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AP Human Urban Geography Flashcards

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6273772476AgglomerationA 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
6273772477BlockbustingRapid 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
6273772478Central 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
6273772479CentralityThe strength of an urban center in its capacity to attract producers and consumers to its facilities: a city's "reach" into the surrounding regions3
6273772480Central-Place TheoryExplains how and where central places in the urban hierarchy should be functionally and spatially distributed with respect to one another4
6273772481CityConglomeration of people and buildings clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture and economics5
6273772482CommercializationThe transformation of an area of a city into an area attractive to residents and tourists alike in terms of economic activity6
6273772483Concentric Zone ModelA structural model of the American central city that suggests the existence of five concentric land-use rings arranged around a common center7
6273772484DeindustrializationProcess 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
6273772485Edge 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
6273772486Ethnic 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
6273772487GentrificationThe rehabilitation of deteriorated, often abandoned, housing of low-income inner-city residents11
6273772488Globalizationthe expansion of economic, political and cultural processes to the point that they become global in scale and impact12
6273772489HinterlandLiterally "country behind" a term that applies to a surrounding area served by an urban center13
6273772490MegalopolisTerm used to designate large coalescing supercities that are forming in diverse parts of the world14
6273772491Primate CityA country's largest city-ranking atop the urban hierarchy-most expressive of the national culture and usually the capital city as well15
6273772492Rank-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
6273772493RedliningA 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
6273772494SiteThe internal physical attributes of a place, including its absolute location, its spatial character and physical setting18
6273772495SituationThe external location attributes of a place, its relative location or regional position with reference to other nonlocal places19
6273772496SuburbA subsidiary urban area surrounding and connected to the central city. Many are exclusively residential; others have their own commercial centers or shopping malls20
6273772497SuburbanizationMovement of upper and middle class people from urban core areas to the surrounding outskirts to escape pollution as well as deteriorating social conditions.21
6273772498Urban HierarchyA ranking of settlements according to their size and economic functions22
6273772499Urban MorphologyThe study of the physical form and structure of urban places23
6273772500Level of UrbanizationThe proportion of a country's population living in urban places.24
6273772501Process of UrbanizationThe movement of people to and the clustering of people in, towns and cities- a major force in every geographic realm today25
6273772502UrbanizationWhen a expanding city absorbs the rural countryside and transforms it into suburbs.26
6273772503World CityDominant city in terms of its role in the global political economy.27
6273772504ZoneArea of a city with a relatively uniform land use.28
6273772505Census TractUrban areas in the US are divided into these that contain approximately 5,000 residents and correspond, when possible, to neighborhood boundaries29
6273772506Economic BaseA community's collection of basic industries30
6273772507GhettoA section of a city in which members of any minority group live because of social, legal or economic pressure31
6273772508Multiple nuclei modelA model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of activities32
6273772509Sector 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
6273772510Squatter 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
6273772511ThresholdThe minimum number of people needed to support the service35
6273772512RangeThe maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service36
6273772513UnderclassA group in society prevented from participating in the material benefits of a more developed society because of a variety of social and economical factors37
6273772514BarriadasIllegal housing settlements, usually made up of temporary shelters, that surround large cities, also known as squatter settlements38
6273772515CityscapesAn urban landscape39
6273772516DecentralizationThe tendency of people or businesses and industry to locate outside the central city40
6273772517Hydraulic civilizationA civilization based on large-scale irrigation41
6273772518In-fillingNew building on empty parcels of land within a checkerboard pattern of development42
6273772519MegacitiesA term that refers to a particularly large urban center43
6273772520NeighborhoodA small social area within a city where residents share values and concerns and interact with one another on a daily basis44
6273772521Office ParkA cluster of office bulidings, usually located along an interstate, often forming the nucleus of an edge city45
6273772522Restrictive 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
6273772523Settlement formsThe spatial arrangement of bulidings, roads, towns, and other features that people construct while inhabiting an area47
6273772524Symbolic LandscapeLandscapes that express the values, beliefs and meanings of a particular culture48
6273772525Urban Hearth AreaA region in which the world's first cities evolved49
6273772526Urbanized PopulationThe proportion of a country's population living in cities50
6273772527Informal sectorThe part of a national economy that involves productive labor not subject to formal systems of control or payment51
6273772528InfrastructureThe basic structure of services, installations, and facilities needed to support industrial, agricultural and other economic development52
6273772529Metropolitan AreaIn the United States, a large functionally integrated settlement area comprising of one or more whole county units and usually containing several urbanized areas53
6273772530Peak Value IntersectionThe most accessible and costly parcel of land in the central business district and therefore in the entire urbanized area54
6273772531TownA nucleated settlement that contains a central business district but that is small and less functionally complex than a city55
6273772532Bid-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
6273772533CentralizationThe process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning decision-making, become concentrated with in a particular location and/or group57
6273772534Colonial cityCities that arose in societies that fell under the domination of Europe and North America in the early expansion of the capitalist world system58
6273772535CounterurbanizationNet migration from urban to rural areas in more developed countries59
6273772536Employment structureThe percentage of people employed in each of the four major employment sectors60
6273772537FavelaTerm used for a shanty town in Brazil61
6273772538Female Headed HouseholdSingle mother with children62
6273772539Gateway CityA settlement which acts as a link between two areas63
6273772540Indigenous CityOriginating in and naturally living, growing or occurring in a region or country64
6273772541Inner CityThe usually older, central part of a city, especially when characterized by crowded neighborhoods that tend to be low income and minority dominated65
6273772542Lateral CommutingTraveling from one suburb to another in going between home and work66
6273772543Planned CommunitiesA residential district that is planned for a certain class of residents67
6273772544Postmodern 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
6273772545Shopping MallA shopping center with stores and businesses facing a system of enclosed walkways69
6273772546SlumHeavily populated urban area characterized by substandard housing and squalor70
6273772547TenementRundown apartment house barely meeting minimal standards71
6273772548Urban Growth RateThe process by which thre is an increase in proportion of a population living in places classified as urban72
6273772549Urban Heat IslandMetropolitan area which there is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas73
6273772550Forward 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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