Urban Geography Terms
2007
annexation

Legally adding land area to a city in the
US
barridas
Basic industries

Industries that sell their products or
services primarily to consumers outside
the settlement

As opposed to non-basic industries,
industries that sell their products or
services primarily to consumers within the
city
Bid rent theory

a geographical theory that refers to how
the price and demand on land changes as
the distance towards the CBD (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 the
fear that black families will soon move into
the neighborhood
Census tract

An area delineated by the US Bureau of
the Census for which statistics are
published; in urbanized areas, census
tracts correspond roughly to
neighborhoods
Central business district

The area of the city where retail and office
activities are clustered
Central place

A market center for the exchange of
services by people attracted from the
surrounding area
Central place theory

The 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
centrality

The strength of an urban center in its
capacity to attract producers and
consumers to its facilities; a city’s reach
into the surrounding region
Walter Christaller

German, laid the groundwork for the
Central Place Theory
Colonial city

A city that was deliberately established or
developed as an administrative or
commercial center by colonial or imperial
powers
commercialization
Commuter zone
Concentric zone model

A model of the American central city that
suggests the existence of five concentric
land use rings arranged around a common
center
conurbation
General term used to identify large,
multimetropolitan complexes formed by
the coalescence of two or more major
urban areas
 Megalopolis

Counter urbanization

Net migration from urban to rural areas in
more developed countries
decentralization

To distribute the administrative functions
or powers of (a central authority) among
several local authorities
deindustrialization

a relative decline in industrial
employment
Economic base

A communities collection of basic
industries
Edge city

A large node of office and retail activities
on the edge of an urban area
Employment structure

The number of people in a region
employed in basic and nonbasic jobs
– Basic: Industries that sell their products or
services primarily to consumers outside the
settlement
– Non basic: industries that sell their products
or services primarily to consumers within the
city
entrepot

A place, usually a port city where goods
are imported, stored, and transshipped; a
break of bulk point
Ethnic neighborhood

a neighborhood, district, or suburb which
retains some cultural distinction from a
larger, surrounding area
favela

A shantytown or slum, especially in Brazil
Festival landscape
filtering
Gateway city

A city that serves as a link between one
country or region and others due to its
physical situation
gentrification

The rehabilitation of deteriorated, often
abandoned housing of low-income inner
city residents
ghetto
An urban region marked by particular
ethnic, racial, religious and economic
properties
 Usually but not always a low income area

Gravity model

A mathematical prediction of the
interaction of places, relative to population
size and the distance between them
greenbelt

A ring of land maintained as parks,
agriculture, or other types of open space
to limit the sprawl of an urban area
High-tech corridor
Areas along or near major transportation
arteries that are devoted to research,
development and sale of high technology
products
 Silicon Valley, US

hinterland
The sphere of economic influence of a
town or city
 ‘country behind’

Hydraulic civilization

any culture having an agricultural system
that is dependent upon large-scale
government-managed waterworks
Indigenous city
In-filling
Informal sector

Economic activities that take place beyond
official record, not subject to formalized
systems of regulation
infrastructure

The underlying framework of services and
amenities needed to facilitate productive
activity
Invasion and succession

A process of neighborhood change
whereby one social or ethnic group
succeeds another
Lateral commuting

Suburb to suburb commuting
Market area
The area surrounding a central place, from
which people are attracted to use the
place’s goods and services
 hinterland

Medieval cities
megacities

A very large city characterized by both
primacy and high centrality within its
national economy
MSA
Metropolitan statistical area
 In the US a central city of at least 50,000
people, the county in which the city is
located, and adjacent counties

Multiple nuclei model

A model of the internal structure of cities
in which social groups are arranged
around a collection of nodes of activities
Multiplier effect
Expansion of economic activity caused by
the growth or introduction of another
activity
 New basic industry job will create jobs
directly or indirectly in the non basic
sector

neighborhood
Office park
Peripheral model

A model of North American urban areas
consisting of an inner city surrounded by
large suburban residential and business
areas tied together by a beltway or ring
road
Planned community
Celebration, Florida
 large-scale, mixed-land-use developments
that have socially diverse populations and
conform to a single master plan

Post industrial city
Postmodern urban landscape

A style characterized by a diversity of
architectural styles and elements, often
combined in the same building or project
Primate city

The largest settlement in a country, if it
has more than twice as many people as
the second-ranking settlement
Racial steering

the act of steering prospective
homebuyers to neighborhoods which have
residents of mostly their same racial
background
range

The maximum distance people are willing
to travel for a service
Rank size rule

The idea that the population of a city or
town will be inversely proportional to its
rank in the hierarchy
redlining
A discriminatory real estate practice in
North America in which members of
minority groups are prevented from
obtaining money to purchase homes or
property in predominantly white
neighborhoods
 Officially illegal

Restrictive covenants
restrictions that apply to a group of homes
or lots, property that's part of a specific
development or subdivision
 give a development a more standard
appearance
 control some of the activities that take
place within its boundaries
 protect property values
