Urban Features

Question 1

Urbanisation

Answer 1

Increase in the amount of people living in urban areas

Question 2

Rural-urban migration

Answer 2

Movement of people from countryside into towns and cities

Question 3

Squatter settlement/ shanty town

Answer 3

Is a settlement of improvised housing which is known as shanties or shacks, made of plywood, corrugated metal, sheets of plastic and cardboard boxes. It is unregulated and usually on the outskirts of a city or on land that no one else wants/uses

Question 4

Agglomeration

Answer 4

A built up area of a city region. The centre and the suburbs all as one

Question 5

Internal growth

Answer 5

Growth within the city resulting from births in resident population rather than migration

Question 6

Functions

Answer 6

A role performed by a city such as administration or related to a sphere of activity

Question 7

Services

Answer 7

Basic services which residents of a city expect the city government to provide in exchange for the taxes which citizens pay

Question 8

Urban belt

Answer 8

An area of land which has become more urban in character

Question 9

Advanced countries (ACs)

Answer 9

Acs are classified by the IMF and have important economic development characteristics including well developed financial markets, diverse economic structures and rapidly growing service sectors.

Question 10

Emerging and developing countries (EDCs)

Answer 10

EDCs are classified by the IMF, they neither share all the economic development characteristics required to be and AC or are eligible from the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust from the IMF

Question 11

Low income developing countries (LIDCs)

Answer 11

LIDC’s are classified by the IMF, countries which are eligible for the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust from the IMF

Question 12

Megacities

Answer 12

Cities with a population over 10 million

Question 13

Metacities

Answer 13

Cities with a population over 20 million

Question 14

World city

Answer 14

They are an important hub in the global economic system. A city that has an influence over the whole world. World cities are centres for trade and business. Lots of people and goods from international destinations pass through them. They also tend to be hubs of culture and science, with international media centres and international businesses (such as Nike)

Question 15

Pull factors

Answer 15

A positive factor that attracts people to an area

Question 16

Push factors

Answer 16

A negative factor that results in the movement of people away from an area

Question 17

Informal sector

Answer 17

Refers to jobs that don’t offer regular contracted hours, salary, pensions or other features of formal employment. May refer to illegal or unlicensed activity.

Question 18

Suburbanisation

Answer 18

A change in the nature of rural areas such that they are to resemble the suburbs. When people move from the inner city to the outskirts

Question 19

Conurbations

Answer 19

A large agglomeration that results from several cities merging over time, forming a continuous urban area

Question 20

Counter-urbanisation

Answer 20

Movement of people from urban to rural areas