h. geo vocab LIST 2

blockbusting

as early as 1900, real estate agents and developers encourages affluent white property owners to sell their homes and business at a loss by stroking fears that their neighborhoods were being overtaken by racial or ethnic minorities

inner city decay

those parts of large urban areas that lose significant portions of their populations as a result of change in industry or migration to suburbs. because of these changes the inner city loses its tax base and becomes a center if poverty

urban revitalization

the process occurring in some urban areas experiences inner city decay that usually involves the construction if new shopping districts, entertainment venues, and cultural attractions to entice young urban professional back into cities where nightlife ad culture are more accesable

gentrification

the trend of middle and upper income americans moving into city centers and rehabilitating much of the architecture but also replacing low income populations , and changing social character to certain neighborhoods

envirnmental justice

according to the us environmental protection agency, “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies”

urban sprawl

the process of expansive suburban development over large areas spreading out from a city, in which the automobile provides the primary source of transportation

segregation

the process that results from suburbanizations when affluent individuals leave the city center for homogenous suburban neighborhoods.

exurbanites

people who left the inner city and moved to outlying suburbs or rural areas

edge cities

cities that are located on the outskirts of larger cities and serve many of the same functions of urban areas, but in a sprawling, decentralized suburban environment

urban growth boundaries

geographical boundaries places around a city to limit suburban growth within that city

metropolitan

within the us, an urban area consisting of one or more whole county units, usually containing several urbanized areas, or suburbs, that all act together as a coherent economic whole

central place theory

a theory formulated by Walter Christaller in the early 1900s that explains the size and distribution of cities in terms of a competive supply of goods and services to dispersed populations

hinterlands

the market area surrounding an urban center, which that urban centers serves

rank size rule

rules that states that the population of any given town should be inversely proportional to its rank in the county’s hierarchy when the distribution of cities according to their sizes follows a certain pattern

primate city

a country’s leading city, with a population that is disproportionately greater than other urban areas within the same country

megalopolis

several metropolitan areas that were originally separated but that have joined together to form a large, sprawling urban complex

megacities

cities, mostly characteristic of the developing world, where high population growth and migration have caused them to expand in population since ww2

world city

centers of economic, cultural, and political activity that are strongly interconnected and together control the global systems of finance and commerce

action space

the geographical area that contains the space an individual interacts with on daily basis

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