Key Urban Geography and Planning Terminology

Essential Urban Geography Concepts

• Urban Area: A city periphery surrounded by a large built environment that is economically dependent on the central city.
• Rururban Area: A space of transition between the countryside and the town beyond the continuous built-up area on the urban outskirts. It features mixed land use and both rural and urban livelihoods.
• Metropolitan Area: An urban agglomeration formed and concentrated because of important city functions. It becomes the center or organizer of a large area comprising several adjacent municipalities.
• Historic Center (Casco Antiguo): The urbanized part of the city from its origin to the beginning of industrialization in the mid-nineteenth century. It occupies a small area of the city today but has great value because it contains the legacy of past cultures.
• City: An area of high-density urban population which is dominated mainly by manufacturing and services.
• Emplacement (Site): The specific space on which the city sits. It depends on topography and the function for which the city was created.
• Urban Expansion (Ensanche): A new space that meets the demands of urban growth based on bourgeois ideas of order, hygiene, and economic benefit.
• Urban Structure: The division of the city into areas with characteristic morphology and functions.
• Urban Activities: Socioeconomic activities performed by cities for the outside; services are not aimed solely at the inner city.
• Urban Influence Rank: This brings the whole union and order to the city based on the size and demographic features of the area's extension.

Urban Morphology and Planning

• Urban Morphology: The external aspect the city presents. It is influenced by site factors such as the situation, level of construction, and land use.
• Radiocentric Plan: Features a center with radial streets cut by others that form rings around the center; it can be regular or irregular.
• Orthogonal Plan: Formed by streets that intersect at right angles.
• Irregular Plan: Presents narrow, winding streets and shapeless squares.
• Urban Plan: A set of technical and policy instruments drawn up to order land use and regulate the conditions for its transformation or conservation.
• Urban Rehabilitation: The increment of the quality of structures.
• Urbanization Rate: The percentage of the urban population in relation to the total population.
• Suburban Term: An area close to the city in the urban fringe adjacent to the city that is part of it.
• Utopian Urbanists: Mainly socialists who tried to improve the living conditions of workers in industrial cities. For this purpose, they created districts endowed with green spaces and services, though most of these failed.
• Urbanization: The concentration of the population and the main economic activities and innovations in the city, which subsequently diffuse into their environment.