Urban Sustainability (College Board AP® Human Geography): Flashcards
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What are the main challenges to urban sustainability?
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What are the main challenges to urban sustainability?
The main challenges are suburban sprawl, sanitation, climate change, air and water quality, energy use, and the urban ecological footprint.
Define suburban sprawl.
Suburban sprawl is the process where urban development spreads into nearby undeveloped areas, characterized by single-family homes and low population density.
What are the results of suburban sprawl?
Suburban sprawl results in increased car dependency, loss of natural and conservation areas, and strains on infrastructure and services.
Define the urban ecological footprint.
The urban ecological footprint is the outsized consumption of resources by cities relative to their size, driven by high energy and water demand alongside large waste generation.
What are the main sanitation challenges in urban areas?
Sanitation challenges include aging infrastructure, pollution of water sources from untreated waste, spread of disease, and inadequate waste systems.
How can urban sanitation challenges be addressed?
They can be addressed through public health campaigns promoting improved sanitation and government investment in modern waste systems.
How does climate change impact urban areas?
Climate change increases extreme weather such as heatwaves, cold snaps, and severe storms, and raises sea levels that affect coastal cities.
Why can heatwaves and cold snaps threaten cities?
Heatwaves and cold snaps can overwhelm heating systems and energy grids, and high energy demand can lead to blackouts.
What sources negatively affect urban air quality?
Urban air quality is negatively affected by emissions and pollution from vehicles, industry, and construction.
How does urban runoff affect water quality?
Urban runoff carries chemicals and other pollutants into waterways, degrading water quality.
How do policies aim to address air and water quality challenges?
Policies mandate emissions standards and water conservation, and promote the preservation of green space in cities.
Why does urban energy use contribute to greenhouse gas emissions?
City energy for transportation, buildings, and industry is often produced from fossil fuels, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
What does sustainable urban design promote regarding energy?
Sustainable urban design promotes energy-efficient building materials and public transportation over private automobile use.
True or False?
Poor urban air quality affects all communities equally.
False.
Poor air quality often disproportionately affects low-income communities.
Areas created by suburban sprawl are characterized by single-family homes and population density.
Areas created by suburban sprawl are characterized by single-family homes and low population density.
Define brownfields.
Brownfields are abandoned or underutilized industrial or commercial sites in urban areas that may be contaminated by residual pollution.
What does brownfield redevelopment focus on?
Brownfield redevelopment focuses on making the land usable for new residential and commercial development.
What are the benefits of brownfield redevelopment?
Benefits of brownfield redevelopment include the reduction of urban blight and the revitalization of neighborhoods.
Define urban growth boundaries.
Urban growth boundaries are legal boundaries that aim to limit sprawl, decrease traffic congestion, and reverse the decline of inner-city neighborhoods.
How do urban growth boundaries aim to conserve rural land?
They prevent sprawl while encouraging higher-density development within urban areas to use the city core more efficiently.
Define regional planning efforts.
Regional planning efforts manage urban growth and resource use in a coordinated way across cities, suburbs, and rural areas.
What do regional planning efforts create to prevent urban sprawl?
They create higher-density urban areas focused on sustainable design initiatives, such as walkable, mixed-use commercial and residential neighborhoods.
How do regional planning efforts reduce car dependency?
Regional planning efforts attempt to integrate transportation systems across multiple areas.
Define farmland protection policies.
Farmland protection policies seek to preserve agricultural land from urban development.
What tools do farmland protection policies rely on?
They rely on zoning laws to prevent non-agricultural use of farmland and financial incentives for farmers to continue agricultural production.
What are the benefits of farmland protection policies?
Farmland protection policies reduce urban sprawl, preserve ecosystems, and provide for locally sourced food.
True or False?
Urban growth boundaries are designed to encourage low-density suburban expansion.
False.
Urban growth boundaries aim to limit sprawl and encourage higher-density development within the city.
Brownfields are abandoned or underutilized industrial or commercial sites that may be contaminated by residual .
Brownfields are abandoned or underutilized industrial or commercial sites that may be contaminated by residual pollution.
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