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AP Human Urban Geography Flashcards

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5801858868AgglomerationA process involving the clustering or concentrating of people or activities. The term often refers to manufacturing plants and businesses that benefit from close proximity because they share skilled labor pools and technological and financial amenities0
5801858869BlockbustingRapid 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 properties.1
5801858870Central Business District (CBD)The downtown heart of a central city that is marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce, and the clustering of the tallest buildings2
5801858871CentralityThe strength of an urban center in its capacity to attract producers and consumers to its facilities: a city's "reach" into the surrounding regions3
5801858872Central-Place TheoryExplains how and where central places in the urban hierarchy should be functionally and spatially distributed with respect to one another4
5801858873CityConglomeration of people and buildings clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture and economics5
5801858874CommercializationThe transformation of an area of a city into an area attractive to residents and tourists alike in terms of economic activity6
5801858875Concentric Zone ModelA structural model of the American central city that suggests the existence of five concentric land-use rings arranged around a common center7
5801858876DeindustrializationProcess by which companies move industrial jobs to other regions with cheaper labor, leaving the region to switch to a service economy and work through a period of high unemployment8
5801858877Edge Citiesterm used to describe the shifting focus of urbanization in the United States away from the central business district toward new loci of economic activity at the urban fringe. These areas are characterized by extensive amounts of office and retail space, few residential areas and modern buildings9
5801858878Ethnic neighborhoodneighborhood, typically situated in a larger metropolitan city and constructed by or comprised of a local culture, in which a local culture can practice its customs10
5801858879GentrificationThe rehabilitation of deteriorated, often abandoned, housing of low-income inner-city residents11
5801858880Globalizationthe expansion of economic, political and cultural processes to the point that they become global in scale and impact12
5801858881HinterlandLiterally "country behind" a term that applies to a surrounding area served by an urban center13
5801858882MegalopolisTerm used to designate large coalescing supercities that are forming in diverse parts of the world14
5801858883Primate CityA country's largest city-ranking atop the urban hierarchy-most expressive of the national culture and usually the capital city as well15
5801858884Rank-size ruleIn a model urban hierarchy, the idea that the population of a city or town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy16
5801858885RedliningA discriminatory real estate's practice in North America in which members of minority groups are prevented from obtaining money to purchase homes or property in predominantly white neighborhoods. Today it is officially illegal.17
5801858886SiteThe internal physical attributes of a place, including its absolute location, its spatial character and physical setting18
5801858887SituationThe external location attributes of a place, its relative location or regional position with reference to other nonlocal places19
5801858888SuburbA subsidiary urban area surrounding and connected to the central city. Many are exclusively residential; others have their own commercial centers or shopping malls20
5801858889SuburbanizationMovement of upper and middle class people from urban core areas to the surrounding outskirts to escape pollution as well as deteriorating social conditions.21
5801858890Urban HierarchyA ranking of settlements according to their size and economic functions22
5801858891Urban MorphologyThe study of the physical form and structure of urban places23
5801858892Level of UrbanizationThe proportion of a country's population living in urban places.24
5801858893Process of UrbanizationThe movement of people to and the clustering of people in, towns and cities- a major force in every geographic realm today25
5801858894UrbanizationWhen a expanding city absorbs the rural countryside and transforms it into suburbs.26
5801858895World CityDominant city in terms of its role in the global political economy.27
5801858896ZoneArea of a city with a relatively uniform land use.28
5801858897Census TractUrban areas in the US are divided into these that contain approximately 5,000 residents and correspond, when possible, to neighborhood boundaries29
5801858898Economic BaseA community's collection of basic industries30
5801858899GhettoA section of a city in which members of any minority group live because of social, legal or economic pressure31
5801858900Multiple nuclei modelA model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of activities32
5801858901Sector ModelA model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a series of sectors, or wedges, radiating out from the central business district.33
5801858902Squatter SettlementAn 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 structures34
5801858903ThresholdThe minimum number of people needed to support the service35
5801858904RangeThe maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service36
5801858905UnderclassA group in society prevented from participating in the material benefits of a more developed society because of a variety of social and economical factors37
5801858906BarriadasIllegal housing settlements, usually made up of temporary shelters, that surround large cities, also known as squatter settlements38
5801858907CityscapesAn urban landscape39
5801858908DecentralizationThe tendency of people or businesses and industry to locate outside the central city40
5801858909Hydraulic civilizationA civilization based on large-scale irrigation41
5801858910In-fillingNew building on empty parcels of land within a checkerboard pattern of development42
5801858911MegacitiesA term that refers to a particularly large urban center43
5801858912NeighborhoodA small social area within a city where residents share values and concerns and interact with one another on a daily basis44
5801858913Office ParkA cluster of office bulidings, usually located along an interstate, often forming the nucleus of an edge city45
5801858914Restrictive CovenantsA 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 property46
5801858915Settlement formsThe spatial arrangement of bulidings, roads, towns, and other features that people construct while inhabiting an area47
5801858916Symbolic LandscapeLandscapes that express the values, beliefs and meanings of a particular culture48
5801858917Urban Hearth AreaA region in which the world's first cities evolved49
5801858918Urbanized PopulationThe proportion of a country's population living in cities50
5801858919Informal sectorThe part of a national economy that involves productive labor not subject to formal systems of control or payment51
5801858920InfrastructureThe basic structure of services, installations, and facilities needed to support industrial, agricultural and other economic development52
5801858921Metropolitan AreaIn the United States, a large functionally integrated settlement area comprising of one or more whole county units and usually containing several urbanized areas53
5801858922Peak Value IntersectionThe most accessible and costly parcel of land in the central business district and therefore in the entire urbanized area54
5801858923TownA nucleated settlement that contains a central business district but that is small and less functionally complex than a city55
5801858924Bid-rent TheoryGeographical economic theory that refers to how the price and demand for real estate changes as the distance from the Central Business District decreases56
5801858925CentralizationThe process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning decision-making, become concentrated with in a particular location and/or group57
5801858926Colonial cityCities that arose in societies that fell under the domination of Europe and North America in the early expansion of the capitalist world system58
5801858927CounterurbanizationNet migration from urban to rural areas in more developed countries59
5801858928Employment structureThe percentage of people employed in each of the four major employment sectors60
5801858929FavelaTerm used for a shanty town in Brazil61
5801858930Female Headed HouseholdSingle mother with children62
5801858931Gateway CityA settlement which acts as a link between two areas63
5801858932Indigenous CityOriginating in and naturally living, growing or occurring in a region or country64
5801858933Inner CityThe usually older, central part of a city, especially when characterized by crowded neighborhoods that tend to be low income and minority dominated65
5801858934Lateral CommutingTraveling from one suburb to another in going between home and work66
5801858935Planned CommunitiesA residential district that is planned for a certain class of residents67
5801858936Postmodern Urban LandscapeAttempts to reconnect people to place through its architecture, the preservation of historical buildings, the re-emergence of mixed land uses and connections among developments68
5801858937Shopping MallA shopping center with stores and businesses facing a system of enclosed walkways69
5801858938SlumHeavily populated urban area characterized by substandard housing and squalor70
5801858939TenementRundown apartment house barely meeting minimal standards71
5801858940Urban Growth RateThe process by which thre is an increase in proportion of a population living in places classified as urban72
5801858941Urban Heat IslandMetropolitan area which there is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas73
5801858942Forward CapitalA symbolic relocation of a capital city to a geographically or demographically peripheral location that may or may not be for either economic or strategic reasons74

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