AP HUG Unit 6 Vocab/Concepts

Urbanization

The creation and movement of people into cities

Processes that drive urbanization

• Transportation

• Communication

• Population growth

• Migration

• Economic development

• Government policies

Government factors that affect urbanization

• Safety

• Good schools

• Accessible transportation

• Entertainment options

• Cash grants

• Rebates

• Tax credits

Sustainability issues of urbanization

• Environment

• Urban/suburban sprawl

• Resources/energy

• Sanitation

• Population pressure

Urban sprawl

The growth of cities outward or vertically, creating issues like a lack of greenery or traffic

Types of infrastructure

• Communication systems

• Roads, highways, public transportation

• Airports, ports, railway hubs

• Educational systems

• Hospitals

• Water and sewage systems

• Electrical grids

• Internet services

New urbanism

A counter to urban sprawl creating:

• Mixed-use neighborhoods

• Walkable areas

• Residential areas confined to the sky instead of outward

• More affordable housing and

• Use of public transportation

Aims for environmental sustainability

Positive effects of new urbanism

• Ease of accessibility to services, recreation, and jobs

• Increased sense of community

• Less travel time and reduced traffic

• Decreased energy/fuel use, decreased air pollution

• Increased real estate values

• Revitalization of urban landscapes

• Preservation or conservation of parks

• Curbing urban spawl through more effecient land use

Brownfields

Sites that have been abandoned and contain some level of environmental contamination

Greenbelt

Undeveloped and often plant-filled area around urban environment

Smart growth

Policies to preserve farmland

Properties of the central city

Completely urban, typically older and built with the CBD

Suburbanization

The movement of people out of the central city into suburbs, beginning in America with the invention of the Ford Model T (suburbs now house 1/2+ of all Americans)

Suburb

A residential area typically outside of the central city, with population less concentrated but cities are still advanced

Ex: Thousand Oaks

Agricultural village

A village based on subsistence agriculture

Ex: Early Fertile Crescent villages

Social stratification

The birth of social classes

Leadership class

Makes decisions, becomes elite of agricultural villages as mediators

Five Hearths of Urbanization

Mesopotamia, Nile River Valley, Indus River Valley, Huang He and We River Valleys, amd Mesoamerica

Site and situation

Site: What are the physical properties and resources of a place? Situation: What is happening or coming to a place? How is it connected to other places? (Both determine location of cities and trade)

Forward capital

A new capital moved symbolically

Ex: Brazil’s capital moves from Rio de Janeiro to Brazilia

Properties of Greece

• A collection of city-states

• Cities built on an acropolis (mound where important buildings are like Parthenon)

• Many agoras (market around acropolis)

• Everything else outside of those 2 main areas

City-state

A city that also makes up a state, often with its own government

Properties of Rome

• First civilization to really capitalize on infrastructure (by roads, sewers and aqueducts)

• Cities have a forum (area in center of city, like a modern downtown)

Sunbelt Phenomenon

The movement of US industry and population from the northern states like Ohio to the sunbelt states like Mississippi and Louisiana

Gravity Model

A model predicting the degree of interaction and mobility of places based on their distance and population (can be political, religious, economic, etc.)

Christaller’s Central Place Theory

• Central places have a hexagonal zone of influence

• There are different orders of services, market areas, and thresholds

• Not as applicable today, but still works in some area

• Assumes land is isotropic, there are many central places nearby, and business competition is even

• Also assumes that resources, buying power, population, and transportation costs are evenly distributed

Hinterland

Area supported by central place

Edge cities

Cities on the edge of major urban centers, often attract visitors for entertainment purposes

Ex: Inglewood, Irvine, Anaheim

Exurb

Residential areas near the suburbs that house the wealthier people (sometimes gated communities)

Boomburb

Rapidly growing suburban cities, often different or more modernized than older suburbs

Range

How far people are willing to travel for a service

Threshold

The minimum amount of people a service requires to be profitable

Order of services

The amount of population that a service requires to be profitable

(Higher-order services like sports teams need larger populations)

Market/trade area

Region around a city that is dependent on the goods and services of that city

Rank-size rule

The 2nd-largest city has 1/2 the population of the largest city, then the 3rd-largest has 1/3, etc.

