AP Human Geography Chapter 9 Vocab

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This is for the AP Human geography class.

Urban Morphology

The study of the physical form and structure of urban places


Conglomeration of people and buildings clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture, and economics


The entire built-up, nonrural area and its population, including the most recently constructed suburban appendages. Provides a better picture of the dimensions and population of such an area than the delimited municipality (central city) that forms its heart.

Agricultural village

A relatively small, egalitarian village, where most of the population was involved in agriculture. Starting over 10,000 years ago, people began to cluster in agricultural villages as they stayed in one place to tend their crops.

Agricultural Surplus

One of two components, together with social stratification, that enables the formation of cities; agricultural production in excess of that which the producer needs for his or her own sustenance and that of his or her family and which is then sold for consumption by others.

Social Stratification

one of two components, together with agricultural surplus, which enables the formation of cities; the differentiation of society into classes based on wealth, power, production, and prestige

Leadership class

Group of decision-makers and organizers in early cities who controlled the resources, and often the lives, of others

First urban revolution

The innovation of the city, which occurred independently in five separate hearths


Region of great cities (e.g Ur and Babylon) located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; chronically the first urban hearth dating to 3500 BCE, and which was founded in the Fertile Crescent.

Nile River Valley

Chronologically the second urban hearth, dating to 3200 BCE

Indus River Valley

Chronologically the third urban hearth, dating to 2200 BCE

Huang He (Yellow) and Wei (Yangtzi)

Rivers in present-day China; it was at the confluence of the Huang He and Wei Rivers where chronologically the fourth urban hearth was established around 1500 BCE


Chronologically the fifth hearth, dating to 2000 BCE


Literally "high point of the city." The upper fortified part of a ancient Greek city, usually devoted to religious purposes.


In ancient Greece, public spaces where citizens debated, lectured, judged each other, planned military campaigns, socialized, and traded


The internal physical attributes about a place, including its absolute location, its spatial character and physical setting.


The focal point of ancient Roman life combining the functions of the ancient Greek acropolis and agora


the external locational attributes of a place; its relative location or regional position with reference of another nonlocal places

Trade Area

Region adjacent to every town and city within which its influence is dominant

Rank-sized Rule

In a model urban hierarchy, the idea that the population of a city or town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy

Central place theory


Sunbelt phenomenon

The movement of millions of Americans from northern and northeastern States to the South and Southwest regions of the US

Functional Zonation

The division of a city into different regions or zones for certain purposes of functions


Area of a city with a relatively uniform land use

Central Business District (CBD)

The downtown heart of a central city, the CBD is marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce and the clustering of the tallest buildings

Central City

The urban area that is not suburban; generally, the older or original city, having the clustering of the newer suburbs.


A subsidiary urban area surrounding and connected to the central city. Many are exclusively residential; others have their own commercial centers or shopping malls.


Movement of upper and middle-class people from urban core areas to the surrounding outskirts to escape pollution as well as deteriorating social conditions (perceived and actual). In North America, the process began in the early nineteenth century and became a mass phenomenon by the second half of the twentieth century.

Concentric zone model

A structural model of the American central city that suggests the existence of five concentric land-use rings arranged around a common center.

Edge cities

a term introduced by american journalist joel garreau in order to describe the shifting focus of urbanization in the united states away from the central business district (CBD) toward the loci of economic activity at the urban fringe (extensive amounts of office and retail space, frew residential areas, modern buildings, less than 30 years old)

Urban Realm

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, each focused on its own suburban downtown; the only exception is the shrunken central realm, which is focused on the Central Business District (CBD).

Griffin-Ford model

Developed by geographers Ernst Griffin and Larry Ford, a model of the Latin American city showing a blend of traditional elements of Latin American culture with the forces of globalization that are reshaping the urban scene.

Disamenity Sector

The very poorest parts of cities that in extreme cases are not even connected to regular city services and are controlled by gangs or drug lords.

McGee model

Developed by geographer T.G. McGee, a model showing similar land-use patterns among the medium-sized cities of Southeast Asia.



Zoning laws

Legal restrictions on land use that determine what types of building and economic activities are allowed to take place in certain areas. In the United States, areas are most commonly divided into separate zones of residential, retail, or industrial use.


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. The practice derived its name from the red lines depicted on cadastral maps used by real estate agents and developers. Today, redlining is officially illegal.


Rapid change in the racial composition of residential blocks in American cities that occurs when real estate agents and others stir up fears of neighborhood decline after encouraging people of color to move to previously white neighborhoods. In the resulting outmigration, real estate agents profit through the turnover of properties.


The transformation of an area of a city into an area attractive to residents and tourists alike in terms of economic activity.


The rehabilitation of deteriorated, often abandoned, housing of low-income inner-city residents.


Homes bought in many American suburbs with the intent of tearing them down and replacing them with much larger homes often referred to as McMansions.


Homes referred to as such because of their "super size" and similarity in appearance to other such homes; homes often built in place of tear-downs in American suburbs.

Urban Sprawl

Unrestricted growth in many American urban areas of housing, commercial development, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for urban planning.

new urbanism

Outlined by a group of architects, urban planners, and developers from over 20 countries, an urban design that calls for development, urban revitalization, and suburban reforms that create walkable neighborhoods with a diversity of housing and jobs.

gated communities

Restricted neighborhoods or subdivisions, often literally fenced in, where entry is limited to residents and their guests. Although predominantly high-income based, in North America gated communities are increasingly a middle-class phenomenon.

informal economy


world city

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.

Primate city

A country's largest city-ranking atop the urban hierarchy-most expressive of the national culture and usually (but not always) the capital as well.

Spaces of consumption

Areas of a city, the main purpose of which is to encourage people to consume goods and services' driven primarily by the global media industry.

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