| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Agglomeration | built up area consisting of central city and surrounding suburbs |
| Barriadas | a neighborhood, usually a slum or lower class (Latin American cities) |
| Bid-Rent Theory | explains that price/demand for land increases closer to CBD (explains the concentric zone model and different levels of development located at distances from city) |
| Blockbusting | process of white families selling their homes because of fear that blacks would move in & lower property value (explains white flight of 1950's & growth of suburbs) |
| CBD | (central business district) location of skyscrapers and companies; always center of 3 urban models, many people commute, few actually live there |
| Census Tract | government designated areas in cities that each have ~5,000 people, often correspond to neighborhoods (data is used to analyze urban patterns) |
| Centrality | strength of dominance of urban center over surrounding area, larger than MSA or agglomeration |
| Centralization | movement of people, capital, services, and government into central city |
| Central-Place Theory/Christaller, Walter | explains how services are distributed & why there are distinct patterns in this distribution; involves market area/hinterland and threshold |
| Commercialization | process of increasing importance of business (advertisements in cities) |
| Concentric Zone Model | (E.W. Burgess) city grows outwards from central area (CBD in middle, zone of transition, workers' homes, zone of residences, commuter's zone) |
| Counter-Urbanization | net migration from urban to rural areas |
| Decentralization | process of dispersing decision-making outwards from center of authority |
| Deindustrialization | process of social and economic change caused by removal of industry |
| Edge city | a new concentration of business in suburban areas consisting of suburbs |
| Entrepot | trading center where goods are exported and imported without cost |
| Ethnic neighborhood | a neighborhood with distinctive ethnic composition |
| Favela | a shantytown or slum |
| Gateway City | a settlement which acts as a link between two areas |
| Gentrification | process where low cost neighborhoods are renovated by middle class to increase property values |
| Ghetto | poor section of city inhabited by people of same race, religion, or social background |
| Globalization | development of worldwide patterns of economic relationships (we learned about the future impact this will have |
| High-Tech Corridors | area benefiting from lower taxes and high-tech infrastructure with the goal of providing high-tech jobs locally |
| Hinterland | region remote from urban areas & sited beyond metropolitan centers of culture |
| Indigenous City | a center of population, commerce, and culture that is native to a country |
| Infrastructure | the basic facilities, services, and installations needed for the functioning of a community or society |
| Medieval Cities | a center of population, commerce, and culture from 500 – 1500 BCE |
| Megacities | metropolitan areas with a total population of more than 10 million people |
| Multiple Nuclei Model | a model of town growth by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman based on the fact that many towns and large cities grow about many nuclei rather than a CBD |
| Multiplier Effect | an increase in some economic activity starts a chain reaction that generates more activity than the original increase |
| Postindustrial City | a center of population, commerce, and culture from early 1900s – now |
| Primate City | a city that is more than two times greater than the next largest city in a nation, is usually very expressive of the national culture, and is often the capital city |
| Rank-Size Rule | in a modern urban hierarchy, the population of a city or town is inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy |
| Redlining | not giving funds to poorer neighborhoods |
| Sector Model | a model of town growth by Homer Hoyt with sections: high-rent homes, intermediate-rent homes, low-rent homes, education and recreation, transportation, industrial area |
| Settlement Form (Nucleated, Dispersed, Elongated) | houses grouped together in clusters/houses lie far apart and land is intensely cultivated by machine/houses are on long, narrow strips of land |
| Site/Situation | the absolute location of an area/the relative location of an area, its place in the region or world |
| Squatter Settlement | an area of usually unauthorized, makeshift housing, generally at the edge of a third world city |
| Suburbanization | the process where lands that were previously outside the urban environment become urbanized, as people and businesses move to these places |
| Tenement | a run-down and often overcrowded apartment house, especially in a poor section of a large city |
| Threshold/Range | area closest to the market / area farther away from the market |
| Urban Hierarchy | a term that relates the structure of towns within an area |
| Urban Morphology | the layout of a city, physical form and structure |
| Urbanization | increase in proportion of population living in towns |
| World City | they function at the global scale as a service of world economy |
| Zone in Transition | the zone between the CBD of a city and the blue-collar homes |
| Zoning | to divide an area into zones |
Combine with other sets
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