that has the potential to be a hazard or pollutant.

Greenbelts

Areas of undeveloped land around an urban area.

New Urbanism

A movement in urban planning that emerged in the 1990s with goals including reducing urban sprawl, increasing affordable housing, and creating livable neighborhoods.

Central Place

A location where people go to receive goods and services.

Threshold

The size of population necessary for any particular service to exist and remain profitable.

Urban Renewal

Large scale redevelopment of the built environment in downtown and older inner-city neighborhoods.

Urbanization Rate

The percentage of a Nations population living in towns and cities.

Farmland Protection Policy Act (FPPA)

U.S. law that grants municipalities oversight over federally funded development projects on farmland.

Shantytown

Homeless settlements

Rural

Areas on the outskirts of cities and towns.

Scattered Development

A dispersed settlement patterns spread out over a wide berth.

Forward Capital

cities deliberately established or promoted as the capital of a country to encourage development in a specific area.