central place theory
all market areas are focused on a central settlement that is a place of exchange and service provision
threshold
the minimum number of people required to support a business
range
the maximum distance that people are willing to travel to gain access to a service
agglomeration
exists when similar business activities are found in a local cluster
resource nodes
towns and cities that were founded due to access to natural resources
squatters
people who settle on land that they don’t own
land invasion
squatters that generally settle a new area overnight with a large number of families to avoid retributions from landowners and local police
land tenure
the legal right or title to the land upon which they build their homes
micro districts
zones of uniform housing that provide worker housing near job sites
suburbanization
the growth and spatial reorganization of contemporary city
suburban sprawl
the expansion of housing, transportation, and commercial development to undeveloped land on the urban periphery
counterurbanization
the movement of inner-city or suburban residents to rural areas to escape the congestion, crime, pollution, and other negative aspects of the urban landscape
colonial cities
cities with origins as centers of colonial trade or administration are classified together
fall-line cities
the ports that lay upstream on coastal rivers at the point where navigation was no longer possible by ocean-going ships
fall-line
where a river’s tidal estuary transitions to an upland stream at the first set of river falls
medieval cities
urban centers that predate the European Renaissance, roughly 1400 C.E.
gateway cities
places where immigrants make their way into a country
entrepôt
a port city in which goods are shipped in at one price and shipped out to other port locations at a higher price, resulting in profitable trade
megacity
a metropolitan area with more than 10 million people
megalopolis
the merging of the urbanized areas of two or more cities, generally through suburban growth and expansion
world city
signifies a metropolitan area as a global center for finance, trade, and commerce
primate city
when the largest city in a country has at least twice the population of the country’s next largest city
rank-size rule
a country’s second largest city is half the size of its largest city; the third-largest city is one-third the size of the largest city; and so on, such that the eighth largest city is one-eighth the size of the largest city
de facto segregation
where no law requiring ethnic or racial segregation exists, yet they nonetheless remain zones of separation
redlining
designating neighborhoods on company maps where home mortgage and insurance applications would be automatically denied
restrictive covenants
means of racial discrimination through the real estate system
gentrification
the economic reinvestment in existing real estate
bond levies
raise money by increasing property taxes
brownfield remediation
a process in which hazardous contaminants are removed or sealed off from former industrial s