Edexcel IGCSE Geography - Urban Environments

Accessibility

The degree of , The degree of ease with which it is possible to reach a certain location from other locations; the degree if ease with which it is possible for people to obtain goods and services, such as housing and healthcare.

Brownfield Site

disused and derelict land in an urban area that is available for redevelopment.

Congestion

Acute overcrowding caused by high densities of traffic, businesses and people.

Counterurbanisation

The movement of population and economic activity away from urban areas to new towns, estates or a commuter town or village in the suburbs of the city as well as to rural areas.

Deprivation

When people lack what the rest of society considers 'normal' suchas good housing, reasonable incomes or access to healthcare.

Environmental Quality

The degree to which an area is free from air, water, noise and visual pollution

Ethnic group

A group of people sharing the same characteristics of race, nationality, language or religion.

Greenfield site

A plot of land, often in a rural or on the edge of an urban area

that has not yet been subject to any building development.

Inner city

The part of the built-up area and close to the CBD, often characterised by old housing, poor services and brownfield sites.

Landuse

What types of buildings / economic activities exist in an area suchas residential, retail or industrial.

Land value

The market value of a piece of land; what businesses or

individuals are prepared to pay for it (or rent it).

Mega‐city

A city with a population exceeding 10 million.

Planner

A decision maker whose job it is to decide how to use land e.g.

where to build roads, or houses. Planners often decide to conserve areas such as Greenfield sites by not allowing development.

Poverty

A condition where people are lacking in resources such as income, food, housing, basic services (clean water and sewage disposal) and access to education and healthcare.

Rebranding

Regeneration that also tries to give an area a new image.

Rebranded areas often have names and logos e.g. MediaCityUK in Salford.

Retail complex

A purpose built area for shopping (and often leisure), such as an out of town shopping centre or retail park.

Self‐help (housing)

When people in shanty towns / squatter settlements gradually

improving their own housing and surroundings. Often they are helped by an NGO.

Shanty town

An area of slum makeshift and unsanitary housing, often occupied by squatters (no legal right to occupy). The houses are built with salvaged material and the area is built on hazardous grounds that were neglected by development

Social deprivation

The degree to which an individual or an area is deprived of

services, decent housing, adequate income and local employment.

Socio‐economic group

A group of people distinguished by employment, income and

social characteristics such as education and family status.

Social segregation

The clustering together of people with similar characteristics class, wealth, ethnicity) into separate residential areas

Squatter Community

Similar to shanty towns where people with no legal right to the area live

Suburbanisation

The spread of low density, often detached or semidetached, housing around the edges of a city or town.

Urbanisation

The process of becoming more urban, mainly through more and more people living in towns and cities.

Urban Managers

People who make decisions that affect urban areas, these include people such as planners, politicians and developers

Urban regeneration

The redevelopment of formerly run-down urban areas, often in the inner city through improvements to the environment, housing and employment opportunities

Urban re-imaging

changing the image of an urban area and the way people view it