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FrançaisUnit 6: Cities and Urban Land-Use
Eleven lessons covering all College Board CED topics for AP Human Geography Unit 6. Site and situation, megacities and metacities, world cities and globalization, central place theory, six internal-structure models, density and infrastructure, sustainability, gentrification, redlining, squatter settlements, and urban data.
The 11 lessons in order
The Origin and Influences of Urbanization
Site and situation as drivers of city origin, function, and growth. Transportation, communication, population, migration, economic development, and government policies influencing urbanization.
Cities Across the World
Megacities and metacities as distinct spatial outcomes of urbanization. Suburbanization, sprawl, decentralization, edge cities, exurbs, and boomburbs.
Cities and Globalization
World cities at the top of the world's urban hierarchy drive globalization. Cities connected globally by networks and linkages mediating global processes.
The Size and Distribution of Cities
Rank-size rule, primate city, gravity model, and Christaller's central place theory as principles for explaining the distribution and size of cities.
The Internal Structure of Cities
Burgess concentric-zone, Hoyt sector, Harris and Ullman multiple-nuclei, galactic city, bid-rent; Latin American, Southeast Asian, and African urban models.
Density and Land Use
Low-, medium-, and high-density housing representing different patterns of residential land use. Residential buildings and patterns of land use reflect culture, technology, cycles of development, and infilling.
Infrastructure
Location and quality of a city's infrastructure directly affects its spatial patterns of economic and social development; links to local politics, society, and environment.
Urban Sustainability
Sustainable design initiatives and zoning practices (mixed land use, walkability, transportation-oriented development, smart-growth policies, New Urbanism, greenbelts) with praise and criticisms.
Urban Data
Quantitative census and survey data showing urban population changes. Qualitative data from field studies and narratives showing individual attitudes toward urban change.
Challenges of Urban Changes
Redlining, blockbusting, housing affordability, environmental injustice, disamenity zones, squatter settlements, land tenure conflicts, inclusionary zoning, gentrification, and fragmented urban governance.
Challenges of Urban Sustainability
Suburban sprawl, sanitation, climate change, air and water quality, ecological footprint, energy use; regional planning, brownfield remediation, urban growth boundaries, and farmland protection.