EKs

• Site and situation influence the origin, function, and growth of cities
• Changes in transportation, communication, population growth, migration, economic development, and government policies influence urbanization
• Megacities and metacities are distinct spatial outcomes of urbanization increasingly located in countries of the periphery and semiperiphery
• Processes of suburbanization, sprawl, and decentralization have created new land-use forms, including edge cities, exurbs, and boomburbs, and new challenges
• World cities function at the top of the world’s urban hierarchy and drive globalization
• Cities are connected globally by networks and linkages and mediate global processes
• Principles useful for explaining the distribution and size of cities include rank-size rule, the primate city, gravity, and Christaller’s central place theory
• Models and theories useful for explaining internal structures of cities include the Burgess concentric-zone model, the Hoyt sector model, the Harris and Ullman multiple-nuclei model, the galactic city model, bid-rent theory, and urban models drawn from Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa
• Residential buildings and patterns of land use reflect and shape the city’s culture, technological capabilities, cycles of development, and infilling
• The location and quality of a city’s infrastructure directly affects its spatial patterns of economic and social development
• Sustainable design initiatives and zoning practices include mixed land use, walkability, transportation-oriented development, and smart-growth policies, including New Urbanism, greenbelts, and slow-growth cities
• Praise for urban design initiatives includes the reduction of sprawl, improved walkability and transportation, improved and diverse housing options, improved livability, and promotion of sustainable options
• Criticisms of urban design initiatives include increased housing costs, possible de facto segregation, and the potential loss of historical or place character
• Quantitative data from census and survey data provide information about changes in population composition and size in urban areas
• Qualitative data from field studies and narratives provide information about individual attitudes toward urban change
• As urban populations move within a city, economic and social challenges result, including issues related to housing and housing discrimination such as redlining, blockbusting, and affordability, access to services, rising crime, environmental injustice, and the growth of disamenity zones or zones of abandonment
• Squatter settlements and conflicts over land tenure within large cities have increased
• Responses to economic and social challenges in urban areas can include inclusionary zoning and local food movements
• Urban renewal and gentrification have both positive and negative consequences
• Functional and geographic fragmentation of governments present challenges in addressing urban issues
• Challenges to urban sustainability include suburban sprawl, sanitation, climate change, air and water quality, the large ecological footprint of cities, and energy use
• Responses to urban sustainability challenges can include regional planning efforts, remediation and redevelopment of brownfields, establishment of urban growth boundaries, and farmland protection policies