Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
STICS (Spatial Trends in Coastal Settlement)
: STICS are the result of a joint
initiative between the NOAA and the US Census Bureau. A geo-referenced database
was created and put online as a basis for the study of medium term socioeconomic
trends impacting the coastal regions of the United States. The project website is
available at: http://marineeconomics.noaa.gov/socioeconomics/.
Strip mining
: Open-pit mining is a technique commonly used in the United
States in fields where the minerals sought are near the surface. The term comes from
coal mining in the Appalachians (Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania), where
the extraction of coal seams creates landscapes of hills cut into long slices. This
mining is more economical than digging and shoring galleries, but is very damaging
to the environment. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977
endeavors to contain the problem by forcing concessions from the petitioners to
prepare an advance plan for financing the restoration of the environment after the
abandonment. Strip mining is practiced today in the northwest interior of the United
States (Idaho, Wyoming, Montana).
Suburb
: The concept of suburbs does not at all connote, as it does in France, a
notion of domination and relegation. On the contrary, suburbanites are generally
among the ruling classes of American society and suburban development is the most
common form of urban growth. It was only after the 1980s that the excessive and
disorderly expansion of the suburbs (urban sprawl) began to be criticized in
intellectual circles, especially among urban planners. The consensus among planners
however, has not so far changed the American preference for suburban living, which
is the principal form of housing in the United States, the suburban nation. While the
narrowness and mediocrity of the suburban lifestyle has been much maligned (i.e.,
the popular soap-opera
Desperate Housewives
), it is nonetheless clear that the
suburban lifestyle is the lifestyle of choice for new middle-class blacks and
Hispanics. At the time Levittown was built - 1947 - the suburban residential
development was uniformly residential. Today, developers deliver targeted
community projects which include shops and neighborhood services for specific
populations: seniors, young singles, families, minorities. Since the 1960s, there has
been a trend toward the privatization of public spaces through development of gated
communities with fencing and collective security.
Sun Belt
: Among the misnamed regional stereotypes in territorial US, the Sun
Belt is undoubtedly the most famous. The huge crescent-shaped area stretches from
Seattle on the Canadian border to Washington, DC, and includes the states bordering
the Pacific Ocean, the Southwestern desert states (Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico),
the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico and the southeastern states up to Maryland
(though Maryland's inclusion in the definition of Sun Belt is controversial). Coined
