Urbanization and Urban Structure

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the fundamental concepts of urbanization, the spatial organization of cities, and the three primary models of urban structure: Concentric, Sector, and Multiple Nuclei.

Urbanization

The movement of populations from rural to urban areas, leading to cities becoming focal points of economic growth and social change.

Urban structure

The spatial arrangement of land use, buildings, and infrastructure within a city, shaping how people live, work, and move.

Urban morphology

The layout of streets and public spaces within a city.

Zonal/Concentric Model

A model created by Ernest Burgess in $1924$ where a city grows outward from a central point in a series of concentric rings.

Ernest Burgess

The sociologist who created the first model to explain the distribution of social groups within urban areas, based on the city of Chicago in $1924$.

Central Business District (CBD)

The innermost ring or central point of a city around which modern urban models are centered.

Zone of transition

The second ring in the concentric model which contains industry and poorer-quality housing.

Zone of independent workers' homes

The third ring in the Burgess model which contains housing for the working-class.

Zone of better residences

The fourth ring in the concentric model, featuring newer and larger houses usually occupied by the middle-class.

Commuter's zone

The outermost ring representing people who live in residential suburbs and take a daily commute into the CBD to work.

Sectoral/Sector Model

A theory proposed by Homer Hoyt in $1939$ suggesting that a city develops in wedge-shaped sectors instead of rings.

Homer Hoyt

The economist who proposed the sector model in $1939$, arguing that activities expand outward from the center along geographic or environmental lines.

Multiple nuclei model

A model developed in $1945$ stating that a city contains more than one center or node around which various activities revolve.

Harris and Ullman

The geographers, Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman, who developed the multiple nuclei model in $1945$.

Nodes

Particular centers in a city that attract specific activities, such as a university attracting bookstores or an airport attracting hotels.

Iron Triangles

Local clusters of businesses grouped together for specific purposes, such as automobile repair.

Urban spatial structure

A concept concerning the arrangement of public and private space in cities and the degree of connectivity and accessibility.