Fundamentals of urban geography

Amenities:

Break of bulk point:

Bridging point:

Brownfield land:

By-pass:

CBD:

Comprehensive redevelopment:

Conurbation:

Convenience goods/services:

Counter urbanization:

Cycle of deprivation:

Defensive site:

Demand:

Dependent person:

Deprivation:

Derelict:

Detached house:

Dormitory settlement:

Dry point site:

Ethnic group:

Family life cycle model:

Family status:

Favela:

Formal sector:

Function of a settlement:
Gap town:

Gentrification:

Green belt: An open strip of land provided on the periphery of a town for the special purpose of limiting
the growth of a town. The lands contained in the green belt are to be used for carrying out the agricultural
activities and the construction of buildings in green belt is strictly prohibited. It is provided for the
following purposes

Can be developed as parks and play grounds

It can be used for farms and can be developed as poultry farms or nursery.
It prevents the spreading of town and conurbation is thus prevented by the provision of green
belt around the town.

Greenfield land: a term used to describe a piece of undeveloped rural land, either currently used for
agriculture or just left to nature.

High order goods and services: good or service, usually expensive, that people buy only occasionally. Eg.
Furniture, computer. High order services are usually located in larger towns and cities with a large market
area, accessible to large number of people.

Hinterland: The area served by a city or its sphere of influence.

Household: A person living alone or group of people, not necessarily related, living at the same address
with shared housekeeping. Shared housekeeping involves sharing at least one meal a day or sharing living
room or sitting room.

Informal sector: casual, irregular work. Eg. Street vending.

Low order goods and services: A good or service, usually inexpensive, that people buy on a regular,
often daily basis. Eg; newspaper, milk etc.

Market area: The area served by a particular settlement, shop or service.

Megalopolis: a continuous stretch of urban settlement which results from towns, cities and conurbation
merging together.

Market town: A town whose main function is that of a shopping and service center for the surrounding
region.

Millionaire city: A city with one million inhabitants.

Natural Harbour: Where the shape of the coastline helps to provide shelter for ships from storms.

Neighborhood unit: The basic building unit for new towns, designed to provide people with a safe, traffic
free environment and access to all frequently needed services such as primary schools, shops clinics with
the walking distance.

New town: A well planned self-contained settlement complete with housing, employment and services.
Over spill town: A town that expanded by taking people who were forced to move out of the cities as a
result of slum clearance and redevelopment schemes.

Over urbanization: problems experienced by cities, where too many people are migrating to the city
resulting in housing shortages. Poor housing conditions, lack of sanitation and piped water, illness and
crime, traffic congestion and pollution, over-stretched services, unemployment underemployment etc.

Primate city: Some countries have one city the primate city- which in terms of population size and
function dominates all other urban spaces.

Redevelopment: the rebuilding of parts of a city. Sometimes large areas are completely demolished before
being rebuilt; sometimes all or some of the old buildings are retained and modernized to combine the best
features of the old and the new.

Re-urbanization: the process whereby towns and cities which have been experiencing a loss of population
are able to reverse the decline and begin to grow again. Some form of redevelopment is often required to
start re-urbanization.

Ribbon development: when housing grows out from a town along a main road.

Ring road: a by-pass that provides a route around the CBD.

Route center: A settlement located at the meeting point of several roads / railways, the meeting point of 2
or more river valleys (which provide good road and rail routes through high land) is often the location of
route center settlement. Bridging points, ports and gap towns are also natural route centers.

Rural-urban fringe: A zone of transition between built-up area and the countryside, where there is often
completion for land use. It is a zone of mixed land uses, from shopping malls and golf courses to farm
land and motorways.

Second homes: homes purchased by city dwellers in country villages or areas of usually great natural
beauty for holiday or week end use only. These create problems for local communities since house prices
in the area of second homes rise out of the reach of the young people. New comers also bring unwanted
social change to the villges.

Self-help housing schemes: group of people are encouraged to build their own homes, using materilas
provided by the local authority.

Semiskilled occupations: These jobs involve skill that is quickly learned. E.g. Bus conductors, laborers.

Settlement functions: the main activity. Eq. tourism, education, administration etc.

Shanty town: An area of poor quality housing, lacking in amenities such as water supply, sewerage and
electricity, which often develops spontaneously and illegally as squatter settlement.

Slum: a house unfit for human habitation.

Social leap frogging: The process by which those who can afford to do so move out of an area as it
becomes older and more run down, to be replaced by less well-off people.
Spontaneous settlement: a squatter settlement or shanty town containing self-built houses made of scrap
materials such as corrugated iron and plastic. These settlement usually lack piped water, an electricity
supply and sewage disposal facilities. These are usually illegal because the residents neither own the land
on which the houses are built nor have permission to build there.

Squatter settlement: spontaneous settlement.

Suburbs: the outer zone of towns and cities.

Suburbanization: the process by which people, factories, offices and shops move out from the central
areas of the cities and into the suburbs.

Suburbanized villages/towns: Dormitory or commuter villages / towns with the residential population
who sleep in the village town but who travel to work in the nearby large urban area. The suburbanized
village has increasingly adopted some of the characteristics of urban areas.

Urban redevelopment: the total clearance of parts of old inner city areas and starting afresh with new
houses, especially high rise flats.

Urban renewal / regeneration: the improvement of old houses and the addition of amenities in an attempt
to bring new life to old inner city area.

Urban sprawl: unplanned uncontrolled growth of urban areas into the surrounding countryside.

Urbanization: the process by which an increasing percentage of countries population comes to live in
town s and cities.

Wet point site: A settlement location where the main advantage is a water supply in an otherwise dry area.
E.g. at a spring where an impermeable clay valley meets the foot of permeable lime stone or chalk hills.