AP Human Geography Unit 7

site

the physical character of a place

situation

the location of a place relative to other places

urbanization

the process where an increasing percentage of a population lives in cities and suburbs

Borchet's epochs of urban growth model

1-sail and wagon epoch

2-steamboat and iron horse epoch

3-steel rail epoch

4-auto and air amenity epoch

5-high tech/ telecommunication epoch

world cities

centers of economic, culture, and political activity that are strongly interconnected and together control the global systems of finance and commerce

megacities

a city with a population of greater than 10 million

rank-size rule

an observation that mathematically the population of a city will be inversely proportional

primate city

a country's leading city, always disproportionately large and exceptionally expressive of national capacity and feeling

primate city rule

a pattern of settlements in a country, such that the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement

Christaller's central place theory

In a perfect world...

-flat region; no physical barrier

-soil fertility everywhere

-population and income equally distributed

-uniform transportation system

-from any given place a good or service can be sold in all directions as long as profitable

gravity model

distance from a population and the size of a=population- optimal location for the store front based on "pull"

periodic markets

when small vendors from all around meet up at a certain location to sell goods sometimes weekly and sometimes annually (Farmers Market)

central business district (CBD)

the downtown hearth of a central city. Marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce, and the clustering of the tallest buildings

Burgess concentric zone model

an urban model that resembles layer after layer of rings moving directly and perfectly away from the CBD in the middle

Hoyt sector model

an urban model that resembles a pizza with each slice representing a different socioeconomic class and all the tips forming the CBD

Harris-Ullman multiple nuclei model

an urban model that shows a city with several clusters (or nodes) of social and economic activities somewhat randomly assorted over the space of the city

Harris peripheral/ galactic model

an urban model that resembles a large circle with the outer rim containing a highway loop, suburbs, airport, and/ or shopping district

Griffin-Ford Latin American city model

an urban model that contains vast underdeveloped zones on the periphery and a CBD that resembles a spine, often with a grand plaza at one end and a Catholic church on the other end

zone of disamenity

disadvantage zone (found in Latin American city models)

squatter settlements

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

De Blij African city model

an urban model that is made up of sectors and rings with distinct colonial, traditional, and market CBDs

Africa has the world's lowest levels of urbanization yet the most fastest growing cities. African cities have a high range of diversity so formulating a model is difficult.

Often three CBDs: a remnant of the colonial CBD, an informal and sometimes periodic market zone, and a transitional business center where commerce is conducted from curbside, stalls, or storefronts. Vertical development occurs in the colonial CBD, the traditional business center consists of one-story buildings, and the mark zone tends to be informal, yet still important.

The neighborhoods are ethnic and mixed, often next to a mining and manufacturing zone. All of that is then ringed around by a zone characterized by squatter settlements and informal satellite townships.

colonial CBD

Vertical development

traditional CBD

consists of one-story buildings

land rent (bid-rent) curve

a geographical economic theory that refers to how the price and demand on real estate changes as the distance towards the Central Business District (CBD) increases. It states that different land users will compete with one another for land close to the city center

low-density housing

typically made up of single- family homes that are detached with green space between properties- typically owned by the residents

medium-density housing

typically made up of multiple- family apartments or town houses- residents typically pay monthly rent to a landlord who owns the property; medium-density housing is common in larger suburban areas and the transition zone close to the city's CBD

high-density housing

typically made up of multiple family high rise apartments or high priced single family flats- residents pay monthly rent to a landlord: common in the CBD where land prices are high

metropolis

the capital or chief city of a country or region

infrastructure

basic facilities, services, and installations needed for the functioning of a community or society, such as transportation and community systems, water, power lines and public institutions (schools, post offices and prisons)

sustainable urban design

policies/ approaches that take into account the human and environmental impacts of a growing city

mixed-use area

zones in a city that try and mix together resident, bus, and light industry to reduce traffic congestion as people have access to their basic needs within smaller community

smart-growth policies

any policy that tries to prevent the demanding effects of suburban sprawl and urban fragmentation

new urbanism

a movement that started in the early 1990s that focused on the development, urban revitalization, and suburban reforms that create walkable neighborhoods with a diversity of housing and jobs

greenbelts

a belt of green space of land to separate urban areas

slow-growth cities

urban communities where the planners have put into place smart growth initiatives to decrease the rate at which the city grows horizontally to avoid the adverse affects of sprawl

quantitative information

statistical data that can be aggregated to make decisions- usually more objective data (#s speak for themselves- census/ survey)

qualitative information

an type of data that tries to show the unique perspectives and feelings of the individuals who are being studied- more personal data

housing discrimination

discrimination in which an individual or family is treated unequally when trying to buy, rent, lease, sell or finance a home based on certain characteristics, such as race, class, sex, religion, national origin, and familial status

insurance discrimination

forms of discrimination since the business of insurance involves putting people into categories and assigning a premium based on the degree of risk which a particular category is believed to represent

don't let the people become clients because they may live in an area that would cause them to make a lot of claims

affordability

the extent to which something is affordable, as measured by its cost relative to the amount that the purchaser is able to pay

public services

the business of supplying a commodity (as electricity or gas) or service (as transportation) to any or all members of a community

zone of abandonment

zones where abandon buildings are found

gentrification

the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents

suburban sprawl (AKA urban sprawl)

the expansion of human populations away from central urban areas into low-density, monofunctional and usually car-dependent communities

remediation

the action of remedying something, in particular of reversing or stopping environmental damage

brown fields

a former industrial or commercial site where future use is affected by real or perceived environmental contamination