U6: Urbanization Vocabulary

The process of the development of dense concentrations of people into settlements, made possible by advancements in agriculture.

Urbanization grew drastically during the Industrial Revolution around centers where agriculture development prospered.

Drivers of urbanization include improved transportation and communication networks, rural-to-urban migration, economic development, and government policies that seek to boost the economy.

The primary industries of cities are economic ones while the secondary industries meet residents’ needs.

The functions of a city changes over time due to technological advancements or changes in economic or population trends.

The process of the development of less densely populated residential and commercial areas surrounding a city.

Suburbanization causes the land area that a metropolitan area takes up to expand and the amount of land per person to increase.

The metropolitan area is the city as well as the surrounding areas that are influenced bu that city.

A place’s absolute location as well as physical characteristics, such as landforms, climate, and resources.

A place’s location in relation to other places and its surroundings.

A city with more than 10 million residents.

A city with more than 20 million residents.

The tendency of cities to grow outward in an unchecked manner.

A concentration of amenities typical of a city, such as business, shopping, and entertainment centers, on the outskirts of a city.

A low-density residential district on the edge of a metropolitan area with connections to the metropolitan area. Exurbs are often inhabited by wealthy families.

A rapidly growing and sprawling suburb with more than 100,000 residents.

The increasing interconnections of different parts of the world through processes of economic, environmental, political, cultural, and technological exchange.

Cities with global influence. World cities are world centers/nodes of trade, finance, information, and migration.

A ranking of cities, with the largest and most powerful cities at the top of the hierarchy.

1. City

2. Town

3. Village

4. Hamlet

The population of a settlement is inversely proportional to its rank in the urban hierarchy; if the settlements in a country are ranked by population size, the population of a settlement ranked n will be 1/nth of the size of the largest settlement.

A city that is much larger than any other city in the country and that dominates the country’s economic, political, and cultural life.

Primate cities are often found in periphery countries where population is disproportionately pulled to the city due to the city’s economic opportunities.

A model, developed by Walter Christaller, that attempts to understand why cities are located where they are.

Christaller believed that cities are primarily economic centers whose main purpose is to distribute goods and services to people who are willing to travel certain distances to acquire them. People travel shorter distances for basics and necessities and travel farther distances for specialty needs.

• Threshold is the number of people needed to support a certain good or service

• Range is the distance that people are willing to travel for a certain good or service.

The built forms that humans create in inhabiting Earth; property that shows evidence of human interaction with the physical environment.

The construction of new buildings in the space available between existing structures within a city.

The basic physical and organizational structures, such as buildings, roads, and public utilities, needed for the operation of a society.

Infrastructure tends to improve as the wealth of a place improves and vice versa.

The classification of land according to restrictions on its use and development.

The quality of which the built environment enables the safe, efficient, and convenient mobility of pedestrians.

Walkability is assessed through variables such as sidewalks, accessibility to amenities, and environmental conditions.

Policies that sustainably increase a city’s efficiency, combat regional sprawl, and meet the needs of residents by placing development in convenient locations.

An approach to city planning that focuses on creating a sense of place within a city by sustainably developing affordable housing and open and walkable spaces with appealing architecture and mixed-use.

A zone of grassy, forested, or agricultural land around urban areas used to limit sprawl and enhance quality of life.

A city that changes its zoning laws to decrease the rate at which the city sprawls.

Ethnic or economic segregation that is not supported by law but is still apparent.

The process of identifying high-risk neighborhoods, based on ethnicity and income, and refusing to lend money to people who want to buy property in those neighborhoods.

The practice in which realtors persuade white homeowners in an area to sell their homes by convincing them that the neighborhood is declining due to black families moving in.

Areas within cities comprising neighborhoods characterized by informal housing (slums, squatter settlements) in precarious environmental and social conditions.

The large-scale redevelopment of the built environment in urban areas.

The displacement of lower-income residents by higher-income residents as an area or neighborhood improves; a demographic and economic shift that displaces established working-class communities and communities of color in favor of wealthier newcomers and real estate development companies.

Urban planning actions designed to improve cities by controlling pollution, improving livability, and reducing the city’s ecological footprint.

Urban sustainability actions include improving walkability and transportation, implementing smart-growth policies, and adding more mix-use and green spaces to the city.

A property whose use or development may be complicated by the potential presence of hazardous substances or pollutants.

Brownfields are usually abandoned industrial sites.

Data concerning information that is not represented by numbers, such as interview material, notebooks, maps, photographs, and descriptions.

Data represented numerically; can be counted, measured or given a numerical value.

The idea that the closer two places are, the more they will influence each other; and the bigger the city, the more connections it will have and the more people are pulled to the city.

An area of degraded, seemingly temporary, inadequate, and often illegal housing.

A slum, or a densely populated area of substandard housing built with improvised materials, located in or on the outskirts of large cities in Brazil.