Ex: Germany’s city populations

Primate city

A city that has a much larger population than any others in the area, skewing the rank-size rule

Ex: Mexico City

Central business district

The primary area of economic activity, often referred to as “dowtown”

Burgess’s Concentric Zone Model

5 concentric circle zones, each wrapping around each other

• Zones are:

  • CBD

  • Transition zone (mixed use)

  • Worker’s homes (poor people)

  • Better homes (rich people)

  • Commuter zone (often middle-class people)

No longer as accurate due to gentrification, economic change, and transportation change (only applies to American cities and is opposite of international cities)

Hoyt Sector Model

• There are sectors like pizza slices surrounding the CBD

• These sectors form along transportation routes

• Each with their unique business or socioeconomic class (industrial areas are opposite rich areas)

• Outdated due to being based on railcars and not accounting for the loss of the CBD’s importance

Functional zonation

The division of land into areas with different functions

Ex: Splitting of a large plot of land into one area for schools, one area for residential buildings, and another area for mixed use

Harris and Ullman Multiple Nuclei Model

Not everything comes from original CBD, but uninterrupted urban development pops up in other CBD-like shopping areas, transportation hubs, etc. (may become CBD in future)

Ex: Denver

Urban Realms Model

Major city surrounded by edge cities

Ex: LA

Galactic City Model

A combination of the Multiple Nuclei Model and the Urban Realms Model, including edge cities that appear after a gap for transportation and multiple areas of economic development (edge cities orbit central city)

Ex: Atlanta

Griffin-Ford Model

• Latin American cities have a CBD and mall district, with many other districts

• High-income housing surrounding spine of mall district

• Industrial area on the outskirts

• Zone of maturity and/or area of gentrification borders the CBD/market

• Outside zones of maturity and areas of gentrification is low and middle income housing (zone of situ accretion)

• Disamenity zone across from spine

• Periférico outside zone of situ accretion (squatter settlements)

Disamenity sector

The poorest part of the city in which the government cannot provide safety or resources (typically ruled by drug cartels or gangs)

African City Model

• City is a combination of concentric rings and sectors

• Rings: Ethnic neighborhoods, shantytowns, squatter settlements

• 3 CBDs: colonial CBD, new CBD, and market (Infrastructure disappears as youu move away)

McGee Model

• Port city model for SE Asian cities, with vectors of economic activity stemming from a semicircle port area/CBD

• Alien commerical area (European/Western merchants)

• Western commercial zone (Chinese merchants)

• Government zones near commercial zones and port

• High-income housing

• Newer suburbs mixed with squatter settlements

• Agriculture and industry on outskirts

Age of exploration

Made port cities more important

Ex: Tokyo, Jakarta, Mumbai

Second Urban Revolution

• Ties to Industrial Revolution and Second Agricultural Revolution

• Cities began to exist near power sources like water and coal

• Cities were disgusting and messy (slums, pollution, factories with minimal conditions)

• People unionized and fought for better conditions

Borchard’s Epochs

• Sail-wagon: Form entrepots (port cities) 1790-1830

• Iron horse: Locomotive 1830-1870

• Steel rail: Trains 1870-1920

• Auto-air amenity: Planes, cars, etc. 1920-1970

• High technology: Modern day 1970-present

Shantytowns/squatter settlements

Poor towns, with little or no regulation on boundaries and often hand-made homes and roofs (caused by rapid urbanization, demand for affordable housing, and failure to enforce land use policies)

Consequences of squatter settlements

Political

• Land ownership

• Infrastructure

• Crime

Environmental

• Pollution

• Soil erosion

Social

• Infrastructure

• Medical care

• Education

Core cities

Cities constantly made and remade

Commercialization

Making the central city pretty again

Redlining

Refusing loans to poor areas or target groups to force housing or business sales (illegal in US)

Blockbusting

Scaring white people by having other ethnicities that they dislike move into a neighborhood, causing them to move out and sell their homes (triggers white flight)

White flight

When white people move out of neighborhoods with more ethnic diversity, typically those with African Americans

Gentrification

When the homes of poor people are bought out and they are displaced, then developers improve the homes and sell them for a higher price (often makes it so that former residents cannot return)

Effects of gentrification

Positive:

• Property value increase

• Investment oppurtunities

• Infrastructure

• Architectural or aesthetic enhancement

Negative:

• Uneven development

• Tenants cannot afford higher price

• Displacement of groups of people

• Local businesses cannot support higher prices

Tear-downs

When houses are torn down to build newer ones, typically McMansions

McMansion

Houses built with an attempt to take up as much space as possible, typically in the suburbs after tear-downs (looks like multiple houses in one)

Micropolitan

10,000-50,000 people

Metropolitan

Greater than or equal to 50,000 people

Megacity

10+ million people

Metacity

20+ million people

Megalopolis

Cities connected by nonstop urban development

Ex: LA

World city

A city that functions at the global scale and runs the global economy

Ex: Tokyo, London, NYC

Networks used by global cities to influence the world

• Manufacturing and trading networks

• Transportation networks

• Banking networks

• Communication networks

• Entertainment and media hubs

• Governmental agencies

Spaces of consumption

Cities that are transformed into tourist attractions

Ex: Hollywood