Set 6

Greenbelt

Open land around a city where development is limited to control sprawl. Ex. UK protected open-space rings and countryside buffers.

Hinterland

Market area served by a central place. Ex. rural towns around a city and customers around a market.

Inclusionary Zoning

Rules or incentives requiring or encouraging affordable housing in new developments. Ex. affordable apartment requirements and density bonuses.

Land Tenure

Legal rights and arrangements connected to occupying or owning land. Ex. squatters lacking title and formal property deeds.

Metropolitan Area

City and surrounding communities that function together as one economic region. Ex. Orlando and Los Angeles.

Metropolitan Statistical Area

U.S. urban region with a city of at least 50,000 plus connected counties. Ex. Orlando-Sanford-Kissimmee and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach.

Micropolitan Statistical Area

U.S. region centered on a smaller city of 10,000 to 50,000 people with connected counties. Ex. small regional cities and county-centered towns.

Node

Center of activity, connection, or influence. Ex. airport hub; downtown transit center.

Non-Basic Sector

Jobs serving local residents rather than bringing income from outside the city. Ex. local restaurants and schools.

Urban Heat Island

Higher temperatures in cities caused by pavement, buildings, and human activity absorbing and releasing heat. Ex. downtown temperatures and asphalt-heavy neighborhoods.

Urban Infilling

Development of vacant or underused land within already built areas. Ex. redeveloping empty lots and The Railyards in Sacramento.

Urban Morphology

Physical form, layout, and structure of a city. Ex. compact cities and sprawling cities.

Urban Revitalization

Renewal of declining city areas through investment, redevelopment, and new services. Ex. renovated downtown districts; waterfront redevelopment.

Urban-Growth Boundaries

Limits placed around a city to control outward expansion and encourage denser development. Ex. Portland’s growth limit; protected farmland outside a city.

Urbanization

Growth in the number and size of cities and the share of people living in them. Ex. rural people moving to cities and factory job growth.

Zero Population Growth

Situation in which births plus immigration equal deaths plus emigration, keeping population size stable. Ex. stable population from balanced births and deaths; near-stable growth in low-fertility countries.

Aggregation

The grouping of individual data points into larger categories or areas to reveal broader patterns. Ex. county-level census totals; grouping precinct data into districts.

Breaking Point

The outer limit of a city’s market area where people become more likely to use a different city for services. Ex. a shopper choosing a closer mall; the market edge between Orlando and Tampa.

Complementarity

Relationship in which one place has something another place wants or needs, creating interaction. Ex. oil exports and food imports.

Law of Retail Gravitation

Theory that shoppers are drawn to larger business centers, with influence decreasing as travel becomes harder. Ex. a large mall attracting shoppers from smaller towns; a major city drawing customers from nearby villages.

Thematic Map

Map designed to show a specific data pattern or theme. Ex. population density maps and climate maps.

Time-Space Convergence

The shrinking effect of improved transportation and communication on perceived separation between places. Ex. air travel and the internet.

Transferability

Ease or cost of moving goods, people, or ideas between places. Ex. cheap container shipping; high cost of moving bulky raw materials.

Commodity Dependence

Reliance on exporting one or a few raw materials, making an economy vulnerable to price changes. Ex. oil dependence and coffee dependence.

Comparative Advantage

Ability to produce something at a lower opportunity cost than another producer. Ex. one country producing coffee cheaply and another producing electronics cheaply.

Gross Domestic Product

Total value of goods and services produced inside a country during a year. Ex. U.S. GDP and Japan’s GDP.

Gross National Income

Total income earned by a country’s residents and businesses, including income from abroad. Ex. income from foreign investments and national income measures.

Human Development Index

United Nations measure combining life expectancy, education, and income. Ex. Norway’s high ____ and lower _____ in poorer countries.

Transnational Corporation

Large company operating in multiple countries. Ex. Nike and Apple suppliers.

Urban Sprawl

Rapid, low-density outward growth of development around cities. Ex. spread-out suburbs and car-dependent development.

Distance Decay Effect

The pattern in which interaction between places usually decreases as separation increases. Ex. fewer visitors from far away and less trade with distant places.

Expansion Diffusion

Spread of an idea, trait, or innovation outward from its source while it remains strong there. Ex. social media trends and hip hop music.

Formal Region

Area defined by one or more shared traits throughout most of the space. Ex. a state with the same laws and the Corn Belt.

Friction of Distance

The limiting effect that separation, travel time, or transportation cost has on interaction. Ex. higher shipping cost to far markets; fewer commuters from distant suburbs.

Functional Region

Area organized around a central node and the interactions connected to it. Ex. downtown Orlando and a local TV broadcast area.

Intervening Opportunity

Closer or easier alternative that reduces movement or interaction with a farther destination. Ex. finding a job closer to home and enrolling at a nearby school.

Perceptual Region

Area defined by people’s beliefs, feelings, or shared mental image rather than strict boundaries. Ex. the South and the Midwest.

Scale of Analysis

Spatial level used to examine patterns, such as global, national, regional, or local. Ex. global, regional, national, and local analysis.

Spatial Diffusion

Spread of a phenomenon across space. Ex. hip hop spreading from cities and disease spreading by contact.

Spatial Perspective

Way of thinking that asks where things are, why they are there, and how they connect across space. Ex. explaining why cities grow near rivers and why factories locate near ports.