Unit 6: Cities and Urban Land-Use Patterns and Processes

Key Concepts

Central Place Theory

• Market areas centered on a central settlement for exchange and service provision.
• Large settlements have larger market areas with more services.
• Small settlements have smaller, more numerous market areas with fewer services.
• Walter Christaller's research in the 1920s established a hierarchical pattern of places using hexagonal market areas.

Threshold and Range

• Threshold: Minimum population needed to support a business.
• Range: Maximum distance people will travel for services.
• Modified by income and travel time; traffic patterns influence travel time more than distance.

Agglomeration

• Local clusters of similar business activities.
• Example: Silicon Valley's tech firms.
• Competition and planning/zoning influence business locations.

Urban Origins

• Urban areas often develop due to access to resources or transportation.
• Resource nodes: Settlements near natural resources.
• Transport nodes: Settlements at transportation intersections.

Settlement Patterns

• Clustered rural settlements: Close residential arrangements for social and security reasons.
• Dispersed rural settlements: Households spread out, common in the American South.
• Circular and Linear settlements: Arrangements follow a central space or along roads/streams.

Site and Situation

• Site: Physical characteristics/location.
• Situation: Relationship with other locations.
• Economic site factors influence development potential.

Housing and the Built Environment

• WHO identifies housing as crucial for health.
• Building codes ensure safety; must be clean and well-maintained.

Models of Urban Structure

Concentric Zone Model

• Represents American cities during industrialization.
• Five rings: CBD, Industrial zone, Inner city housing, Suburbs, Exurbs.
• Bid-rent curve: Real estate prices rise as proximity to CBD increases.

Sector Model

• Combines industrial corridor and neighborhood concepts.
• Shows ethnic variations and residential patterns.

Multiple-Nuclei Model

• Urban landscape represented by neighborhoods and commercial corridors.
• Suburban business districts on the periphery.

Galactic City/Peripheral Model

• Post-industrial city with dispersed business districts.
• Decentralization of commercial urban landscape.

Latin American City Model

• Colonial influence, Laws of the Indies, and urban structure.
• Features such as CBD, Commercial Spine, Zones of Elite Housing, etc.

Southeast Asian City Model

• High-rise developments, colonial port zone, Western and Alien commercial zones.

Sub-Saharan African City Model

• Three CBDs reflecting African urban development history.
• Traditional, colonial, and market zones.

Urban Concepts

Suburbanization

• Dominance of detached single-family homes.
• Suburbs as predominantly middle-class, with historical WASP population changing.

Home Mortgage Finance

• Post-WWII programs increased homeownership.
• Suburban growth driven by housing construction methods.

Service Relocation

• Suburban sprawl and service relocation from CBDs.
• Anti-growth movements and counterurbanization trends.

Edge Cities

• Characteristics: office and retail space, commuter nodes.
• Growth leads to lateral commuting patterns.

City Types

Colonial and Fall-Line Cities

• Origin as trade or administrative centers.
• Economic break-in-bulk points.

Medieval and Gateway Cities

• Pre-Renaissance urban centers.
• Entry points for immigrants.

EntrÊpot, Megacity, and Megalopolis

• EntrÊpot cities for profitable trade.
• Megacities have populations over 10 million.
• Megalopolises are merged urban areas.

World and Primate Cities

• Global centers for finance and trade.
• Primate cities are disproportionately large compared to others in the country.

Urban Society

Segregation

• De facto vs. de jure segregation.
• Practices like redlining and restrictive covenants historically limited diversity.

Urban Social Change

• Invasion and succession of ethnic groups and social classes.

Women and the City

• Increased percentage of female-headed households.
• Women's roles in urban economies increasing.

Urban Economies

• Gentrification: Reinvestment and redevelopment of older areas.

Urban Sustainability

• Balancing economic growth with environmental impact.

Urban Transportation

• Issues of congestion, emissions, and the benefits of mass transit.

New Downtown Housing

• Environmental benefits of stopping suburban sprawl.
• Brownfield remediation and mixed-use developments.