AP Human Geography
urbanization
Transformation of a population from rural to urban status; the process of city formation and expansion.
urban morphology
the study of the physical form and structure of urban places
urban hearth area
An area, like Mesopotamia or the Nile River Valley where large cities first existed.
Borchert’s Model of Urban Evolution
refer to four distinct periods in the history of American urbanization. Each epoch is characerized by the impact of a particular transport technology on the creation and differential rates of growth of American cities.
urban hierarchy
a ranking of settlements (hamlet, village, town, city, metropolis) according to their size and economic functions
colonial city
City established by colonizing empires as administrative centers. Often they were established on already existing native cities, completely overtaking their infrastructures.
urban banana (crescent-shaped zone)
arch of the dominant overland. Trade based cities stretching from London to Tokyo in the 1500’s before the rise of sea based trade and exploration.
shock city
a city that is seen as the embodiment of surprising and disturbing changes in economic, social, and cultural life.
industrial city
city that has its base in industry and has been infrastructure associated with the industrial revolution
Rank-size rule
An observed regularity in the city- size distribution of some countries. In a rank-size hierarchy, the population of any given town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy; that is, the nth-ranked city will be I/n the size of the largest city.
Primate City
The largest settlement in a country, if it has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.
Christaller’s Central Place Theory
A theory formulated by Walter Christaller in the early 1900s that explains the size and distribution of cities in terms of a competitive supply of goods and services to dispersed populations
Central Place Theory
A theory that explains the distribution of services, based on the fact that settlements serve as centers of market areas for services; larger settlements are fewer and farther apart than smaller settlements and provide services for a larger number of people who are willing to travel farther.
central place
A market center for the exchange of services by people attracted from the surrounding area.
Hinterland
The market area or region served by an urban center.
threshold
In economic geography and central place theory, the minimum market needed to support the supply of a product or service.
Range of goods and services
The maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service.
world cities
a group of cities that form an interconnected, internationally dominant system of global control of finace and commerce
mega cities
a very large city characterized by both primacy and high centrality within its national economy.
metropolitan statistical area
Has at least one urbanzed area of 50,000 or more and adjacent territory that has a high degree of socail and economic integration
megalopolis
A unified urban region comprising several large cities and their surrounding areas
micropolitan statistical area
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
functional zonation
The division of a city into different regions or zones (e.g. residential or industrial) for certain purposes or functions (e.g. housing or manufacturing).
Central Business District CBD
area of a city where retail and office activities are clustered
Central City
the urban area that is not suburban; generally, the older or original city that is surrounded by newer suburbs
suburb
A subsidiary urban area surrounding and connected to the central city. Many are exclusively residential; others have their own commercial centers or shopping malls.
Burgess’s Concentric Zone Model
Burgess) Based on human ecology theories done by Burgess and applied on Chicago, it was the first to give the explanation of distribution of social groups within urban areas. This concentric ring model depicts urban land use in concentric rings: the Central Business District (or CBD) was in the middle of the model, and the city expanded in rings with different land uses. It is effectively an urban version of Von Thunen’s regional land use model developed a century earlier. It contrasts with Homer Hoyt’s sector model and the multiple nuclei model.
succession migration
When one person of a family migrates, then proceeds to bring the rest of the family or village along after they have been established
zone in transition
An area that is either becoming more rural or more urban
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
bid-rent curve
that refers to how the price and demand for real estate changes as the distance from the Central Business District (CBD) decreases. It states that different land users will compete with one another for land close to the city centre. This is based upon the idea that retail establishments wish to maximise their profitability, so they are much more willing to pay more money for land close to the CBD and less for land further away from this area.