APHUG Unit 6 Vocabulary Study Notes
1. Boomburb
Definition: A suburb that has grown rapidly into a large and sprawling city with more than 100,000 residents.
2. Central Place Theory
Definition: A theory used to describe the spatial relationship between cities and their surrounding communities.
3. Edge City
Definition: A type of community located on the outskirts of a larger city featuring commercial centers with office space, retail complexes, and other amenities typical of an urban center.
4. Exurb
Definition: 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.
5. Gravity Model
Definition: A model that predicts the interaction between two or more places; geographers derived the model from Newton's law of universal gravitation.
6. Infill
Definition: Redevelopment that identifies and develops vacant parcels of land within previously built areas.
7. Megacity
Definition: A city with a population of more than 10,000,000 (10 million).
8. Metacity
Definition: A city with a population of more than 20,000,000 (20 million).
9. Metropolitan Area
Definition: A city and the surrounding areas that are influenced economically and culturally by the city.
10. Primate City
Definition: The largest city in a country, which far exceeds the next city in population size and importance.
11. Range
Definition: In central-place theory, the distance that someone is willing to travel for a good or service.
12. Rank-Size Rule
Definition: An explanation of the size of cities within a country; it 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.
13. Threshold
Definition: In central place theory, the number of people needed to support a business.
14. Urban Area
Definition: A city and its surrounding suburbs.
15. Urban Sprawl
Definition: Areas of poorly planned, low-density development surrounding a city.
16. World City
Definition: A city that wields political, cultural, and economic influence on a global scale.
17. African City Model
Definition: A model of urban development depicting a city with three central business districts, growing outward in a series of concentric rings.
18. Concentric Zone Model
Definition: A model of urban development depicting a city growing outward from a central business district in a series of concentric rings.
19. Galactic City Model
Definition: 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.
20. Latin American City Model
Definition: 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.
21. Multiple-Nuclei Model
Definition: A model of urban development depicting a city where growth occurs around the progressive integration of multiple nodes, rather than around one central business district.
22. Sector Model
Definition: A model of urban development depicting a city with wedge-shaped sectors and divisions emanating from the central business district, generally along transit routes.
23. Southeast Asian City Model
Definition: A model of urban development depicting a city oriented around a port and lacking a formal central business district, growing outward in concentric rings and along multiple nodes.
24. Squatter Settlement
Definition: An informal housing area beset with overcrowding and poverty, often featuring temporary homes made of wood scraps or metal sheeting.
25. Zoning
Definition: The process of dividing a city or urban area into zones within which only certain land uses are permitted.
26. Blockbusting
Definition: A practice by real estate agents who stir up concern that Black families would soon move into a neighborhood, convincing White property owners to sell their houses at below-market prices.
27. Brownfield
Definition: An abandoned and polluted industrial site in a central city or suburb.
28. De Facto Segregation
Definition: Segregation that results from residential settlement patterns rather than from prejudicial laws.
29. Ecological Footprint
Definition: The impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain the use of natural resources.
30. Eminent Domain
Definition: A government's right to take over privately owned property for public use or interest.
31. Environmental Injustice
Definition: The ways in which communities of color and poor people are more likely to be exposed to environmental burdens such as air pollution or contaminated water; also called environmental racism.
32. Filtering
Definition: The process of neighborhood change in which housing vacated by more affluent groups passes down the income scale to lower-income groups.
33. Greenbelt
Definition: A ring of parkland, agricultural land, or other type of open space maintained around an urban area to limit sprawl.
34. Mixed-Use Development
Definition: A single planned development designed to include multiple uses, such as residential, retail, educational, recreational, industrial, and office spaces.
35. New Urbanism
Definition: A school of thought that promotes designing growth to limit the amount of urban sprawl and preserve nature and usable farmland.
36. Redlining
Definition: 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.
37. Slow-Growth City
Definition: A city where planners have used smart-growth policies to decrease the rate at which the city grows outward.
38. Traditional Zoning
Definition: Zoning that creates separate zones based on land-use type or economic function, such as various categories of residential (low-, medium-, or high-density), commercial, or industrial uses.
39. Urban Renewal
Definition: 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.
40. Walkability
Definition: A measure of how safe, convenient, and efficient it is to walk in an urban environment.
41. Zone of Abandonment
Definition: An area that has been largely deserted due to lack of jobs, declines in land value, and falling demand.