HGAP 6.8 - 6.11

Sustainability

using the earth’s resources while not causing permanent damage to the environment

Smart-growth Policies

combats urban sprawl and creates a new vision for cities that are more sustainable and equitable. These policies suggest spatial arrangements that focus on encouraging a mix of building types and uses with a variety of housing and transportation options available within communities

Greenbelts

areas of undeveloped land around an urban area, have been created to limit a city’s growth and preserve farmland

Slow-growth cities

adopt policies to slow the outward spread of urban areas and place limits on building permits in order to encourage a denser, more compact city

New Urbanism

creating human-scale neighborhoods (designed for optimum human use), reclaiming neglected spaces, giving access to multiple modes of transportation, increasing affordable housing, and creating mixed-use neighborhoods

Mixed-use neighborhoods

neighborhoods with a mix of homes and businesses, vibrant, livable, and walkable. Homes would include a variety of sizes and price ranges to create a socially diverse community

Urban Infill

the process of building up underused lands within a city

Transportation-oriented Development (TOD)

locates mixed-use residential and business communities near mass transit stops, resulting in a series of more compact communities which decreases the need for automobiles

Livability

refers to a set of principles that supports sustainable urban designs

Criticism of smart growth (5)

It is not affordable to families because of increases in the cost of land and housing. It also contributes to congestion and noise within cities

Smart growth limits people’s’ choices for single-family housing, a suburban lifestyle, quality schools, and the autonomy of car ownership

It creates high-population density areas that often have higher crime rates and provides less privacy for residents

Smart growth can result in unintended segregation both ethnically and economically

It promotes the displacement of low-income and ethnic communities, and the destruction of historical buildings and unique places

Quantitative Data

information that can be counted, measured, or sequenced by numeric value

Population Composition

gives a description of people’s income, age, gender, ethnicity, race, family size, and other details

Census Tract

contiguous geographic regions that function as the foundation of a census

Census Block

In a densely populated area is often very small, consisting of a single block bounded by four streets. In suburban and rural areas, because of their lower population densities, a census block typically covers a larger area

Qualitative Data

based primarily on surveys, field studies, photos, video, and interview from people who provide personal perceptions and meaningful descriptions

Urban housing challenges in Core (MDC) countries

In the developed world, housing for inner-city poor residents is characterized by at least three problems-poor quality, insufficient availability, and significant unaffordability. Often the physical conditions of the buildings need updates to be safe. Proper maintenance and repairs of plumbing, electrical systems, roofing, stairwells, and heating systems are often unaffordable to inner city residents. Landlords often delay making expensive repairs, so over time, the overall quality of the housing suffers

Redlining

the process by which banks refuse loans to those who want to purchase and improve properties in certain urban areas

Racial Segregation

occurs when people live in separate neighborhoods based on their ethnicity or race

Blockbusting

when people of an ethnic group would sell their house upon learning that members of another ethnic group were moving into the neighborhood

Ghettos

areas of poverty occupied by a minority group as a result of discrimination

Inclusionary Zoning

offer incentives for developers to set aside a percentage of housing for low-income renters or buyers

Scattered Site

the city or government providing rental assistance for individuals to disperse public housing throughout the area

Urban Renewal

allowed governments to clear out the blighted inner-city slums, which usually displaced the residents to low-income government housing complexes, and built new development projects

Eminent Domain

allows the government to claim private property from individuals, pay them for the property, and then use the land for the public good

Gentrification

process of converting an urban inner-city neighborhood from a mostly low-income, renter-occupied area to a predominantly wealthier, owner-occupied area of a city

Informal Settlements

densely populated areas built without coordinated planning and without sufficient public services for electricity, water, and sewage

Land Tenure

legal protection of contracts to show ownership of the land or structures

Zones of Abandonment

areas of a city that have been deserted by their owners for either economic or environmental reasons

Environmental Injustice (Environmental Racism)

the disproportionate exposure of minorities and the poor to pollution and its impacts, plus the unequal protection of their rights under the law

Gated Communities

represent a redesign of urban living with an attempt to recapture features more commonly found outside urban areas-safety, quiet, and homogeneity

Homelessness

the condition of not having a permanent place to live

Services

Shops and services struggle to survive in urban neighborhoods. If the patron is poor, prices for services must be low to maintain a customer base in the area. The result is very tight margins with little money for shop owners to spend on maintenance or improvement of their facilities

Food Deserts

urban zones that lack food stores where fresh produce is less available than fast food resulting in lower life expectancy, obesity, and health problems

Regional Governance

requires voluntary coalitions of city governments to address the needs and create plans for the larger region

Urban Canyon

streets lined with tall buildings, can channel and intensify wind and prevent natural sunlight from reaching the ground

Urban heat islands

an area of a city warmer than surrounding areas

Urban wildlife

rats, raccoons, and pigeons that thrive in cities but also can spread diseases and be a nuisance to people

Rush Hour

the commuting periods in early morning and in late afternoon or early evening when many people travel to and from work, idling cars on roads increase and concentrate air pollutants in the city

Suburban Sprawl

rapid spread of development outward from the inner city

Reasons for suburban sprawl

availability of automobiles

creation of interstate and other high-speed highways

the presence of inexpensive land outside the urban area

Brownfield

consists of dilapidated buildings and polluted or contaminated soils

Urban Redevelopment

involves renovating a site within a city by removing the existing landscape and rebuilding from the ground up

More sustainable - urban vs suburban?

Humans who live in cities have an impact on the environment. Urban areas consume the most resources in absolute value. Air pollution is a huge problem in urban and rural areas because in urban areas cars and factories contribute to fossil fuels in the air. Compact cities in core countries are the most sustainable per capita and sprawling cities are the least sustainable. Rural areas do have a higher per capita ecological footprint, but the food production and energy resource demands placed on rural locations by cities is largely the cause.