Human Geography - Urbanization

Flashcards covering vocabulary and key ideas about urbanization.

Site Factors

Climate, landforms, availability of water, soil fertility, and other physical factors that influence the origin, function, and growth of cities.

Situation Factors

Connections between sites; the relative location often dictates the function of the city.

The Sail-Wagon Epoch (1790-1830)

Cities clustered within sixty miles of the Atlantic sea coast, interior cities grew up on rivers with good access to the coast.

The Iron Horse Epoch (1830-1870)

Steam-driven railroads allowed for the rapid expansion from urban settlements into surrounding regions.

The Steel Rail Epoch (1870-1920)

Transcontinental railways emerged, Industrial centers in the Northeast and Midwest continued to grow.

Auto-Air-Amenity Epoch (1920 to Present)

Railroads decline and cars allowed cities to spread out. Air travel increased and airport hubs emerged.

Favelas, Squatter Settlements, Slums

A household that cannot provide one of these basic living characteristics: Durable housing, Sufficient living space, Easy access to safe water, and Access to adequate sanitation.

Government Policies

Government seek to attract businesses and boost the economy through Tax incentives, financial incentives, creation of industrial parks and transportation infrastructure.

Forward Capitals

Capital cities that are relocated, mostly occurring in former colonies.

Megacity

Metropolitan areas with populations of more than 10 million people.

Metacity

Metropolitan areas with populations of more than 20 million people.

Suburbanization

The process of people moving, usually from cities, to residential areas on the outskirts of cities.

Edge Cities

Community located on the outskirts of a larger city with commercial centers, office space, retail complexes, and amenities typically found in an urban center.

Boomburbs

Suburb that has grown rapidly into a large and sprawling city with more than 100,000 residents. Typically made up of planned communities that have began to merge together.

Exburbs

Community on the outside edge of traditional suburbs. Function like a suburb, but more rural and less connected to the central city core.

World Cities

Large cities that exert global economic, cultural, and political influence and make up a network of economic, social, and information flows.

Threshold

The number of people needed to support a certain good or service.

Range

The distance that someone is willing to travel for a good or service.

Primate City

Model that illustrates disproportionate population distribution within a state.

The Gravity Model

Model that illustrates the spatial relationship/amount of interaction between locations of different sizes - flows of people, trade, traffic, communication, etc.

Christaller’s Central Place Theory

Model that illustrates the hierarchical spatial patterns/order of cities and settlements.

Bid-Rent Theory

The value of land is influenced by its distance from the market/city center (CBD).

Disamenity Zones

Buildings or areas that are unsafe or often steep or mountainous not connected to the city services.

Mixed-Use Development

Planned urban development that includes multiple uses such as retail, residential, educational, recreational and businesses.

Greenbelts

An area of green space such as a park, agricultural land, or forest around an urban area intended to limit urban sprawl.

Slow Growth Cities

A sustainable urban design policy that intends to decrease the rate that cities grow outward in an attempt to reduce urban sprawl.

Qualitative Data

Data that involves descriptive depictions or characteristics of a research topic - often based on people’s perceptions or opinions.

Quantitative Data

Data that involves numbers and statistics - can be measured.

Redlining

Housing discrimination maintained by banks -refusal to grant home loans in certain areas because of the ethnic or racial composition.

Blockbusting

Housing discrimination maintained by real estate industry - white families were encouraged to rapidly sell when African-American families moved into neighborhoods.

Food Deserts

Location where residents’ access to affordable, healthy food options is restricted or nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores within convenient traveling distance.

Environmental Injustice

Communities of color and the poor are more likely to be exposed to environmental burdens such as air and water pollution.

Growth of Disamenity Zones

Locations that are typically physically unsafe with dangerous terrain that are not connected to city services.

Growth of Zones of Abandonment

Locations that have been abandoned due to a lack of jobs, housing opportunities, decline in land values or falling demand.

Inclusionary Zoning

Areas where city governments require that developers must include low and medium income housing options in their projects to obtain building permits.

Urban Renewal

Programming funded by federal government grants after WWII intended to redevelop and modernize blighted, abandoned and/or industrial urban areas.

Gentrification

The process by which higher income residents or professional developers buy buildings in abandoned, blighted and/or industrial areas for a low cost and renovate, restore or rebuild the property.

Squatter Settlements

Residential areas that are situated on undesirable/ abandoned land that are built with found materials and not connected to city services.

Ecological Footprint

Uses land as currency to measure how fast we consume resources and generate waste compared to how fast nature can absorb our waste and generate new resources.

Brownfield

Large, abandoned industrial sites in central cities and suburbs, due to the shift from manufacturing to service-based economies.