Chapter 6: Cities and Urban Land-Use Patterns and Processes

central place theory

all market areas are focused on a central settlement that is a place of exchange and service provision

threshold

the minimum number of people required to support a business

range

the maximum distance that people are willing to travel to gain access to a service

agglomeration

exists when similar business activities are found in a local cluster

resource nodes

towns and cities that were founded due to access to natural resources

squatters

people who settle on land that they don’t own

land invasion

squatters that generally settle a new area overnight with a large number of families to avoid retributions from landowners and local police

land tenure

the legal right or title to the land upon which they build their homes

micro districts

zones of uniform housing that provide worker housing near job sites

suburbanization

the growth and spatial reorganization of contemporary city

suburban sprawl

the expansion of housing, transportation, and commercial development to undeveloped land on the urban periphery

counterurbanization

the movement of inner-city or suburban residents to rural areas to escape the congestion, crime, pollution, and other negative aspects of the urban landscape

colonial cities

cities with origins as centers of colonial trade or administration are classified together

fall-line cities

the ports that lay upstream on coastal rivers at the point where navigation was no longer possible by ocean-going ships

fall-line

where a river’s tidal estuary transitions to an upland stream at the first set of river falls

medieval cities

urban centers that predate the European Renaissance, roughly 1400 C.E.

gateway cities

places where immigrants make their way into a country

entrepôt

a port city in which goods are shipped in at one price and shipped out to other port locations at a higher price, resulting in profitable trade

megacity

a metropolitan area with more than 10 million people

megalopolis

the merging of the urbanized areas of two or more cities, generally through suburban growth and expansion

world city

signifies a metropolitan area as a global center for finance, trade, and commerce

primate city

when the largest city in a country has at least twice the population of the country’s next largest city

rank-size rule

a country’s second largest city is half the size of its largest city; the third-largest city is one-third the size of the largest city; and so on, such that the eighth largest city is one-eighth the size of the largest city

de facto segregation

where no law requiring ethnic or racial segregation exists, yet they nonetheless remain zones of separation

redlining

designating neighborhoods on company maps where home mortgage and insurance applications would be automatically denied

restrictive covenants

means of racial discrimination through the real estate system

gentrification

the economic reinvestment in existing real estate

bond levies

raise money by increasing property taxes

brownfield remediation

a process in which hazardous contaminants are removed or sealed off from former industrial sites