Urbanisation vocabs

Urbanisation

The process by which an increasing percentage of a country's population comes to live in towns and cities.

Agglomeration

The process where people first gather together in one area to sell goods and live, leading to the development of small trading posts and villages.

Suburbanisation

The process where towns grow and expand outwards, adding to the built-up area, but generally resulting in lower building densities than in older parts of the town.

Rural Dilution

Urban areas spreading into rural regions due to modern transport and communication.

Counter-urbanisation

The movement of people from an urban area into the surrounding rural region.

Dormitory Settlements

Settlements where many residents only sleep there (commute) but continue to use urban services, shops, education, and healthcare in the city they left.

Central Business District (CBD)

The central core or oldest part of a city, home to banks, retail, and commercial offices.

Inner-city Ring (Twilight Zone)

The area containing older, terraced 'worker' housing and older industrial areas, centred around transport links.

Suburban Ring

A residential area featuring semi- and detached housing with gardens, tree-lined avenues, cul-de-sacs, and smaller retail premises.

Rural-Urban Fringe (Urban Fringe)

The area where green, open spaces meet the built-up parts of towns and cities.

Developed Countries

Show the highest levels of urbanisation. Hong Kong is considered a wealthy place with a high GDP per capita (approx. £35,000).

Emerging Countries

Experience industrial growth due to industries moving overseas from developed countries (seeking cheaper workforce, incentives, etc.), which 'pulls' people from rural regions to urban areas.

Post-industrial Phase

An economic stage associated with a largely service-based economy, such as Hong Kong's, where 90% of workers are in services.

Re-exports

Products sent to a port (like Hong Kong) from one area (like mainland China) and then exported to other parts of the world.

Gini Coefficient

A metric that examines how income is distributed across a population. Hong Kong's score of 0.53 puts it in the top 10 most unequal places in the world.

Natural Increase

The difference between the number of births versus the number of deaths in a place; it does not include the inward migration of people. It accounts for roughly 60% of urban population growth.

Rural-Urban Migration

The movement of people from rural areas to urban areas, accounting for 40% of urban growth.

Informal Economy/Sector

Employment that is often unskilled and labour-intensive, such as shining shoes or selling food on street corners. It leaves cities without revenue because workers pay no taxes.

Multiplier Effect

A cycle where a prosperous city acts as a beacon, encouraging inward investment, leading to more development, growth, and job creation.

Economies of Scale

Financial savings achieved because it is cheaper to provide centralised goods, services, infrastructure, communication, and transport in one place rather than spread across several cities.

Millionaire City

A city with over 1 million people.

Megacity

A city with more than 10 million people.

World City (Global City)

Cities of any size that are prestigious, hold status and power, and function as critical hubs in the global economy.

Urban Regeneration

The investment of capital to revive old urban areas, either by improving existing structures or clearing them away and rebuilding.

Urban Blight

The decline suffered by older parts of urban areas when factories move away, resulting in job loss, and poorer quality of life and housing.

Urban Re-imaging

Changing the reputation and image of an urban area, often by focusing on a new identity and changing the appearance of the built-up area.

Rebranding

The combination of urban regeneration and urban re-imaging.

Brownfield Site

Previously developed land that offers a good opportunity for regeneration and re-imaging.

Greenfield Site

Undeveloped land, often flat and uncontaminated, which can be cheaper and faster to build on, but risks losing farmland and wildlife.

Green Belt

A planned and protected area of countryside around an urban area where development is restricted.

Stakeholders

People or groups with specific interests in managing urban challenges, such as residents, planners, developers, and government bodies.

Self-help Schemes

A management option for informal settlements that provides tools, training, and low-cost loans to residents so they can improve their homes themselves.

Site-and-Service Schemes (S&S)

A management option that provides a new or cleared site with basic services (water/sanitation) for people to buy or rent at a low cost, along with loans for building materials.

Social Polarization

Segregation in a city between different groups, largely based on the income people receive and their socio-economic status.

Segregated Land Use

The historical creation of separated urban features, such as retail shops gathering in prime locations they can afford.

Bid-rent Theory (Distance Decay Theory)

The concept that the price and demand for land change as the distance from the CBD increases, with retail paying the most, followed by industry, and then residential land.

Poverty and Deprivation

Issues faced by developed cities like Hong Kong, where social polarisation exists despite overall prosperity.

Deprivation

When a person's well-being falls below an acceptable minimum standard across various aspects of daily life (e.g., income, health, education, housing).

Informal Settlements (Squatter Settlements)

Unplanned and unregulated housing built with scrap materials, typically on vacant land not owned by the people living there, and lacking basic utilities like water, sanitation, and reliable energy.

Favelas

Informal settlements in Brazil.

Shanty towns

Informal settlements in the West Indies and Canada.

Mega-slums

Very large overcrowded informal settlements, e.g., Dharavi in Mumbai.

Vertical City

A city, such as Hong Kong, that must grow upwards rather than outwards due to its small size, limited space, and high land value.

Cage Homes

A form of extreme poverty housing in Hong Kong where the poorest people rent a cage space in a room that might contain 10 people.

Rooftop Slums (Penthouse Slums)

Illegal homes or squatter settlements found on top of some buildings in Hong Kong because there is not enough room on the city's edge.

Cycle of Poverty

A vicious cycle where low-income families are trapped because poverty and deprivation are passed on to children who receive inadequate education, leave school early, and cannot find well-paid employment.

Smog

Air pollution conditions created when natural fog mixes with pollution from coal power stations or high levels of atmospheric pollution from traffic congestion.

Social Sustainability

Managing economic and environmental factors to ensure people can have a better quality of life.

Economic Sustainability

Supporting economic growth without negatively impacting the environment, society, or culture.

Urban Environmental Sustainability

Focusing on the whole city regarding food, energy, waste management, green spaces, transport, and infrastructure.

Ecotown Developments

Sustainable initiatives designed to reduce a city's overall footprint and promote strong community ties through energy-saving measures.