question

Early urbanization

answer

emerging from the First Agricultural Revolution

question

Egalitarian society

answer

civilization in which all people are equal; typical of most hunter-gatherer societies.

question

Stratified society

answer

civilization in which people exist in different classes; the development of farming and early cities began this process.

question

Formative era

answer

time where the major urban hearths came into exist stance (e.g., for the Fertile Crescent this occurred between 7,000 - 5,000 BCE (Before Common Era - same as BC (Before Christ)).

question

Urban elite

answer

group of socially, politically, or economically dominant figures in a society.

question

Medieval Optimum (Medieval Warm Period)

answer

a time of warm weather around CE 800-1300 (Common Era - same as AD (Anno Domini) during the European Medieval period. The effect may largely have been focused in the Northern Atlantic.

question

Little Ice Age (16th - 19th c.)

answer

period of global cooling after the Medieval Warm Period (~9th c. to 14th c.); greatly affected the northern empires of Rome and China (e.g., encouraged the migration of people to the cities in England due to shrinking farmlands providing factories with an abundant supply of cheap labor.

question

Societal Classification

answer

Gideon Sjoberg; cities changed over time:

question

Folk-preliterate

answer

earliest cities, predating written languages.

question

Feudal

answer

arose during the Middle Ages which actually stagnated urban growth in Europe; fostered a dependent relationship between wealthy landowners and peasants - provided few alternative economic alternatives.

question

Preindustrial

answer

found in societies without sophisticated machine technology, where human and animal labor form the basis for economic production (no city moved past this stage until the Industrial Revolution).

question

Urban-industrial

answer

predominate in the modernized nations of Western Europe, America, Japan (and to a lesser extent where their cultures have globalized) where productivity through machines, and energy sources from fossil fuels and atomic power phenomenally expand economic productivity.

question

Urban banana (crescent-shaped zone)

answer

urbanized zone that spread from India and the Far East (China & Japan) across the Islamic Empires, and into Europe; followed mostly along the silk and spice trade routes.

question

Medieval city

answer

European-style city with high density of development, narrow buildings, and an ornate church at the city center, with high walls for defense (walls proved futile when gunpowder made its way into Europe by the 1300s).

question

Mercantile city

answer

Atlantic maritime trade disrupted old trade routes & centers of power starting in the 1500s (from interior to coastal ports); central square became focus ("downtown"), these cities became nodes of a network of trade; brought huge riches to Europe (e.g. Lisbon, Amsterdam, London, ...).

question

Manufacturing city

answer

grew out of the Industrial Revolution and the "Little Ice Age"; associated w/ mushrooming population, factories, tenement buildings, railroads, ...; poor living & health conditions; cities improved w/ government intervention, city planning, and zoning, ...

question

Modern city

answer

(modern architecture) little attention is spent on building aesthetics or ornate designs; improved transportation & road systems has allowed greater complexity, multiple CBDs, and dispersal into the suburbs; the hallmark of American life.

question

Postmodernism

answer

(postmodern architecture) architecture & design developed for look & commerce (may connect to historical roots); a reaction to feeling of sterile alienation some had to modern architecture; city spaces become more people-friendly.

question

Agglomeration

answer

(nucleation) clustering of people or businesses for mutual benefits of close proximity; can share labor pools, technological and financial amenities, and ancillary industries (support large-scale industries).

question

Deglomeration

answer

process of industrial deconcentration in response to technological advances and/or increasing costs due to congestion and competition.

question

Urban hierarchy

answer

ranking of settlements according to their size and economic functions.

question

Hamlet

answer

lowest level of settlements (often not urban); offers few if any services.

question

Village

answer

clustered human settlement larger than a hamlet and generally offering several services.

question

Town

answer

clustered human settlement larger than a village; may range from a few to thousands of inhabitants (even hundreds of thousands); generally many goods and services are available.

question

City

answer

clustered conglomeration of people and buildings together serving as a center of politics, culture, and economics; a town may have outskirts, but virtually all cities have suburbs (hinterlands).

question

Metropolis

answer

usually contains several urbanized areas and suburbs that act together as a coherent economic whole.

question

Hinterland

answer

literally "country behind"; refers to the surrounding area served by an urban center (the heartland).

question

Megalopolis

answer

(e.g. conurbation such as Bosnywash, SanSan, ChiPitts,...) occur predominantly in MDCs; large coalescing supercities that were originally separate but have expanded and joined together.

