Urban Hearth Area
A spatial generalization of the large, late-twentieth-century city in the United States. It is shown to be a widely dispersed, multicentered metropolis consisting of increasingly independent zones or realms.
A city that was deliberately established or developed as an administrative or commercial center by colonial or imperial powers
Arch of the dominant overland, trade-based cities stretching from London to Tokyo in the 1500s before the rise of sea-based trade and exploration.
Urban place experiencing infrastructural challenges related to massive and rapid urbanization.
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.
A country' s leading city, disproportionately larger and functionally more complex than any other; a city dominating an urban hierarchy composed of a base of small towns and an absence of intermediate-sized cities.
Christaller's 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
A market center for the exchange of services by people attracted from the surrounding area
Literally, "country behind," a term that applies to a surrounding area served by an urban center. That center is the focus of goods and services produced for its hinterland and is its dominant urban influence as well. In the case of a port city, the hinterland also includes the inland area whose trade flows through that port.
Dominant city in terms of its role in the global political economy. Not the world's biggest city in terms of population or industrial output, but rather centers of strategic control of the world economy.
A very large city characterized by both primacy and high centrality within its national economy.
Metropolitan statistical area
area that statistically is a city; in the united states the area has to have a population of 50,000 people or more
Term used to designate large coalescing supercities that are forming in diverse parts of the world
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)
The nucleus or "downtown" of a city, where retail stores, offices, and cultural activities are concentrated, mass transit systems converge, and land values and building densities are high.
A functionally specialized segment of a large urban complex located outside the boundaries of the central city; usually, a relatively homogeneous residential community, separately incorporated and administered.
Burgess's Concentric Zone Model
A model describing urban land uses as a series of circular belts or rings around a core central business district, each ring housing a distinct type of land use.
Peak land value intersection
The most accessible and costly parcel of land in the central business district and, therefore, in the entire urbanized area.