An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement, particularly a large urban settlement. Although there is no agreement on technical definitions distinguishing a city from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law. For example, an article of, towns A town is a settlement ranging from a few hundred to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition. Usually, a "town" is thought of as larger than a village but smaller than a "city", or conurbations A conurbation is an urban area or agglomeration comprising a number of cities, large towns and larger urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area. In most cases, a conurbation is a polycentric agglomeration, in which transportation has developed to, but the term is not commonly extended to rural Rural areas are large and isolated areas of a country, often with low population density settlements such as villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a town or city. Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in Beirut, Lebanon. Villages are normally permanent, and hamlets A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. The name comes from Anglo-Norman hamelete; Old French hamelet, the diminutive of OF hamel of Germanic origin, cognate with Dutch heem, German Heim, Old English hām and Modern English home, all.
Urban areas are created and further developed by the process of urbanization Urbanization is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. Urbanization is also defined by the United Nations as movement of people from rural to urban areas with population growth equating to urban migration. The United Nations has projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008. Measuring the extent of an urban area helps in analyzing population density Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans. It is a key geographic term and urban sprawl Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density, auto-dependent development on rural land, with associated design features that encourage car dependency. As a result, some critics argue that sprawl has certain disadvantages,, and in determining urban and rural populations (Cubillas 2007).
Unlike an urban area, a metropolitan area A metropolitan area is a large population center consisting of a large metropolis and its adjacent zone of influence, or of more than one closely adjoining neighboring central cities and their zone of influence. One or more large cities may serve as its hub or hubs, and the metropolitan area is normally named after either the largest or most includes not only the urban area, but also satellite A satellite town or satellite city is a concept in urban planning that refers essentially to miniature metropolitan areas on the fringe of larger ones cities plus intervening rural Rural areas are large and isolated areas of a country, often with low population density land that is socio-economically connected to the urban core city, typically by employment Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as: "A person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct the employee in the material details of how ties through commuting Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study. Institutions that have few dormitories or near-campus student housing are called commuter schools in the United States, with the urban core city being the primary labor market. In fact, urbanized areas agglomerate and grow as the core population/economic activity center within a larger metropolitan area or envelope.
Metropolitan areas tend to be defined using counties or county sized political units as building blocks. Counties tend to be stable political boundaries; economists prefer to work with economic and social statistics based on metropolitan areas. Urbanized areas are a more relevant statistic for determining per capita land usage and densities (Dumlao & Felizmenio 1976).
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Hamilton Spectator
Currently, some rural areas are using services for which they aren't being taxed and urban areas are picking up the tab. "We preserved a certain type of ...