question

Megacity

answer

occur predominantly in LDCs; high population growth and migration cause these cities to attract massive amounts of population since WWII; tend to be plagued by chaotic and unplanned sprawling growth, pollution, and widespread poverty.

question

CBD (central business district)

answer

location of skyscrapers and companies (would always be the center of the 3 urban models, many people commute, few actually live there)

question

Central city

answer

urban area that is not suburban; generally the older or original city surrounded by the newer suburbs.

question

Inner city

answer

urban area around the CBD; typically poorer and more run down in the US and other long-developed states; typically more rich upscale in less-developed states.

question

Ghetto

answer

inner cities that become dilapidated centers of poverty, as affluent whites move out of the suburbs (white flight) and immigrants and poorer people vie for scarce jobs and resources.

question

Node

answer

geographical centers of activity; large cities have numerous nodes.

question

Suburb

answer

residential communities, located outside of city centers; usually homogeneous in terms of population and ethnicity.

question

Exurb

answer

ring of prosperous communities beyond the suburbs that are commuter towns for an urban area; began to emerge in the 1970s when rampant crime and urban decay (when part of a city falls into disrepair - due to deindustrialization, depopulation, high unemployment, ...) in U.S. cities were the primary push factors; more recently since house prices have skyrocketed, middle-class people who want a large yard or farm are pushed beyond suburban counties and into "exurbs".

question

Urban sprawl

answer

process of expansive suburban development over large areas; the automobile provides the primary source of transportation.

question

New Urbanism

answer

urban design originating in the US during the 1980s to work against sprawl; characterized by organized urban planning, suburban infill (filling in unused space), and are designed to be walkable (Celebration, Florida)

question

Central place theory (Walter Christaller)

answer

seeks to explain the number, size and location of human settlements in an urban system; settlements simply function as 'central places' providing services to surrounding areas; organized by hexagons to eliminate unserved or overlapping market areas.

question

Central goods and services

answer

provided only at a central place, or city (available to consumers in a surrounding region).

question

Range of sale (breaking point)

answer

maximum distance people will travel for a good or service (economic reach).

question

Threshold

answer

the minimum number of customers needed to keep the business running

question

Complementary region

answer

the market area; an exclusive hinterland w/ a monopoly on a certain good or service.

question

John Borchert's model

answer

(1967); recognized four epochs in the evolution of the American metropolis based on the impact of transportation & communication:

question

Sail-Wagon Epoch (1790-1830)

answer

associated with low technology

question

Iron Horse Epoch (1830-70)

answer

steam-powered locomotive & spreading rails

question

Steel-Rail Epoch (1870-1920)

answer

full impact of Ind. Rev. (steel), hinterlands expand

question

Auto-Air-Amenity Epoch (1920-70)

answer

gas-powered internal combustion engine

question

High Technology Epoch (1970-today )

answer

expansion of service & information industries (not part of Borchert's model)

question

Concentric zone (1920s; Ernest Burgess)

answer

based on his studies of Chicago 1) CBD, 2) Zone of transition (residential deterioration & light industry), 3) Blue-collar workers, 4) Middle-class, 5) outer suburban ring; the model is dynamic (as the city grows, the inner rings encroach on the outer ones).

question

Multiple nuclei

answer

(1945; Chauncy Harris & Edward Ullman) claimed the CBD was losing its dominant position as the nucleus of the urban area; separate nuclei become specialized and differentiated, not located in relation to any distance attribute (urban regions have their subsidiary, yet competing, "nuclei").

question

Urban realms

answer

parts of giant conurbations; self-sufficient suburban sectors (focused on their own independent CBD).

question

Squatter settlement

answer

(shantytown) residential development characterized by extreme poverty; usually exists on land just outside of cities that is neither owned nor rented.

question

Edge city

answer

characterized by extensive office and retail space, few residential areas, and modern buildings (built since the 1960s); signifies a newer worldwide trend of the movement of the loci of economic activity to the urban fringe (unlike the loci of activity around the CBD - which had dominated the industrial world).

question

Primate city

answer

a country's largest city; most expressive of the national culture and usually the capital city as well (e.g., Paris, France; Lagos, Nigeria; Mexico City, Mexico; Dhaka, Bangladesh, Karachi, Pakistan ...).

question

Rank-size rule

answer

states without a true primate city may follow this rule (many MDCs lack primate cities b/c technology and wealth has diffused throughout their countries); the population of any given city should be inversely proportional to its rank in the urban hierarchy (e.g., if #1 = 12 million, then #2 = 6 million, #3 = 4 million, #4 = 3 million, ...).

