Economic Concepts and Urban Planning Essentials

Consumer Goods Industry

Industries that provide any consumer good directly to consumers. These goods satisfy human needs, such as cars, pencils, or televisions.

Capital Goods Industry

Industries that use primary materials to produce machinery, tools, and industrial equipment for other industries. This includes construction, mechanical processing, and manufacturing machinery.

Monopoly

A market where there is only one producer for a specific product or service. This product has no substitute, making it the only alternative for consumers.

Multinational

A company or industry with interests and activities in multiple countries.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The difference between goods produced inside and outside a country. It does not include national capital produced abroad but includes foreign capital produced within the country.

Gross National Product (GNP)

A measure used in economics to calculate the economic volume of a territory. It includes all goods and services produced by residents of a country during a specific period, usually a year.

Industrial Reconversion

A policy aimed at ending industrial crises. Companies in crisis undergo workforce reductions, production adjustments, and economic restructuring. Affected regions must reorganize their industrial fabric. Spain experienced significant reconversion in the metallurgical sector in the 1980s.

Life Expectancy

The number of years a person is expected to live, calculated from the average age of deaths in each age group. Life expectancy varies by country, year, and sex. It is generally lower in less developed countries.

Active Population

People aged 16 or older who provide labor to produce goods or services and are available for work.

Fertility Rate

The number of live births per thousand women of childbearing age (15-49 years). Calculated by multiplying births in a year by 1000 and dividing by the number of women aged 15-49.

Infant Mortality Rate

The number of child deaths before the age of one year per thousand live births. Calculated by dividing child deaths in a year by live births and multiplying by 1000.

Metropolitan Area

An urban region including a central city and surrounding satellite cities that function as residential, industrial, or commercial areas due to conurbation.

Dormitory Town

An urban community primarily residential, where people commute to work in a nearby town.

Linear City

Designed by Arturo Soria y Mata, a garden city with linear transport. It proposed uniting two cities with a long urban strip along railways, with services and community buildings at regular intervals.

Urban Conurbation

The phenomenon where two independent cities merge physically due to growth, common in metropolitan areas.

Suburb

A neighborhood or community sector on the periphery of a city with sufficient industries and services.

Protected Housing

Housing for households with limited income, typically with a maximum size of 90 square meters, promoted by the state.

Commuting

Regular population displacement between residence and work, often between the periphery and inner cities.

Rural Exodus

Migration from rural to urban areas, significant in Spain during the 20th century.

Radiocentric Plan

A city plan with a central space around which streets form a network extending to the periphery, intersected by concentric streets. The historic center is clearly defined.