Cambridge Geography: Settlement Dynamics Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering settlement dynamics, urbanization processes, urban models, and contemporary rural-urban issues in MEDCs and LEDCs.

Farm diversification

Establishing sources of income beyond those of traditional farming, such as bed-and-breakfast accommodation or farm shops.

Rural landscape

A mental or visual picture of countryside scenery which is difficult to define as rural areas are constantly changing and vary from place to place.

Rural population

People living in the countryside in farms, isolated houses, hamlets and villages; some definitions include small market towns.

Green belts

Areas of open land retained round a city or town over which there are wide-ranging planning restrictions on development.

Counterurbanisation

The process of population decentralisation as people move from large urban areas to smaller urban settlements and rural areas.

Rural depopulation

The decrease in population of rural areas, whether by out-migration or by falling birth rates as young people move away, usually to urban areas.

Key village

A village designated for development in terms of goods and services to satisfy the essential needs of its own population and the surrounding area.

Urbanisation of poverty

The increasing concentration of poverty in urban areas in developing countries due at least partly to high levels of rural–urban migration.

Urban revolution

A term used by Gordon Childe to describe a major change in the form and growth of settlements due to significant technological advance, such as the emergence of the first cities $5,500$ years ago.

Urbanisation

The process whereby an increasing proportion of the population in a geographical area lives in urban settlements.

Urban growth

The absolute increase in physical size and total population of urban areas.

Cycle of urbanisation

The sequence of processes comprising the stages of urban change from the growth of a city to counterurbanisation through to reurbanisation.

Suburbanisation

The outward growth of towns and cities to engulf surrounding villages and rural areas.

Reurbanisation

Occurs when, after a clear period of decline, the population of a city, in particular the inner area, begins to increase again.

Land use zoning

A mapping exercise by local government which decides how land should be used in various parts of a town or city.

Urban redevelopment

Involves the complete clearance of existing buildings and site infrastructure and the construction of new buildings.

Urban renewal

A planning approach that keeps the best elements of the existing urban environment and adapts them to new usages.

Urban regeneration

The overall term for large-scale change and improvement of the urban landscape that can involve both redevelopment and renewal.

Cumulative causation

The process whereby impulses for economic growth are self-reinforcing, resulting in an upward spiral of economic development.

Gentrification

A process in which wealthier people move into, renovate and restore run-down housing in an inner city or neglected area, shifting tenure from private-rented to owner-occupied.

Accessibility

The relative ease with which a place can be reached from other locations.

Global (world) city

A city that is judged to be an important nodal point in the global economic system, such as London or New York.

Concentric zone

A circular region of an urban area surrounding the CBD that has common land use or socio-economic characteristics.

Zone in transition (twilight zone)

The area just beyond the CBD characterized by a mixture of residential, industrial, and commercial land use, often tending toward deterioration and blight.

Sector

A section of an urban area in the shape of a wedge, beginning at the edge of the CBD and gradually widening to the periphery.

Bid-rent theory

A theory referring to decreasing accessibility and land values moving outward from the urban center, ordering land uses based on rent affordability.

Urban density gradient

The rate at which population density and/or the intensity of land use falls off with increasing distance from the city centre.

Deindustrialisation

The long-term absolute decline of employment in manufacturing industry.

Post-industrial city

A city located in the developed world whose economy is dominated by services and new high-tech industries.

Constrained location theory

Identifies problems encountered by manufacturing firms in congested cities, such as unsuitable multi-storey buildings and lack of space for on-site expansion.

Rural–urban fringe

The boundary zone where rural and urban land uses meet; an area of transition from agricultural use to urban use.

Residential mosaic

The complex pattern of different residential areas within a city reflecting variations in socio-economic status, income, ethnicity, and age.

Slums

Run-down areas of a city characterised by sub-standard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security.

Favelas

A Brazilian term for informal, shanty-type settlements that generally involve the illegal occupation of land by squatters.

Cortiços

Decaying formal housing units, such as converted older homes in São Paulo's inner core.

Mutiroes

Self-help housing initiatives that are partnerships between communities and local government, where the city supplies funding/materials and the community supplies labour.

Hard infrastructure

Systems of transportation, communication, sewerage, water and electricity.

Soft infrastructure

The social aspects of urban infrastructure, including housing, education, health, and leisure facilities.

Quality of life

The sum of all factors that affect a person's general well-being and happiness.

Deprivation

A status defined by the Department of the Environment when an individual's well-being falls below a level regarded as a reasonable minimum.

Social exclusion

The process whereby certain groups are pushed to the margins of society and prevented from participating fully due to poverty, low education, or inadequate life skills.

Hukou system

A population register in China that identified people as either 'urban' or 'rural' to control rural–urban migration.

In situ urbanisation

Occurs when rural settlements transform themselves into urban or quasi-urban entities with very little movement of population.