- sustainable development
- development that occurs without depleting or damaging the natural environment
- asylum-seekers
- those whose claim to refugee status have not been validated
- cancer cluster
- a geographic area with high levels of cancer within its population
- carrying capacity
- the amount of people that can live in a given area considering the amount of available resources
- climate change
- long-term shifts in temperature and climate due to human activity
- concentric zone model
- a model of human ecology that views cities as a series of circular rings or zones
- cornucopian theory
- a theory that asserts human ingenuity will rise to the challenge of providing adequate resources for a growing population
- demographic transition theory
- a theory that describes four stages of population growth, following patterns that connect birth and death rates with stages of industrial development
- demography
- the study of population
- e-waste
- the disposal of broken, obsolete, and worn-out electronics
- environmental racism
- the burdening of economically and socially disadvantaged communities with a disproportionate share of environmental hazards
- environmental sociology
- the sociological subfield that addresses the relationship between humans and the environment
- exurbs
- communities that arise farther out than the suburbs and are typically populated by residents of high socioeconomic status
- fertility rate
- a measure noting the actual number of children born
- fracking
- hydraulic fracturing, a method used to recover gas and oil from shale by drilling down into the earth and directing a high-pressure mixture of water, sand, and proprietary chemicals into the rock
- gentrification
- the entry of upper- and middle-class residents to city areas or communities that have been historically less affluent
- human ecology
- a functional perspective that looks at the relationship between people and their built and natural environment
- internally displaced person
- someone who fled his or her home while remaining inside the country’s borders
- Malthusian theory
- a theory asserting that population is controlled through positive checks (war, famine, disease) and preventive checks (measures to reduce fertility)
- megalopolis
- a large urban corridor that encompasses several cities and their surrounding suburbs and exurbs
- metropolis
- the area that includes a city and its suburbs and exurbs
- mortality rate
- a measure of the number of people in a population who die
- NIMBY
- “Not In My Back Yard,” the tendency of people to protest poor environmental practices when those practices will affect them directly
- pollution
- the introduction of contaminants into an environment at levels that are damaging
- population composition
- a snapshot of the demographic profile of a population based on fertility, mortality, and migration rates
- population pyramid
- a graphic representation that depicts population distribution according to age and sex
- refugee
- an individual who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster
- sex ratio
- the ratio of men to women in a given population
- suburbs
- the communities surrounding cities, typically close enough for a daily commute
- urban sociology
- the subfield of sociology that focuses on the study of urbanization
- urbanization
- the study of the social, political, and economic relationships of cities
- white flight
- the migration of economically secure white people from racially mixed urban areas toward the suburbs
- zero population growth
- a theoretical goal in which the number of people entering a population through birth or immigration is equal to the number of people leaving it via death or emigration