AP Human Geography Unit #6 Urban Geography

Urban Models

Try to show how different cities have similar spatial relationships and economic or social structures

African City Model

Model that suggests that African cities have more than one CBD, which is a remanence of colonialism

Bid-rent theory

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.

Blockbusting

Illegal practice of inducing homeowners to sell their properties by telling them that a certain people of a certain race, national origin or religion are moving into the area.

Boomburbs

Rapidly growing city that remains essentially suburban in character even as it reaches populations more typical of a large city.

Brownfields

Abandoned polluted industrial sites in central cities, many of which are today being cleaned and redeveloped.

Burgess Concentric-Zone model

This model was devised in the 1920s by Ernest Burgess to predict and explain the growth patterns of North American urban spaces. Its main principle is that cities can be viewed from above as a series of concentric rings; as the city grows and expands, new rings are added and old ones change character. Key elements of the model are the central business district and the peak land value intersection.

Central Place Theory (Christaller)

A theory that explains the distribution of services, based on the fact that settlements serve as centers of market areas for services; larger settlements are fewer and farther apart than smaller settlements and provide services for a larger number of people who are willing to travel farther.

De facto segregation means

Segregation because of residential racial patterns and concentration of populations, not because of laws.

Ecological footprint

The impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources.

edge cities

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

Exurbs

Communities that arise farther out than the suburbs and are typically populated by residents of high socioeconomic status

Gentrification

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

Gravity Model

A mathematical formula that describes the level of interaction between two places, based on the size of their populations and their distance from each other.

Greenbelts

A ring of land maintained as parks, agriculture, or other types of open space to limit the sprawl of an urban area.

Griffin-Ford Latin America city model

-CBD and the market is based on trade
-Market is built through the spine and connects to the mall
-Rich people live directly next to the spine (can afford to shop there)
-Older buildings around the CBD (ring around it; contains the upper middle)
-Slums surround the entire model
-Wanna be's live in between the periphery/slums and the rich people (can afford a house, but it's definitely not a mansion)
-Surrounded by mountains and rainforests, so slums can't move outwards (they have to move inwards), which creates the disamenity sector
-Gentrification is buying older houses and fixing them to be resold
-Industrial park surrounded by periphery (the exact opposite direction of rich people)

global city (world city)

Urban settlements that play an especially important role in global business services; Center of the flow of information and capital; Divided into alpha, beta, and gamma; New York City and London two dominant

Harris and Ullman Multiple-Nuclei model

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

Housing discrimination

The illegal practice of denying an individual or group the right to buy or rent a home based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability or family status.

Hoyt Sector model

The theory of urban structure that a city develops in a series of certain sectors, instead of rings.

Zones of abandonment

Areas that no longer have value to investors and are abandoned by businesses

World Cities/Global Cities

Centers of economic, culture, and political activity that are strongly interconnected and together control the global systems of finance and commerce (examples include: New York City, London, Tokyo, Sydney, Buenos Aires...)

Urban renewal

Program in which cities identify blighted inner-city neighborhoods, acquire the properties from private members, relocate the residents and businesses, clear the site, build new roads and utilities, and turn the land over to private developers.

Urban Models

Try to show how different cities have similar spatial relationships and economic or social structures

Housing discrimination

The illegal practice of denying an individual or group the right to buy or rent a home based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability or family status.

Hoyt Sector model

The theory of urban structure that a city develops in a series of certain sectors, instead of rings.

Infilling

The process by which population density in an urban centre is increased by building on waste land or underused land.

Megacities

Cities with more than 10 million people

Metacities

A new term used to describe cities that have 20 million or more people

Mixed land use development

Mixed-use development is a term used for two related concepts: In the sense of mixed-use zoning or mixed-use planning, it is a type of urban development, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends residencial and commercial real estate.

New Urbanism

A movement in urban planning to promote mixed use commercial and residential development and pedestrian friendly, community orientated cities. New urbanism is a reaction to the sprawling, automobile centered cities of the mid twentieth century.

periphery countries

The least developed and least powerful nations; often exploited by the core countries as sources of raw materials, cheap labor, and markets

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

the country's 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.

Semi Periphery

Those newly industrialized countries with median standards of living, such as Chile, Brazil, India, China, and Indonesia

Site factors

Location factors related to the costs of factors of production inside the plant, such as land, labor, and capital.

Situation factors

Location factors related to the transportation of materials into and from a factory.

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.

Smart-growth policies

An urban planning theory that concentrates walkable city areas to prevent urban sprawl.

Southeast Asian City Model

McGee model. Developed by T.G McGee. The focal point of the city is the colonial port zone combined with the large commercial district that surrounds it. McGee found no formal CBD but found separate clusters of elements of the CBD surrounding the port zone: the government zone, the Western commercial zone, the alien commercial zone, and the mixed land-use zone with misc. economic activities.

Squatter settlements

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

Galactic city model

Represents the post-industrial city with its several, dispersed business districts. This model represents a distinct decentralization of the commercial urban landscape as the economy has transitioned to services as the leading form of production. Manufacturing has declined significantly and become specialized.

Suburbanization

The process of population movement from within towns and cities to the rural-urban fringe.

Suburban Sprawl

Spread of suburbs away from the core city

Threshold

The minimum number of people needed to support the service.

Urban Hearths

Mesopotamia (Fertile Crescent), Indus River Valley, Nile River Valley, Yellow River Valley, and Mesoamerica.

Urbanization

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

Urban hierarchy

A ranking of settlements according to their size and economic functions.