question

Basic sector

answer

activities and services that generate income for a city (e.g., manufacturing, retail, ...).

question

Nonbasic sector

answer

work responsible for the functioning of the city itself (e.g., government, street cleaning, ...).

question

Economic base

answer

(basic vs. nonbasic sectors, a.k.a. employment structure) ratio of basic to nonbasic workers (nonbasic is always larger).

question

Multiplier effect

answer

(1/2 (or 1/3) for most large cities) for every worker in the basic sector, there are typically 2-3 workers in the nonbasic sector for most modern cities.

question

Functional specialization

answer

some cities are characterized by one specific activity (e.g., Orlando - tourism, Las Vegas - gambling, ...); cities tend to lose their functional specialization as they grow. Typically specialize in management, research and development of a specific industry (motor vehicles in Detroit), or are centers of government and education, notably state capitals that also have a major university (Albany, Lansing, Madison, or Raleigh-Durham).

question

American city

answer

suburbanization began largely in the US after WWII (US is the only country in the world in which the majority of the population resides in the suburbs), however, more people have started the process of centralization since the 1990s (moving back into the central cities).

question

Revitalization

answer

city planners have redesigned their central cities to make them more amenable to people moving in, especially higher income residents.

question

Commercialization

answer

transforming of an area of a city into spaces of consumption - areas attractive to residents and tourists alike in terms of economic activity.

question

Gentrification

answer

trend of mid to high-income Americans moving into city centers and rehabilitating much of the architecture, but also replacing low-income population - changing the social character of certain neighborhoods.

question

Tear-downs

answer

houses that new owners bought with the intention of tearing them down and building a larger home (sometimes called McMansions due to their super size and similar look); like gentrification in the city, it increases housing values and tax revenues, and average income; however, unlike gentrification, the houses are destroyed (not preserved), and this occurs in the wealthy suburbs (like Greenwich Connecticut, or the intercoastal in South Florida) not the central city.

question

Modern city models (foreign):

answer

most residences tend to decrease in quality and value as the distance from the CBD increases:

question

Latin-American

answer

owe much of their structure to colonialism, industrialization, and massive population growth; sector development radiates out from the CBD (which often contain a central plaza), where most industrial and financial activity occurs; also contain barrios (ethnic neighborhoods) which can often be associated with poorer sectors of the city.

question

Southeast Asian

answer

consist of sectors and zones radiating from the port zone; influenced by colonialism and are often still focused on exporting goods.

question

Sub-Saharan African

answer

consist of sectors and zones, but possess a great deal of centrality around the CBD (may contain multiple CBDs); typically have strong ethnic neighborhoods and squatter settlements on the outskirts.

question

Canadian city

answer

tend to be more centralized and less suburbanized that US cities; b/c of this their inner cities tends to be much less dilapidated due to fewer wealthy people leaving them.

question

European city

answer

older ones were mostly developed during the Medieval period; display less sprawl than US cities, in part since gasoline my cost up to 3-4 times more than in the US; also, some cities have greenbelts (undeveloped area neighboring an urban area, often protected from development by planning law) which confine urban sprawl.

question

Eastern European city

answer

typically less affluent than Western European cities due to the communist urban planning by the USSR during the Cold War; most residential spaces were organized into microdistricts (designed to minimize cost by reducing roads and maximizing living space).

question

Islamic city

answer

found in the Muslim regions; owe their structure to their religious beliefs; contain mosques, open-air markets, courtyards surrounded by walls, limiting foot traffic in residential neighborhoods.

question

Redlining

answer

illegal discriminatory practice in the US where minorities are prevented from obtaining loans to buy homes or property in predominantly white or affluent areas.

question

Zoning laws

answer

legal restrictions on land use; residential, commercial, or industrial.

question

Centralization

answer

The movement of people, capital, services, and govt. into the central city (opposite of suburban sprawl, happened to cities before WWII and is happening now).

question

Census tract

answer

these are govt. designated areas in cities that each have ~5,000 people, they often times correspond to neighborhoods (data in census tracts is used to analyze urban patterns such as gentrification or white flight)

question

Sprawl

answer

outlying areas more susceptible to landslides, floods, storms, earthquakes, ...

