Urban Patterns

Flashcards reviewing key vocabulary and concepts from lecture notes on urban geography, focusing on urban definitions, models, and sustainability.

Urban Geography

Helps to sort out the complexities of familiar and unfamiliar patterns in urban areas.

Central City

An urban settlement that has been legally incorporated into an independent, self-governing unit known as a municipality.

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)

Measures the functional area of an urban settlement, encompassing an urbanized area with a population of at least 50,000, the county within which the city is located, and adjacent counties with a high population density and a large percentage of residents working in the central city's county.

Micropolitan Statistical Area (SA)

Includes an urbanized area of between 10,000 and 50,000 inhabitants, the county in which it is located, and adjacent counties tied to the city.

Core-Based Statistical Area (CBSA)

Any one MSA or µSA.

Combined Statistical Area (CSA)

Two or more contiguous CBSAs tied together by commuting patterns.

Urbanized Area

An urban area with at least 50,000 inhabitants.

Urban Cluster

An urban area with between 2,500 and 50,000 inhabitants.

Megalopolis

A collection of adjacent or overlapping metropolitan areas that merge into a continuous urban region.

Central Business District (CBD)

The best-known and the most visually distinctive area of most cities; it is compact, containing a large percentage of public, business, and consumer services.

100 Percent Corner

An intersection, typically in the CBD, where large department stores clustered and rents were highest due to the high accessibility for the most customers.

Vertical Geography

The intensive use of space below and above ground in a CBD, exemplified by skyscrapers and underground networks.

Social Area Analysis

The study of where people of varying living standards, ethnic background, and lifestyle live within an urban area.

Census Tracts

Urban areas are divided into these; each contain approximately 5,000 residents and correspond, where possible, to neighborhood boundaries.

Concentric Zone Model

A city grows outward from a central area in a series of concentric rings.

Sector Model

A city develops in a series of sectors, not rings; certain areas of the city are more attractive for various activities, originally because of an environmental factor or even by mere chance.

Multiple Nuclei Model

A city is a complex structure that includes a CBD as well as other centers around which activities occur; some activities are attracted to particular nodes, whereas others try to avoid them.

Galactic (Peripheral) Model

An urban area consists of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and service nodes or nuclei tied together by a beltway or ring road.

Greenbelts

Rings of open space surrounding British cities where new housing is built either in older suburbs inside the greenbelts or in planned extensions to small towns and new towns beyond the greenbelts.

Smart Growth

Legislation and regulations to limit suburban growth and preserve farmland.

Zoning Ordinance

A law that limits the permitted uses of land and maximum density of development in a community.

Segmentation

The process of partitioning markets into groups of potential customers with similar needs and characteristics who are likely to exhibit similar purchasing behavior.

Sprawl

The development of suburbs at relatively low density and at locations that are not contiguous to the existing built-up area.

Density Gradient

The number of houses per unit of land diminishes as distance from the center city increases.

Suburb

A residential or commercial area situated within an urban area but outside the central city.

Annexation

Legally adding land area to a city in the United States.

Council of Governments

A cooperative agency consisting of representatives of the various local governments in the region.

Rush Hour (Peak Hour)

The four consecutive 15-minute periods that have the heaviest traffic.

Underclass

A group prevented from participating in the material benefits of a more developed society because of a variety of social and economic challenges.

Gentrification

The process of converting an urban neighborhood from a predominantly low-income, renter-occupied area to a predominantly middle-class, owner-occupied area.