Unit 6 Review - Ultimate Vocab Flashcards

Metropolitan Area (MSA)

Includes a central city and surrounding counties with economic/social ties (commuting). It captures functional urban regions.

Pedestrian Cities

Early cities designed for walking, with compact layouts before automobiles.

Pull Factor

An attractive condition drawing migrants to a location (jobs, services, family). It drives urban population growth, especially in megacities.

Reurbanization

When people and businesses move back into older, declining parts of the city center. New investment, housing, and jobs help revive these areas.

Site

The physical characteristics of a location (topography, climate, resources, water) that influence settlement origin and growth. These absolute features determine initial advantages or constraints.

Situation

A place's relative location and connections to other places (trade routes, markets, transport). It explains long-term growth beyond physical site.

Streetcar Suburbs

Suburbs developed along early public transit lines (streetcars) in late 19th/early 20th century.

Suburbanization

The movement of population, businesses, and activities from central cities to surrounding suburbs, often due to transportation improvements, government incentives, and desire for space/privacy. It leads to decentralization and sprawl. In the U.S./Canada, it intensified post-WWII.

Urbanization

The increase in the percentage and number of people living in urban settlements, driven by rural-to-urban migration, economic opportunities, and technological changes. It transforms land use from rural/agricultural to built urban environments. This process accelerates in developing countries and shapes global settlement patterns.

Boomburb

A fast-growing suburb with over 100,000 people that doesn't have a traditional downtown. It has lots of houses, stores, and offices spread out and designed for cars.

Built Landscape

All the human-made things in a city (buildings, roads, signs) that show culture, power, and values.

Conurbation

A large urban area where several cities have grown together into one continuous built-up zone. They share roads, jobs, and services.

Counter-Urbanization

When people leave big cities to live in smaller towns or rural areas. They do this to escape high costs, traffic, or to have more space and quiet.

Decentralization

When people, jobs, and stores move away from the city center to the suburbs. Better roads and higher city-center costs make this happen, so cities get multiple activity centers instead of one main downtown.

Edge City

An economic hub on the outskirts of a city with offices, stores, and entertainment, usually near highways or airports. It acts like a mini-city and doesn't depend on the downtown area.

Exurb

A low-density, semi-rural area farther out than the suburbs. People live there for bigger yards or cheaper land but drive long distances to city or suburban jobs.

Leap-Frog Development

When new buildings are built far out, skipping over closer empty or protected land. This creates gaps in growth and makes roads and services harder to build.

Megacity

A very large city with more than 10 million people. These cities usually grow very fast, have high population density, and struggle with housing, traffic, and services.

Megalopolis

A huge connected urban region made when several big cities grow together into one long chain. Roads, trains, and shared economy link them.

Metacity

An urban area with more than 20 million people. It has many connected suburbs and business areas that work together like one giant city.

Sprawl

When a city grows outward in a low-density, spread-out way into farmland or open land. It happens because people want bigger houses and use cars a lot, but it wastes land and causes more traffic and pollution.

Globalization

When countries, economies, and cultures become more connected around the world. Cities are the main places where this happens because people, goods, and ideas flow through them.

Networks and Linkages

The connections (roads, airports, internet, trade) between cities that let people, money, and information move quickly. These ties make global cities work together.

Nodal City

A city that acts as a central point or "node" in global networks. It is a major hub for trade, finance, or transportation that links many other places.

Time-Space Compression

When technology makes distances feel shorter and time faster. Things like fast trains, planes, and the internet let people and ideas move across the world quickly.

Urban Hierarchy

The ranking of cities from biggest/most important to smaller/less important. The top cities (world cities) have the most power and services.

World City/ Global City

One of the most important cities in the world. It controls big parts of finance, media, and business across many countries.

Central Place Theory

Explains why towns and cities are spaced out based on the goods and services they offer. Bigger places have more special services, and smaller ones have basics. Uses hexagons.

