APHG Unit 6 Terms
Urban area - A city and its surrounding suburbs.
Metropolitan Area - A city and the surrounding areas that are influenced economically and culturally by the city.
Urban Sprawl - Areas of poorly planned low-density development surrounding a city.
Edge City- A type of city located on the outskirts of a larger city with commercial centers with office space, retail complexes, and other amenities typical of an urban center.
Boomburb - A suburb that has grown rapidly into a large and sprawling city with more than 100,000 residents.
Exurb - A typically fast-growing community outside of or on the edge of a metropolitan area where the residents and community are closely connected to the central city and suburbs.
Infill - Redevelopment that identifies and develops vacant parcels of land within previously built areas.
Primate City - The largest city in a country, which far exceeds the size of the next city in population and importance.
Threshold - In central place theory, the number of people needed to support a business.
Range- In central place theory, the distance that someone is willing to travel for a good or service.
Megacity - A city with a population of more than 10 million people.
Metacity - A city with a population of more than 20 million people.
World Cities - A city that wields political, cultural, and economic influence on a global scale.
Nodes - The focal point of a functional region.
Disamenity Zones - A high-poverty urban area in a disadvantaged location containing steep slopes, flood-prone ground, rail lines, landlifts, or industry.
Squatter Settlements - An informal housing area beset with overcrowding and poverty that features temporary homes often made of wood scraps or metal sheeting.
Zoning - The process of dividing a city or urban area into zones within which only certain land uses are permitted.
Ecological Footprint - The impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of
Mixed-Use Development - A single-planned development designed to include multiple uses such as residential, retail, educational, recreational, industrial, and office spaces.
Walkability - A measure of how safe, convenient, and efficient it is to walk in an urban environment.
Transportation-Oriented Development - The creation of dense, walkable, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use communities centered around or located near a transit station.
Smart-Growth Policies - A policy implemented to create sustainable communities by placing development in convenient locations and designing it to be more efficient and environmentally responsible.
Mixed-use Zoning - Zoning that permits multiple land uses in the same space or structure.
Traditional Zoning - Zoning that creates separate zones based on land-use types or economic functions such as various categories of residential density, commercial density, and industrial density.
New Urbanism - A counter to urban sprawl. Development, urban revitalization, and suburban reforms that create walkable neighborhoods with a diversity of housing and jobs. New urbanists want to create neighborhoods that promote a sense of community and a sense of place.
A general new urbanist community is designed with one central shopping center clustered around by neighborhoods. New urbanists aim to take less space.
Examples of new urbanism projects: Seaside, Florida; West Laguna, California; Kentlands, Maryland; Celebration, Florida.
Slow Growth Cities - City where planners have used smart-growth policies to decrease the rate at which the city grows outward.
Urban Growth Boundary - A boundary that separates land uses from rural land uses by limiting how far a city can expand.
Greenbelt - A ring of parkland, agricultural land, or other type of open green space maintained around an urban area to limit sprawl.
De Facto Segregation - Segregation that results from residential settlement patterns rather than from prejudicial laws.
Redlining - A practice by which a financial institution such as a bank refuses to offer home loans on the basis of a neighborhood's racial or ethnic makeup.
Blockbusting - A practice by real estate agents who would stir up concern that Black families would soon move into the neighborhood; the agents would convince the White property owners to sell their houses at below market prices.
Zones of abandonment - Areas that have been largely deserted due to lack of jobs, declines in land value, and falling demand.
Filtering - The process of neighborhood change in which housing vacated by more affluent groups passes down the income sale to lower-income groups
Inclusionary Zoning Laws - Law that creates affordable housing by offering incentives for developers to set aside a minimum percentage of new housing construction to be allocated for low-income renters or buyers.
Land Tenure - The legal rights, as defined by a society, associated with owning land.
Eminent Domain - A government's right to take over privately owned property for public use or interest.
