Unit Test Vocabulary and Theories

Flashcards for Unit Test Review

Urbanization

The process of population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change.

Basic Industry

The main industry or industries of a city or region; those industries that bring money into the area.

Primate City

The largest city in its country or region, disproportionately larger than any others in the urban hierarchy.

Megacity

A very large city, typically with a population of more than 10 million people.

Metacity

A sprawling urban area containing multiple metropolitan areas.

World Cities

Cities that are control centers of the global economy.

Central City

The original, principal city surrounded by suburbs.

Suburb

A residential area located on the outskirts of a city.

Urban Area

A continuously built-up landscape defined by building and population densities with no regard to the administrative boundaries of the political units within which it is located.

Urban Sprawl

The uncontrolled expansion of urban areas.

Edge City

A concentration of business, shopping, and entertainment outside a traditional downtown area.

Boomburb

A rapidly growing suburban city with a population of over 100,000.

Metropolitan Area

A major population center made up of a large city and the smaller suburbs and towns that surround it.

Exurb

A district outside a city, especially a prosperous area beyond the suburbs.

Central Business District (CBD)

The commercial and business center of a city.

Range

The maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service.

Threshold

The minimum number of people needed to support a service.

Infrastructure

The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.

Regional Planning

Planning conducted over a geographical area larger than a single city or county.

Zoning

The division of a town or area into separate zones for different types of land use.

Nodes

Central points for activity, interaction, or influence.

Ecological Footprint

The impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources.

Mixed-Use Development

Development that combines housing and businesses in one area.

Walkability

The measure of how friendly an area is to walking.

Transportation-Oriented Development

Residential or commercial area designed to maximize access to public transport.

Smart-Growth Policies

Urban planning that concentrates growth in compact, walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl.

Mixed-Use Zoning

Zoning that permits multiple land uses in the same space.

Traditional Zoning

Zoning that separates different land uses.

New Urbanism

Urban design movement which promotes walkable neighborhoods with a variety of housing and jobs.

Slow-Growth Cities

Cities that implement policies to restrict development and prevent sprawl.

Urban Growth Boundary

A planning tool used to limit urban sprawl and preserve open space.

Greenbelt

An area of parkland or farmland surrounding a town or city.

De Facto Segregation

Segregation that exists in practice, even if not legally required.

Disamenity Zone

The very poorest parts of cities that in extreme cases are not even connected to regular city services.

Squatter Settlements

Any collection of buildings where the people have no legal rights to the land they are built upon.

Land Tenure

The legal rights to land.

Eminent Domain

The right of a government to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation.

Environmental Injustice

The disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on low-income or minority communities.

Housing Density

The number of housing units per unit of land area.

Redlining

The practice of denying services to residents of certain neighborhoods based on race or ethnicity.

Blockbusting

The practice of persuading owners to sell property cheaply because of the fear of people of another race or class moving into the neighborhood.

Inclusionary Zoning Laws

Municipal and county planning ordinances that require a given share of new construction to be affordable for people with low to moderate incomes.

Urban Renewal

The clearing and rebuilding of urban slums.

Gentrification

The process of wealthier residents moving into a deteriorated urban area, leading to increased property values and displacement of lower-income residents.

Brownfields

Abandoned industrial and commercial sites that may be contaminated.

Infill

The process of developing vacant or underutilized parcels within existing urban areas.

Walter Christaller (1933) - Central Place Theory

A theory that explains the distribution of services, based on the fact that settlements serve as centers of market areas for services.

Gravity Model

A model that predicts the interaction between places on the basis of their population size and distance.

Rank-Size Rule

A pattern of settlements in a country, such that the nth largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement.

Primate City Rule

The largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.

Ernest Burgess (1920s) - Concentric-Zone Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings.

Chauncey Harris & Edward Ullman (1945) - Multiple-Nuclei Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of activities.

Homer Hoyt (1939) - Sector Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a series of sectors, or wedges, radiating out from the central business district.

Pierce Lewis (1980s) - Galactic City Model (Peripheral Model)

A model of North American urban areas consisting of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road.

Bid-Rent Theory

A geographical economic theory that refers to how the price and demand on real estate changes as the distance towards the Central Business District (CBD) increases.

Ernest Griffin & Larry Ford (1980) - Latin American City Model (Griffin-Ford Model)

A model of the internal structure of Latin American cities in which social groups are arranged around a central business district and radiating out along commercial spines.

Harm de Blij (1962) - African City Model

A model of the internal structure of African cities in which social groups are arranged around multiple CBDs.

T.G. McGee (1967) - Southeast Asian City Model

A model of the internal structure of Southeast Asian cities in which social groups are arranged around a port zone.