Cities - Chp 18 ENSC

urban agglomerations

mergers of multiple municipalities

rural areas

most residents depend on natural resources for their livelihood

urban areas

most ppl are not directly dependent on natural resource-based occupations

City

has a large enough resource base to allow residents to specialize in arts, crafts, services, or professions other than resource-based occupations

US Census Bureau considers any incorporated community a city, & any city w/ more than 2,500 residents as urban

Village

a collection of rural households linked by culture, customs, family ties, & association w/ the land

core regions

As urban areas merge into nearly continuous megacities, some geographers have begun to refer to them as urbanized ___

Natural Increase

Fueled by improved food supplies & better sanitation

Immigration

caused by push factors forcing ppl out of the country, & pull factors drawing them into cities

Immigration Push Factors

• Overpopulation in Countryside

• Economics

• Racial or Religious Conflicts

• Land Ownership by a wealthy elite

• Changes in Agriculture

  • Large Monoculture Farms

Immigration Pull Factors

• Excitement & Vitality of Cities

• Jobs

• Housing Entertainment

• Social Mobility & Power

• Specialization of Professions

Traffic & Congestion

the number of vehicles in many urban areas is growing faster than the pace of road construction

Air Pollution

poorly maintained vehicles, smokestacks from factories, & wood or coal fires for cooking or heating work together to create poor air quality in supercities. Inadequate regulations & weak leadership also contribute to the problem

Sewer Systems & Water Pollution

• Only 35% of urban residents in developing world have satisfactory sanitation

• One third do not have safe drinking water

Uncontrollable Growth

• Traffic & Congestion

• Air Pollution

• Sewer Systems & Water Pollution

slums

legal but inadequate multifamily tenements

shantytowns

settlements created when ppl build their own shacks on the outskirts of cities

squatter towns

Sometimes ppl simply occupy land that they neither own nor rent, creating ___ which can have thousands

Current World Problems

• Housing

• The Developed World

Urban Sprawl

In most American metropolitan areas, the bulk of new housing is in large, tract developments that leapfrog beyond city edges in search of inexpensive land

Smart Growth

____ makes efficient & effective use of land resources & existing infrastructure

• Minimizes wasted space & money

• Makes land-use planning democratic 

• Mixes land uses

• Encourages diversity

• Preserves natural spaces

New Towns

numerous experiments to try & combine best features of rural village & modern city

Ebenezer Howard (1898)

proposed congestion of London could be relieved by moving whole neighborhoods into garden cities separated from the central city by a greenbelt of forest & fields

greenfield

New urbanism has often been ___ development, building on farmland or forest

Green urbanism

redevelops existing cities to be ecologically sound

• Focus on in-fill & brownfield development

• Build high density, low-rise, mixed income housing near city centers

• Provide incentives for alternative transportation 

• Encourage ecological building techniques

• Encourages co-housing, groups of houses around a common green space

• Provide recycling facilities 

• Invite public participation in decision-making

Conservation Development (cluster development)

preserves at least half of a subdivision as natural areas, farmland, or other forms of open space

Open Space Design

• Ppl want view of interesting landscape w/ wildlife & walking paths

• By clustering homes, a conservation subdivision can have same number of lots, but more open space

• Promotes community

New Urbanism

• Recapture small town feel in big city

• Organize city into modules of 30,000 to 50,000 ppl

• Determine in advance where development will take place

• Locate everyday services more conveniently

• Increase jobs in a community by locating offices & commercial centers near suburbs

• Encourage walking & low-speed vehicles 

• Promote diversity in housing designs

• Create housing “superblocks”

The Developed World

• Rapid Growth of cities that accompanied industrialization has mostly slowed or reversed

  • Many of the environmental problems have been reduced

  • Automobiles & computers enable workers to live outside cities

  • Many of major polluters have moved to developing countries

  • In US businesses have moved to the west & south