chapter 13 aphug

Census Tract

An area delineated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for which statistics are published; in urbanized areas, census tracts correspond roughly to neighborhoods.

Central Business District (CBD)

The area of a city where retail and office space activities are clustered.

Central City (City)

An urban settlement that has been legally incorporated into an independent, self-governing unit known as a municipality.

Concentric Zone Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings.

Edge City

A large node of office and retail activities on the edge of an urban area.

informal settlement

an area in a city built (often illegally and without planning permission) on low value land usually using poor quality materials. Characteristic of Less Economically Developed Country (LEDC) cities they are also known as Favelas (Brazil), Bustees (India), Barrios (Mexico) and Shanty towns (South Africa).

Megalopolis

Several, metropolitan areas that were originally separate but that have joined together to form a large, sprawling urban complex.

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)

In the United States, a central city of at least 50,000 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

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

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).

Social Area Analysis

Statistical analysis used to identify where people of similar living standards, ethnic background, and life style live within an urban area.

Urban Area

a central city and its surrounding built-up suburbs.

Urbanized Area

In the United States, an area with at least 50,000 inhabitants.

Annexation

Legally adding land area to a city in the United States

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

The process of capturing waste CO2, transporting it to a storage site, and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere, normally underground.

Density gradient

The change in density in an urban area from the center to the periphery.

Filtering

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

Gentrification

A process of converting an urban neighborhood from a predominantly low-income renter-occupied area to a predominantly middle-class owner-occupied area.

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.

Public Housing

Government-owned housing rented to low-income individual, with rents set at 30 percent of the tenant's income.

Redlining

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

Smart growth

Legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland.

sprawl

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

Suburb

A residential or commercial area situated within an urban area but outside the central city

Sustainable development

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

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.

Urban cluster

In the United States, an urban area with between 2,500 and 50,000 inhabitants.

Zoning ordinance

A law that limits the permitted uses of land and maximum density of development in a community.