question

Loss of soil

answer

farmland lost (US = 1 million acres/yr.; China = 3x as much)

question

Land use

answer

natural landscape becomes cultural (pavement, buildings,...); less rainfall, more pollutants

question

Pollution

answer

growing volumes of contaminants (in air, water, and soil); Mexico City, Delhi, Bangkok are most smog-ridden; riverfront cities create pollution as well

question

Waste

answer

many lack of sewer facilities (>3 million w/o in Mexico City); burning garbage heaps

question

Consumption habits

answer

urban dwellers use more energy, change diets (meat), dress, and recreation habits

question

World city

answer

(global city) centers of economic, culture, and political activity that are strongly interconnected and together control the global systems of finance and commerce (e.g. NYC, London, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Sydney, ...)

question

Entrepôt

answer

(French for "warehouse") a trading post (e.g., port) where merchandise can be imported and exported without paying import duties, often at a profit (e.g., Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, ...).

question

Gateway city

answer

because of their geographic location, they act as ports of entry and distribution centers for large geographic areas (e.g., NYC, San Francisco, ...).

question

Urbanization

answer

The movement of people to, and the clustering of people in, towns and cities- a major force in every geographic realm today. Also when expanding cities absorb the rural countryside and transforms it into suburbs.

question

Urban Morphology

answer

The physical layout of a city; its physical form and structure

question

Borchert's Model of Urban Evolution

answer

Four different epochs that cause a large amount of industrial development, they were Sail-Wagon Epoch (1790-1830), Iron Horse Epoch (1830-1870), characterized by impact of steam engine technology, and development of steamboats and regional railroad networks. Steel Rail Epoch (1870-1920), dominated by the development of long haul railroads and a national railroad network. Auto-Air-Amenity Epoch (1920-

question

Colonial City

answer

City established by colonizing empires as administrative centers. Often they were established on already existing native cities, completely overtaking their infrastructures.

question

Shock city

answer

Urban place experiencing infrastructural challenges related to massive and rapid urbanization.

question

Industrial city

answer

Cities that were developed hugely as an effect of the Industrial Revolution

question

Primate City

answer

A pattern of settlements in a country, such that the largest settlement has more than twice as many people s the second ranking settlement.

question

Central Place

answer

Any point or place in the urban hierarchy, such as a town or city, having a certain economic reach or hinterland.

question

Range (of goods and services)

answer

The maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service.

question

World cities

answer

A city in which a disproportionate part of the world's most important business is conducted. Dominant city in terms of its role in the global political economy. Not the world's biggest city in terms of population or industrial output, but rather centers of strategic control of the world economy.

question

Mega cities

answer

A city with a population of greater than 10 million

question

Metropolitan statistical area

answer

Has at least one urbanzed area of 50,000 or more and adjacent territory that has a high degree of socail and economic integration

question

Micropolitan statistical area

answer

Has at least one urban cluster of at least 10,000 but less than 50,000 and adjacent territory has a high degree of social and economic integration

question

Functional zonation

answer

The division of a city into different regions or zones (residential or industrial) for certain purposes or functions (housing or manufacturing)

question

Central business district (CBD)

answer

The downtown hearth of a central city. Marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce, and the clustering of the tallest buildings.

question

Burgess's Concentric Zone Model

answer

A structural model of the American central city that suggest the evidence of five concentric land use rings arranged around a common center.

question

Succession migration

answer

When one person of a family migrates, then proceeds to bring the rest of the family or village along after they have been established

question

Zone in transition

answer

An area that is either becoming more rural or more urban

question

Peak land value intersection

answer

The region within a settlement with the greatest land value and commerce. As such, it is usually located in the central business district of a town or city, and has the greatest density of transport links such as roads and rail

question

BId-rent curve

answer

a geographical economic theory that refers to how the price and demand on real estate changes as the distance towards the Central Business District (CBD) increases. It states that different land users will compete with one another for land close to the city centre.

question

Hoyt's Sector Model

answer

Focuses on residential patterns explaining where the wealthy in a city choose to live. He argued that the city grows outward from the center, so a low-rent area could extend all the way from the CBD to the city's outer edge, creating zones which are shaped like pieces of a pie.

question

Edge City

answer

A term introduced by American Journalist Joel Garreau in order to describe the shifting focus of urbanization in the US away from the CBD toward new loci of economic activity at the urban fringe. These cities are characterized by extensive amounts of office and retail space, few residential areas, and modern buildings.

