Urban models
Vocabulary
Suburbs & Sprawl
CBD & land use
Gentrification & Housing
100

This model describes a city growing outward in rings.

What is the Concentric Zone Model?

100

The area of a city where retail and business are concentrated.

What is the CBD (Central Business District)?

100

The movement of people from cities to suburbs.

What is suburbanization?

100

Tall buildings and skyscrapers are most commonly found here.

What is the CBD?

100

When wealthier people move into a poor neighborhood and raise property values.

What is gentrification?

200

This model says cities develop in wedges along transportation routes.

What is the Sector Model?

200

A city’s total population and land area.

What is urbanized area?

200

Low-density development spreading outward from the city.

What is urban sprawl?

200

This term describes the outer boundary of a city’s built-up area.

What is the urban fringe?

200

Government-created housing for low-income residents.

What is public housing?

300

This model says cities have multiple centers instead of one CBD.

What is the Multiple Nuclei Model?

300

The number of people per unit of land.

What is density?

300

A suburb outside a city where many residents commute into the city for work. 

What is a commuter zone?

300

Factories and industrial areas are often located here because land is cheaper.

What is the urban periphery?

300

A group of people without permanent housing.

Who are the homeless?

400

This model describes Latin American cities with a wealthy spine and squatter settlements on the edge.  

What is the Latin American City Model?

400

The spread of cities and towns into nearby rural areas.
 

What is urbanization?

400

This is when wealthy residents move back into the city from the suburbs.
 

What is reurbanization?

400

This is the zone of transition where factories and poorer housing are often found.
 

What is the inner city?

400

When poor people are forced to leave due to rising rent and property values.
 

What is displacement?

500

This city model includes a central market, elite sector, and peripheral squatter settlements, often seen in Africa.
 

What is the African City Model?

500

A city’s legally defined boundary that may include suburbs.
 

What is the city proper?

500

Areas outside cities that still have urban characteristics, like malls and subdivisions.

What is the urban fringe?

500

This term describes areas with offices and businesses outside the downtown core.
 

What are edge cities?

500

Housing built illegally on land not owned by residents, common in developing countries.
 

What is squatter settlement?