Chapter 9: An urban world

what is urban geography and its two main approaches

• long standing focus in human geography; research sub discipline since early 1800s

1. systems of cities: spatial distribution and interaction patterns that connect urban areas

2. cities as systems: human patterns and interactions within cities/urban areas; internal structure of cities

explain the evolution of an urbanizing world

• 12,000 years ago, villages emerged with early farming in resource rich areas around the globe

• 3,500 years ago, see first large permanent settlement (recognized as cities)

• large population concentrations supported by advances in farming, trade networks

• specialization in occupations; political and social hierarchies develop

• 2007 - world’s urban population exceeds rural for first time

how was urbanization increased

with industrialization; rapid and recent

explain the levels of urbanization in 1800, 1900 and 2016

• 1800: 3% world population lived in cities

• 1900: 14% 16 cities populations > 1 million

• 2016: 54% world population in cities and 500 cities with populations > 1 million

• UN predicts 2/3 - 67% of world population will be urban by 2050

what is a city

refers to a self governing political entity

• legally defined municipality with locally elected government - makes decisions re:taxes and essential services such as policing, waste disposal

• greater size and importance than town or village

• fixed boundaries

what are the suburbs

may or may not be legally part of a city

• residential use predominant; some economic or socio cultural homogeneity

• on city periphery; with time and growth may become annexed to city

what is a metropolitan area

• 2 or more incorporated urban municipalities plus intervening and interconnected rural areas

• ‘golden horseshoe’ from oshawa through toronto to st catherines = 22% canadian population - other areas are lower mainland bc, calgary to edmonton corridor

what are the CMAs

census metropolitan area

• large urban core area (>100,000 population) with adjacent urban and rural ‘fringe’ areas highly integrated with core

• census geography used in urban based research 

how many CMAs at the 2021 national census

71.9% or 31.2mill of canadian population

what is the donut effect

CMA core cities characterized by slow/no growth in recent years

• surrounding small towns, rural suburbs have faster growth, development

• core cities: aging infrastructure, congestion, outcompeted e.g., land costs

• new residents attracted often by lower taxes, housing prices, small town lifestyle

what has accelerated the donut effect

work from home trend accelerated by covid experience further drives this urban phenomenon

what is the central place theory

theoretical explanation (generalization) for the distribution of different sized communities/urban centres or ‘central places’ across space

developed by german geographer walter christaller (1996)

what is the hierarchy of central places based on

types and diversity of their economic, political and social functions

what did christaller observe to develop his theory

observed different (population) sized urban centres in southern germany (large number of small communities and few larger communities)

give examples of goods or services or economic functions that many small hamlets and villages have

a gas station, a small store or restaurant, a small church or library

• low order goods and services

give examples of goods and services and economic functions that few larger urban centres have

car dealerships, medical specialists and hospitals, universities, accountants and lawyers, government offices

• high order goods and services

what is a central place

urban centres providing economic functions for a surrounding population; eg., retail, leisure, health care, education

what is a hinterland

a market area around a central place; spatial area from which goods and services providers draw their customers

what does the size of hinterlands depend on 

size depends on diversity and number of goods and services provided. the bigger the population, the more CP provides and the larger its market area

what is range

the maximum distance that people are prepared to travel to obtain a particular good or service

what is threshold of a good or service

the minimum number of people required to support existence of an economic function

what are low order goods and services

milk, your morning coffee, gasoline = low range and low threshold

what are high order goods and services

purchasing a new car, flying internationally, visiting the dermatologist = high/very high range and threshold

what is spatial competition

central places compete for customers

what do major cities provide

they provide all functions found in smaller towns and villages and more exclusive high order functions not available

• e.g., luxury goods, government services, specialized media and technology

what is the rank-size distribution

enables numeric comparisons within and between urban systems

the population of an urban centre is inversely proportional to its population rank

• 2nd rank city should be ½ the size of the largest

what is a primate city

the largest city in an urban system, usually the capital, which dominates its political, economic, and social life; a city that is more than twice the size of the next largest city in the system