HGEO 100 - Chapter 9: An Urban World

Urbanization

the spread and growth of cities; an increasing proportion of a population living in urban areas (cities and towns)

City

A legally incorporated, self-governing unit; an inhabited place of greater size, population, or importance than a town or village (has fixed boundaries)

Suburbs

a residential or mixed-use (residential and employment) area on the periphery of the city, typically displaying some degree of homogeneity in terms of economic status, socio-cultural characteristics, or built form (in some cases are outside city limits)

Urban areas

the spatial extent of the built up surrounding and including an incorporated municipality, such as a city; typically assessed by some combination of population size, population density, and the nature of the resident’s employment (includes area outside of the legal limits of a city, can include municipal areas that are seperately governed)

Metropolitan Area

a region comprising of two or more functionally connected urban areas and the less densely populated (or built up) areas between them. Examples include Metropolitan New York and the Greater Toronto Area (urban + non urban areas, and functionally connected areas)

Urban Sprawl

the largely unplanned expansion of an urban area into rural areas

Donut Effect

a popular but colloquial term that refers to a pronounced difference in the growth rates between a core city (slow growth or no growth) and its surrounding areas (faster growth), in a pattern that resembles a North American fried delicacy; usually characterized by people moving out of the core or inner suburbs and moving into newer peripherial suburbs

Megacity

a metropolitan area with a population of over 10 million people

Urban Hearth

an area where urban living originated; examples include Mesopotamia (Iraq), Indus Valley (India and Pakistan), Huang Valley (China), and Nile Valley (Egypt)

Urbanism

the urban way of life; associated with a declining sense of community and increasingly complex social and economic organization as a result of increasing size, density, and heterogeneity

Agricultural Surplus

agricultural production that exceeds the sustenance needs of the producer and is sold or exchanged with others

Acropolis

the fortified religious center of cities in ancient Greece; the literal translation is “the highest point in the city”

Agora

the center of ancient Greek civic life; the area where public meetings, trials of justice, social interaction, and commercial exchange took place

Forum

the center of the Roman civic, commercial, administrative, and ceremonial life; combined with the functions of the ancient Greek acropolis and agora

Mercantilism

a school of economic thought dominant in Europe in the 17th and early 18th centuries that argued for the involvement of the state in economic life so as to increase national wealth and power

Entrepots

a city, usually a port, that functions as an intermediary for trade and transshipment and that exports both raw materials fand manufactured goods

Central Place Theory

a theory to explain the spatial distribution of urban centers with respect to their size and function

Central Places

an urban center that provides goods and services for the surrounding population; may take the form of a hamlet, village, town, city, or megacity. The larger the center, the more goods/services it provides and the more niche they become.

Consumer Services

services provided primarily for individual consumers, such as retail, hospitality, food, leisure, health care, education, and social welfare; represent approx. 50% of employment in most countries in the more developed world

Hinterland

the market area surrounding a central place; the spatial area from which the providers of goods and services in a central place draw their customers (especially near hamlets in isolated areas) [best shape for hinterland is a hexagon so that all hinterlands are covered by providers without duplication]

Range

the maximum distance that people are prepared to travel to obtain a particular good or service (low order=not far, ex. coffee shop, high order=far, ex. cardiologist)

Threshold

the minimum number of people (market size) required to support the existence of a particular market function (low order= often and low size, ex. coffee shop, high order= not often and high size, ex cardiologist)

rank-size distribution

a descriptive regularity among cities in an urban system; the numerical relationship between city size and rank in an urban system; sometimes referred to as the rank-size rule

Primate City

the largest city in an urban system, usually the capital, which dominates its political, economic, and social life; a city that is more than twice the size of the next largest city in the system

Business Centers

services provided primarily for other businesses, including financial, administrative, and professional activities such as accounting, advertising, banking, consulting, insurance, law, and marketing (clustered in global cities)

Global Cities

a city that is an important node in the global economy; a dominant city in the urban hierarchy; sometimes referred to as a world city (is economically, politically, and culturally influential worldwide)

Supranational Organizations

a multinational grouping of independent states, where power is delegated to an authority by member government (often meet in global cities)

Gateway Cities

a city that is a key point of entry to a major geographic region or country for goods or people, often via an international airport, container shipping port, or major rail center; a city in which several different cultural traditions are absorbed and assimilated; global cities are also often these