Essential Urban Geography Terms Defined
Metropolitan Area: Urban Complex Definition
A Metropolitan Area is an urban complex consisting of several related municipalities whose population exceeds 300,000 inhabitants. These areas function as a unified unit for real estate, labor, transportation, purchasing, and more.
Periurban Area: Rural-Urban Mix
The Periurban Area is the region immediately adjacent to cities, characterized by a mixture of rural and urban uses. It typically has a growing proportion of workers daily commuting to the central city.
Old Quarter: Historic Urban Core
The Old Quarter is an urban area occupied by the old pre-industrial city, which preserves historic buildings. It usually features an irregular or radiocentric plan.
Downtown: Metropolitan Core
Downtown refers to one of the sectors that divide a metropolitan area, comprising the old town or historic core and its oldest extensions.
Urban Setting: City's Physical Space
The Urban Setting is the physical space on which a city is situated, such as a plain, the coast, or a river meander.
Ensanche Urban: Planned City Extensions
Ensanche Urban refers to urban areas planned and erected in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, usually following a grid plan (checkerboard).
Urban Functions: City's Economic Role
Urban Functions are the economic sectors and activities dedicated to the population that predominantly lives in a city, especially in relation to other cities.
Concentrated Habitat: Rural Settlement Model
A Concentrated Habitat is a rural settlement model that features a dissociation of uses in space. All households and their outbuildings are adjacent, and the cultivated ground is situated around them.
Dispersed Habitat: Rural Settlement Pattern
A Dispersed Habitat is a rural settlement model in which the house is surrounded by farmland, forests, and meadows, either far away or at least non-contiguous to other houses, coupled with an intensive use of traditional land.
Urban Hierarchy: City Network Organization
Urban Hierarchy describes the organization of an urban network in relation to urban functions, with each core and the area of influence exerted by higher-order centers on minor ones.
Urban Periphery: City Outskirts & Suburbs
The Urban Periphery is any space surrounding a city or town, also commonly called the suburbs.
Checkerboard/Orthogonal Plane: Grid Layout
A Checkerboard or Orthogonal Plane is a city plan where streets intersect at right angles, forming a grid.
Radiocentric Plane: Concentric City Growth
A Radiocentric Plane is a city plan characterized by concentric rings. It is the result of urban growth when it occurs outwards from a central point in successive rings.
Urban Plan: Land Use Regulation
An Urban Plan is a set of technical and regulatory instruments drawn up to order land use, regulate conditions for its transformation or conservation, and prevent the multiplication of functional imbalances caused by spontaneous urbanization.
System of Cities: Interconnected Urban Centers
A System of Cities is an interrelated set of cities connected by different bonds (functional, economic, trade, etc.).