unit 6 Essential Knowledge

Topic 1: The Origins and Influences of Urbanization

1A)  Site and situation influence the origin, function, and growth of cities.

1B)  Changes in transportation and communication, population growth, migration, economic development, and government policies influence urbanization

Topic 2:  Cities Across The World

2A)  Megacities and metacities are distinct spatial outcomes of urbanization increasingly located in countries of the periphery and semiperiphery.

2B)  Processes of suburbanization, sprawl, and decentralization have created new land use forms-including edge cities, exurbs, and boomburbs-and new challenges.

Topic 3:  Cities and Globalization

3A)  World cities function at the top of the world’s urban hierarchy and drive globalization.

3B)  Cities are connected globally by networks and linkages and mediate global processes.

Topic 4:  The Size and Distribution of Cities

4A)  Principles that are useful for explaining the distribution and size of cities include rank-size rule, the primate city, gravity, and Christaller’s central place theory.

Topic 5:  The Internal Structure of Cities

5A)  Models and theories that are useful for explaining internal structures of cities include the Burgess concentric-zone model, the Hoty sector model, the Harris & Ullman multiple-nuclei model, the galactic city model, bid-rent theory, and urban models drawn from Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

Topic 6:  Density and Land Use

6A)  Residential buildings and patterns of land use reflect and shape the city’s culture, technological capabilities, cycles of development, and infilling.

Topic 7:  Infrastructure

7A)  The location and quality of a city’s infrastructure directly affects its spatial patterns of economic and social development.

Topic 8: Urban Sustainability

8A)  Sustainable design initiatives and zoning practices include mixed land use, walkability, transportation-oriented development, and smart-growth policies, including New Urbanism, greenbelts, and slow-growth cities.

8B)  Praise for urban design initiatives includes the reduction of sprawl, improved walkability and transportation, improved and diverse housing options, improved livability, and promotion of sustainable options.  Criticisms include increased housing costs, possible de facto segregation, and the potential loss of historical or place character.

Topic 9:  Urban Data

9A) Quantitative data from census and survey data provide information about changes in population composition and size in urban areas.

9B)  Qualitative data from field studies and narratives provide information about individual attitudes toward urban change.

Topic 10:  Challenges of Urban Changes

10A)  As urban populations move within a city, economic, and social challenges result, including:  issues related to housing and housing discrimination such as redlining, blockbusting, and affordability; access to services; rising crime; environmental justice; and the growth of disamenity zones or zones of abandonment.

10B)  Squatter settlements and conflicts over land tenure within large cities have increased

10C)  Responses to economic and social challenges in urban areas can include inclusionary zoning and local food movements

10D)  Urban renewal and gentrification have both positive and negative consequences.

10E)  Functional and geographic fragmentation of governments-the way government agencies and institutions are dispersed between state, county, city, and neighborhood levels-presents challenges in addressing urban issues.

Topic 11:  Challenges of Urban Sustainability

11A)  Challenges to urban sustainability include suburban sprawl, sanitation, climate change, air and water quality, the large ecological footprint of cities, and energy use.

11B)  Responses to urban sustainability challenges can include regional planning efforts, remediation and redevelopment of brownfields, establishment of urban growth boundaries, and farmland protection policies.