question

Urban Realm

answer

The spatial componenets of the modern metroplis, where each realm is a separate economic, social, and polititical entity that is linked together to form the larger metropolitian framework

question

Urban Realm Model

answer

A spatial generalization of the large, late-twentieth-century city in the United States. It is shown to be a widely dispersed, multicentered metropolis consisting of increasingly independent zones or realms, each focused on its own suburban downtown; the only exception is the shrunken central realm, which is focused on the Central Business District (CBD).

question

Counterurbanization

answer

Net migration from urban to rural areas in more developed countries.

question

Griffin-Ford Latin American City Model

answer

Combines elements of Latin American Culture and globalization by combining radial sectors and concentric zones. Includes a thriving CBD with a commercial spine. The quality of houses decreases as one moves outward away from the CBD, and the areas of worse housing occurs in the Disamenity sectors.

question

Disamenity Sector

answer

The very poorest parts of cities that in extreme cases are not connected to regular city services and are controlled by gangs and drug lords.

question

Favelas

answer

Poor slums in the disamenity sectors of many Latin American cities.

question

Periferico

answer

A peripheral area beyond the ring highway that contains squatter settlements. Included in the Griffin-Ford Model updated by Larry Ford.

question

McGhee Model

answer

Developed by geographer T.G. McGhee, a model showing similar land-use patterns among medium sized cities of Southeast Asia. Its focal point is the old colonial port zone. The model also does not find any CBD in asia, but rather he found elements of the CBD present as separate clusters surrounding the port zone.

question

Urban Sprawl

answer

Unrestricted growth in many American urban areas of housing, commercial development, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for urban planning.

question

Shantytowns

answer

Unplanned slum developments on the margins of cities, dominated by crude dwellings and shelters made mostly of scrap wood, iron, and even pieces of cardboard.

question

Zoning Ordinances

answer

Legal restrictions on land use that determine what types of building and economic activities are allowed to take place in certain areas. In the US, areas are mostly commonly divided into separate zones of residential, retail, or industrial use.

question

Restrictive covenants

answer

A statement written into a property deed that restricts the use of the land in some way; often used to prohibit certain groups of people from buying property

question

Suburbanization

answer

The process of population movement from within towns and cities to the rural-urban fringe.

question

Greenbelt

answer

A ring of land maintained as parks, agricultural, or other types of open space to limit the sprawl of an urban area

question

Master planned communities

answer

A new town, planned community or planned city is a city, town, or community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area.

question

Gated communities

answer

restricted neighborhoods or subdivisions, often literally fenced in, where entry is limited to residents and their guests

question

Ethnic culture region

answer

An area occupied by people of similar ethnic background who share traits of ethnicity, such as language and migration history

question

Ghettoization

answer

A process occurring in many inner cities in which they become dilapidated centers of poverty, as affluent whites move out to the suburbs and immigrants and people of color vie for scarce jobs and resources.

question

Uneven development

answer

The increasing gap in economic conditions between core and peripheral regions as a result of the globalization of the economy.

question

Cumulative Causation

answer

A process through which tendencies for economic growth are self-reinforcing; an expression of the multiplier effect, it tends to favor major cities and core regions over less-advantaged peripheral regions

question

Blockbusting

answer

Rapid change in the racial composition of residential blocks in American cities that occurs when real estate agents and others stir up fears of neighborhood decline after encouraging people of color to move to previously white neighborhoods. In the resulting outmigration, real estate agents profit through the turnover of property.

question

Disamenity Zone

answer

An area of a city where regular city services are not reliably available to the same degree that they are elsewhere. Although the term is usually used with regard to very poor neighborhoods, it may also describe a dysfunctional aspect of an otherwise upscale community, such as the traffic conditions in Lower Manhattan.

question

Zones of Abandonment

answer

Parts of a city that because of extreme economic hardship or environmental pollution are no longer inhabited (associated with Detroit and some other "Rust Belt" cities).

question

Brown Fields

answer

Land previously used for industrial purposes that is now known or feared to be contaminated with hazardous waste and thus must be "cleaned up" before the site can be redeveloped

question

Slow Growth and Smart Growth

answer

Approaches to urban development that are geared toward long-term sustainability rather than short-term profit maximization

question

Informal Economy

answer

Economy is not taxed and not counted towards GNI

AP Human Geography: Urban Geography Vocabulary – Flashcards

Unlock all answers in this set

Haven't found what you were looking for?

Search for samples, answers to your questions and flashcards