Environmental injustice - The ways in which communities of color and poor people are more likely to be exposed to environmental burdens such as air pollution and contaminated water; also called environmental racism.
Urban Renewal - The nationwide movement that developed in the 1950s and 1960s when U.S. cities were given massive federal grants to tear down and clear out crumbling neighborhoods and former industrial zones as a means of rebuilding their downtowns.
Regional Planning - Planning conducted at the regional scale that seeks to coordinate the development of housing, transportation, urban infrastructure, and economic activities.
Brownfields - Abandoned and polluted industrial site in a central city or suburb.
Central Business District (CBD) - The central location where the majority of consumer services are located in a city or town because the accessibility of the location attracts these services.
Census Tract - An official count of the number of people in a defined area, such as a state.
Centralization - Degree to which decision making authority is restricted to higher levels of management in an organization.
Commuter Zone - fifth ring of the concentric zone model that is beyond continuous built up area
Counterurbanization - net migration from urban to rural areas in more developed countries
Decentralization - Degree to which decision-making authority is given to lower levels in an organization’s hierarchy.
Favela - the brazilian equivalent of a shanty-town which are generally found on the edge of the city
Gentrification - renovations and improvements conforming to middle-class preferences.
Globalization - Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope
Greenfield - a piece of land as a potential industrial site, not previously developed or polluted
Hinterland - the area surrounding a central place, from which people are attracted to use the place’s goods and services
Informal sector - it is the economic activity that is neither taxed nor monitored by a government and is not included in that governments GNP
Megalopolis- an area of adjacent metropolitan areas that overlap
Conurbation- an area of adjacent metropolitan areas that overlap
Multiplier effect - the expansion of money supply that results from a Federal Reserve System member bank’s ability to lend significantly in excess of its reserves
Planned communities - any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area.
Postindustrial city - a city in which an economic transition has occurred from a manufacturing based economy to a service based economy.
Postmodern urban landscape - attempts to reconnect people to place through its architecture, the preservation of historical buildings, the re-emergence of mixed land uses and connections among developments
Smart growth policies - is an approach to development that encourages a mix of building types and uses, diverse housing and transportation options, development within existing neighborhoods, and community engagement. The 10 principles below are considered the foundation of a smart growth approach.
1. Mix land uses
2. Take advantage of compact design
3. Create a range of housing opportunities and choices
4. Create walkable neighborhoods
5. Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place
6. Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas
7. Direct development towards existing communities
8. Provide a variety of transportation choices
9. Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective
10. Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions
Specialization- separation of tasks within a system
Underemployment - employed at a job that does not fully use one’s skills or abilities
Urban growth rate - the rate at which an urban area grows
Zones in Transition - industrial and typically dominated by manufacturing facilities. It surrounds the mainly commercial city center and is surrounded by working-class residential housing
Models Defined
Rank Size Rule - Explanation of size of cities within a country; states that the second-largest city will be one-half the size of the largest, the third-largest will be one-third the size of the largest, and so on.
Central Place Theory - A theory used to describe the spatial relationship between cities and their surrounding communities.
Concentric-Zone Model - A model of urban development depicting a city growing outward from a central business district in a series of concentric rings.
Sector Model - A model of urban development depicting a city with wedge-shaped sectors and divisions
Multiple Nuclei Model - A model of urban development depicting a city where growth occurs around the progressive integration of multiple nodes, not around one central business district.
Galactic City Model - A model of urban development depicting a city where economic activity has moved from the central business district toward loose coalitions of other urban areas and suburbs; also known as the peripheral model.
Latin American City Model - A model of urban development depicting a city with a central business district, concentric rings, and sections stricken by poverty; also known as the Griffin-Ford model.
African City Model - A model of urban development depicting a city with three central business districts, growing outward in a series of concentric circles.
Southeast Asian City Model - A model of urban development depicting a city orientated around a port and lacking a formal central business district, growing outward in concentric circles and along multiple nodes