Urban Environments

Question	Answer
Urbanization	The process by which an increasing percentage of a country's population come to live in towns and cities. This may be due to migration and natural increase.
Centripetal Movements	Migration of people into towns and cities, stimulated by push and pull factors.
Re-urbanization	The development of activities to increase residential population densities within the existing built-up area of a city. This may include the redevelopment of vacant land and the refurbishment of housing and the development of new business enterprises.
Brownfield Site	Abandoned, derelict, or underused industrial buildings and land, which may be contaminated but have potential for redevelopment.
Counter-urbanization	A process involving the movement of population away from inner urban areas to a new town, new estate, commuter town or village on the edge or just beyond the city limits or rural-urban fringe.
Suburb	A residential area within or just outside the boundaries of a city.
Suburbanization	The outward growth of towns and cities to engulf surrounding villages and rural areas. This may result from out-migration of population from the inner urban areas to the suburbs, or from inward rural-urban movement.
Urban Sprawl	The unplanned and uncontrolled physical expansion of an urban area into the surrounding countryside. It is closely linked to the process of suburbanization.
Megacity	Large metropolitan area with 10 million or more inhabitants.
Distance-decay Principle	States that the land value decreases with distance from the peak land value intersection in the CBD.
Bid-rent Theory	Examines the different upper limits of rent retailers, offices, residents are willing to bid for.
Urban Hierarchy	A national arrangement of urban areas, for example from one large city to many small villages.
Sustainable Urban Management Strategy	An approach to urban management that seeks to maintain and improve the quality of life for current and future urban dwellers. Aspects of management may be social (housing quality, crime), economic (jobs, income) and environmental (air, water, land and resources).
Residential Segregation	The physical separation of population by culture, income or other criteria.
Central Business District (CBD)	The commercial and economic core of a city. It is the most accessible to public transport and the location with the highest land values.
Brown Agenda	A concentration of environmental problems in rapidly growing cities. Components are the issues caused by limited availability of land, water and services, and problems such as toxic hazardous waste, water/air/soil pollution, industrial accidents.
Urban Heat Island	Urban areas that are usually 2-4˚C warmer than the surrounding countryside.
Eco-city	A city designed to have minimal environmental impact. It uses land efficiently, practices reuse and recycling as well as waste minimization.
Urban Ecological Footprint	The land area required to sustain a population of any size.

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	Created by Patricia Rothen about 11 years ago