Gravity Model

Predicts how much two places interact (like trade or migration) based on their population sizes and distance. Bigger populations and closer distance mean stronger connections.

Higher-Order Services

Lower-Order Services

Everyday basics (like groceries or gas stations) that need only a small population and short range.

Primate City

The largest city in a country that is much bigger (usually more than twice as big) than the next-largest city. It controls most of the country's economy, government, and culture.

Range

The farthest distance people are willing to travel for a good or service. Rare or expensive things have a bigger range (people travel farther).

Rank-Size Rule

When cities in a country follow a pattern where the second-largest city has about half the population of the largest, the third has one-third, and so on. It shows a balanced system with no single city dominating too much.

Threshold

The minimum number of people needed to support a business or service. Specialized things need a bigger threshold (more customers).

Bid-Rent Theory

Theory that say land gets more expensive the closer it is to the city center. Businesses pay the most to be near the CBD, while houses are farther out where land is cheaper.

Central Business District (CBD)

The busy commercial center of a city with tall buildings, offices, stores, and high land prices. It is the most expensive and active part of the city because everyone wants to be close to it.

Burgess Concentric-Zone Model

A city model growing in rings around the CBD: industry first, then working-class homes, middle-class homes, and commuter suburbs farthest out. It explains how cities expand outward over time.

Latin American City Model (Griffin-Ford)

A city model has a central business district with a spine of rich neighborhoods and businesses running out from it. Poor areas and squatter settlements are on the edges. Based on Spanish colonial cities.

African City Model

 

City model that has several CBDs: one colonial, one traditional market, and one modern. Ethnic neighborhoods and poor areas are often on the outside.

Multiple-Nuclei Model

A city model that shows cities grow around several centers (like airports, universities, or ports) instead of just one CBD. Different areas have their own jobs and activities.

Southeast Asian City Model (McGee)

A city model that centers on an old colonial port with mixed business and homes around it. There are many informal and squatter areas nearby.

Galactic City Model

A city model that shows a city with a weaker CBD surrounded by a ring road full of edge cities, suburbs, and business parks. It looks like a galaxy with many scattered hubs.

Hoyt Sector Model

A city model that shows city growth in wedge-shaped sections (like pie slices) along transportation lines. High-income areas stay in one wedge, while industry and low-income areas are in others.

Invasion and Succession

When a new group moves into a neighborhood (invasion) and slowly replaces the people who were there before (succession). It changes who lives in an area over time.

Filtering

When older houses in the city get worse over time and lower-income people move in as richer people leave for suburbs. The houses "filter down" to new groups.

Zone In Transition

The ring right around the CBD with factories, old houses, and new immigrants. It is a changing area where land use shifts from homes to business.

Urban Density

How many people or houses fit in a certain area. High density means tall apartments; low density means spread-out houses.

Residential Density Gradient

When population gets lower the farther you go from the city center. Density is highest near downtown and drops in the suburbs.

Low-Density Housing

Housing that is single-family homes on big lots, usually in suburbs. It gives more space but uses a lot of land.

Medium-Density Housing

Housing that includes townhouses or low-rise apartments. It fits more people than single homes but still has some space.

High-Density Housing

Tall apartments or condos that pack many people into small areas. It saves land but can feel crowded.

Infill Development

Building new homes or buildings on empty lots inside the city instead of spreading out. It increases density without using new land.

Action Space

The area where a person usually travels in daily life (home, work, shopping).

Infrastructure

Includes roads, water pipes, sewers, buses, and trains that cities need to work. Good infrastructure helps people move and live safely.

Greenbelt

A ring of protected parks, farms, or forests around a city to stop it from spreading too far.

Mixed Land Use

Puts homes, stores, offices, and parks in the same area. People can walk to everything instead of driving.

New Urbanism

Designs neighborhoods with walkable streets, mixed homes and shops, and front porches to feel like old towns. It fights sprawl.