Barriadas
squatter settlements found in the periphery of Latin American cities.
Bid-rent theory
the price and demand for real estate changes as the distance towards the Central Business District increases.
Blockbusting
a process by which real estate agents convince white property owners to sell their houses at low prices because of fear that black families will soon move into the neighborhood.
CBD (Central Business District)
the downtown or nucleus of a city where retail stores, offices, and cultural activities are concentrated; building densities are usually quite high; and transportation systems converge.
Census tract
urban areas divided into 5, 000 residents each by the U.S. Census.
Centrality
the functional dominance of cities within an urban system.
Central place theory
a theory that explains the regional organization of urban areas, based on their functions and the goods and services they offer.
Christaller
created the central place theory which displayed the ideas that central places would provide services and goods to the surrounding areas.
City
conglomeration of people and buildings clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture, and economics.
Cityscapes
an urban landscape.
Colonial city
a city founded by colonialism or an indigenous city whose structure was deeply influenced by Western culture.
Commercialization
the transformation of an area of a city into an area attractive to residents and tourists alike in terms of economic activity.
Commuter zone
the outer most zone of the Concentric Zone Model that represents people who choose to live in residential suburbia and take a daily commute in the CBD to work.
Concentric zone model
a model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings.
Counterurbanization
net migration from urban to rural areas in more developed countries.
Decentralization
the social process in which population and industry moves from urban centers to outlying districts
deindustrialization
process by which companies move industrial jobs to other regions with cheaper labor, leaving the newly deindustrialized region to switch to a service economy and to work through a period of high unemployment. Ex. Flint, Michigan
early cities
cities of the ancient world (3500 BC to 1200 BC). These cities are important because of the beginnings of agriculture and language.
Edge city
used to describe the shifting focus of urbanization in the U.S. away from the CBD toward new areas of economic activity at the urban fringe. These cities are characterized by extensive amounts of office and retail space, few residential areas, and modern
Entrepot
a port where merchandise can be imported and re-exported without paying import duties.
Favela
a slum community in a Brazilian city
female headed household
a household dominated by a woman (In MDCs, many family structures are female headed households).
Gateway city
because of their geographic location, they act as ports of entry and distribution centers for large geographic areas (Ex. New York City)
Gentrification
the restoration of run-down urban areas by the middle class (resulting in the displacement of lower-income people). Ex. Elmwood Park in downtown Columbia.
Ghetto
a poor, densely populated city district occupied by a minority ethnic group linked together by economic hardship and social restrictions.
Globalization
growth to a global or worldwide scale
Great cities
a city with a population of more than 1 million.
High tech corridors
an area along a limited access highway that houses offices and other services associated with high tech industries.
Hinterland
surrounding area served by an urban center. That center is the focus of goods and services produced for its hinterland and it is the dominant urban influence as well.
Indigenous city
a center of population, commerce, and culture that is native to a country.
In filling
new building on empty parcels of land within a checkerboard pattern of development.
Informal sector
the portion of an economy largely outside government control in which employees work without contracts or benefits; self-employed, low wage jobs that are unregulated and untaxed.
Inner city
urban area around the CBD; typically poorer and more run down in the U.S. and other long-developed countries; typically more rich upscale in LDCs.
Lateral commuting
commuting that occurs between suburban areas rather than towards the central city.
Megacities
cities with more than 10 million people.
Megalopolis
an extensive concentration of urbanized settlement formed by a coalescence of several metropolitan areas. The term is commonly applied to the urbanized northeastern seaboard of the U.S. extending from Boston to Washington, DC.
Conurbation
an aggregation or continuous network of urban communities
Metropolitan area
includes a large city and all of its surrounding suburbs and towns.
Multiplier effect
an effect in economics in which an increase in spending produces an increase in national income and consumption greater than the initial amount spent.
Multiple nuclei model
a model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of activities.
Peak land value intersection
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.
Postindustrial city
a city in which global finances and the electronic flow of information dominate the economy.
Primate city
a country's largest city-ranking atop the urban hierarchy; most expressive of the national culture and usually (but not always) the capital as well.
Racial steering
real estate agents advising customers to purchase homes in neighborhoods depending on their race.
Rank size rule
if all the cities in a country are placed in order from the largest to the smallest, each one will have a population half the size of the preceding city.
Redlining
a process by which banks draw lines on a map and refuse to lend money to purchase or improve property within the boundaries. It affects urban areas.
Restrictive covenants
provision in a property deed preventing sale to a person of a particular race or religion; loan discrimination.
Sector model
a model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a series of sectors, or wedges, radiating out from the CBD.
Segregation
the separation or isolation of a race, class, or group
Site/situation
the absolute location of an area/the relative location of an area and its place in the region or world.
Social structure
the people in a society considered as a system organized by a characteristic pattern of relationships.
Specialization
when a person, country, or region works on making one part of an item.
Squatter settlement
an area within a city in a less developed country in which people illegally establish residences on land they do not own or rent and erect homemade structures.
Street patterns
Grid-a system of crossing lines to help locate places. Dendritic-pattern that resembles a tree
Suburbanization
movement of upper and middle class people from urban core areas to the surrounding outskirts to escape pollution as well as deteriorating social conditions. In North America, the process began in the early 1800s, and became a mass phenomenon from 1950 to
Tenement
a building in which several families rent rooms or apartments, often with little sanitation or safety.
Threshold/range
the population required to make provision of services economically feasible. In economic geography and central place theory, the minimum market needed to support the supply of a product or service.
Underemployment
less than full time work or work that does not utilize a person's skills
Urban growth rate
rate of growth of an urban population.
Urban hearth area
rate of growth of an urban population.
Urban hearth area-an area where large cities first existed. Ex. Mesopotamia, Nile River Valley
Urban heat island
a dome of heat over a city created by urban activities and conditions
Urban hierarchy
a ranking of settlements according to their size and economic functions. Ex. Village, town, city, metropolis
Urban morphology
the study of the physical form and structure of urban places
Urbanization
growth of cities
World city
centers of economic, culture, and political activity that are strongly interconnected and together control the global systems of finance and commerce.
Zone in transition
area of mixed commercial and residential land uses surrounding the CBD.
Zoning
dividing an area into zones or sections reserved for different purposes such as resident, business, and manufacturing, etc.