AP Human Geography Vocabulary Unit 6: Cities and Urban Land-Use Patterns and Processes

Agglomeration

a built up area consisting of central city and its surrounding suburbs (similar to the term "urbanized area", shows the extent of a city's influence)

Barriadas/ Barrios

a neighborhood, usually a slum or lower class (many of the Latin American cities have these outside the central city)

Bid-rent Theory

explains that the price/demand for land increases closer to the CBD (explains the concentric zone model and why different levels of development are located at certain distances from the central city)

Blockbusting

the process of white families selling their homes because of fears that African Americans would move in and lower the property value (explains the white flight of the 1950's and the growth of suburbs). Reinforced systemic racism.

CBD

stands for Central Business District, location of skyscrapers and companies (would always be the center of the 3 urban models, many people commute, few actually live there)

Census Tract

these are govt. designated areas in cities that each have ~5,000 people, they often times correspond to neighborhoods (data in census tracts is used to analyze urban patterns such as gentrification or white flight)

Centrality

the strength of dominance of an urban center over its surrounding area, larger than the MSA or agglomeration (Twin Cities centrality extends up into northern MN, over into ND, SD, and western WI)

Centralization

the movement of people, capital, services, and govt. into the central city (opposite of suburban sprawl, happened to cities before WWII and is happening now)

Christaller, Walter

he created the Central Place Theory, which explains how services aredistributed and why there are distinct patterns in this distribution (central place theory involves market area/hinterland and the threshold, which is the minimum number of customers needed to keep the business running)

City

centralized area with a mayor and local government, usually bigger than a town (cities started in the Greek/Roman times, more and more people live in cities, especially in LDC's)

Cityscapes

similar to a landscape, yet of a city (cityscapes often show the city's skyline, which is the CBD).

Colonial City

cities founded by colonial powers, such as Mexico City by the Spanish (these often contain plazas, large Catholic cathedrals, and historic architecture, most of these are in Latin America and in Southern Asia, in India)

Commercialization

the process of the increasing importance of business (advertisements in cities, development leans toward services)

Concentric Zone Model

created by E.W. Burgess, city grows outwards from a central area (CBD in middle, then zone of transition, then zone of workers' homes, then zone of residences, then commuter's zone)

Counter-urbanization

a net migration from urban to rural areas (this only happens in very developed areas in North America and Western Europe)

Decentralization

the process of dispersing decision: making outwards from the center of authority (Equivalent to process in which nation states break up and form their own political centers of influence)

Deindustrialization

process of social and economic change caused by removal of industry. (Economic effect of MDCs reaction after increasing competition in 1800s.)

Early Cities

Cities of the ancient world (3500 to 1200) (Associated with agricultural and language hearths).

Economic base

Community's collection of basic industry (Equivalent to job sectors)

Edge city

A new concentration of business in suburban areas consisting of suburbs, often referred to as urban sprawl.

Emerging cities

City currently without much population but rapidly increasing in size

Employment structure

graph showing how primary secondary and tertiary sector jobs are separated.

Entrepot

Trading center where goods are exported and imported without cost.

Ethnic neighborhood

A neighborhood with distinctive ethnic composition

Favela

A shantytown or slum, especially in Brazil

Female headed household:

A household dominated by a woman

Festival landscape

a landscape of cultural festivities

Gateway City

a settlement which acts as a link between two areas. (Equivalent to primate cities)

Gender

a person's sex and his or her influence on the urban landscape

Gentrification

process in which low cost neighborhoods are renovated by middle class to increase property values.

Ghetto

A usually poor section of a city inhabited primarily by people of the same race, religion, or social background

Globalization

Development of worldwide patterns of economic relationships and future cities

Informal economy

Economic activity that is neither taxed nor monitored by a government; and is not included in that government's Gross National Product; as opposed to a formal economy

Infrastructure

the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g., buildings, roads, and power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.

Inner city

urban area around the CBD; typically poorer and more run down in the US and other long-developed states; typically more rich upscale in less-developed states.

Megacities

cities with 10 million or more residents

Megalopolis/conurbation

a large, sprawled urban complex with contained open, nonurban land, created through the spread and joining of separate metropolitan areas; When capitalized, the name applied to the continuous functionally urban area of coastal northeastern United States from Maine to Virginia.

Multiple nuclei model

Type of urban form wherein cities have numerous centers of business and cultural activity instead of one central place.

Office park

A cluster of office buildings, usually located along an interstate, often forming the nucleus of an edge city

Primate city

The largest settlement in a country, if it has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.

Rank-size rule

A pattern of settlements in a country, such that the nth largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement.

Redlining

A discriminatory real estate practice in North America in which members of minority groups are prevented from obtaining money to purchase homes or property in predominantly white neighborhoods. The practice derived its name from the red lines depicted on cadastral maps used by real estate agents and developers. Today, redlining is officially illegal.

Restrictive covenants

A statement written into a property deed that restricts the use of the land in some way; often used to prohibit certain groups of people from buying property

Sector model

A model or urban land use that places the central business district in the middle with wedge-shaped sectors radiating outwards from the center along transportation corridors.

Nucleated Settlement Form

A settlement clustered around a central point, such as a village green or church.

Squatter settlement

Residential developments characterized by extreme poverty that usually exist on land just outside of cities that is neither owned nor rented by its occupants.

Suburb

A subsidiary urban area surrounding and connected to the central city. Many are exclusively residential; others have their own commercial centers or shopping malls.

Tenement

A building in which several families rent rooms or apartments, often with little sanitation or safety

Threshold/range

The population required to make provision of services economically feasible./In economic geography and central place theory, the minimum market needed to support the supply of a product or service

Urban heat island

In large cities, expanses of paved surfaces, particularly asphalt, absorbs heat during day and radiates heat at night. Sparse vegetatation and paved surfaces increase rain runoff, furthering reducing cooling effects. Temperatures in the cities are usually 3-5 degrees hotter than surrounding country side.

Urbanization

An increase in the percentage and in the number of people living in urban settlements.

Zoning

A planning tool used to separate industry and business from residential neighborhoods.

Urban Sprawl

The process of urban areas expanding outwards, usually in the form of suburbs, and developing over fertile agricultural land.

Zone in transition:

An area that is either becoming more rural or more urban

Dispersed Settlement Form

A rural settlement pattern characterized by isolated farms rather than clustered villages.

Elongated Settlement Form

a settlement that is clustered linearly along a street, river, etc.