Geography Chapter 7-9

What are cities

• Has a large population size (compared to other parts of the country, have many ppl living and working in the city)

• High population density (No. of people/land area)

• Are built-up areas (Land surface is mostly covered by buildings, extensive infrastructure)

• Have a range of functions → administrative, commercial and educational (Eg. Jakarta, Indonesia 🇮🇩)

Relationship between rural areas and cities (reliance)

Rural areas: rely on cities for amenities eg. More advanced medical care/service, or goods found only in cities)

Cities: rely on rural areas for food supply (rural areas: ✅ space for agriculture) → exchange food for money, becomes the rural farmers income

Relationship between rural areas and cities (migration)

• Rural-urban migration

→ migrants from rural areas move to the town/city

→ due to a combination of reasons:

push factor - reasons migrants want to leave their place of origin (eg. Tough life on the farm etc.)

pull - reasons that attract migrants towards a destination eg. the city

Opportunities in the city

• more educational and employment

→ many educational institutes to cater to many ppl’s interests → enable ppl with many skills, and they can apply them in their jobs

→ businesses: they thrive because the city has lots of services and developed infrastructure. there’s also a large pool of talented skilled employees (work-study arrangement)

• technological innovation

→ the use of scientific knowledge to create new products or services

→ because there are many skilled people living in the city like researchers, designers and entrepreneurs. (Eg. Singapore addresses its urban heat challenge by building sheltered walkways and bus stops, having more public transport, vegetation on roofs, light coloured building and more water bodies)

Challenges in the city

• Large amounts of fossil fuels are consumed in the cities due to high concentration of people, businesses and transport networks

• increased environmental pollution

→ water pollution - improper management of industrial or household waste, disposed directly or leaked into waterway, pollute the water, water quality is reduced → affects aquatic life and humans

→ air pollution - use of coal to generate electricity, jug volume of traffic and emissions from factories - prolonged exposure to air pollution may cause heart disease, lung cancer etc. (especially dangerous for children, the elderly the pregnant, those who work outside, poor health = increased demand in healthcare services

• Competition (high demand, limited amount) for resources

→ water: needed to meet the needs of the people and businesses. However, there’s a limited water supply bcos of construction of more infrastructure, which limits the building/expansion of reservoirs & less growing water due to natural vegetation converted to concrete surfaces

→ example: Cape Town, South Africa - turned off water taps in homes and business bcos the water lvl in the reservoir had dropped to dangerously low lvls (due to high population growth, ppl’s consumption and prolonged droughts)

→ land: needed to accommodate the growing population = expand to rural areas and may replace forests, farmlands etc/places may be rebuilt and ppl will have to move, may cause those relocated to be unhappy

Environmental management of cities

• physical environment

→ regulate the use and naturals resources and minimise the negative impact from human activities

→ example: reducing water pollution through water treatment ponds in Kranji Reservoir; farms have set up drain around their farm plots and water treatment ponds to channel and collect rainwater and excessive nutrients → reduces water pollution in the reservoir

→ laws, example: China, Tianjin, Beijing and Hebei - adopted the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (government regulated the ppl’s actions and industrial activities), have car plate lotteries (to minimise no. of cars on the road)

• hazard management

→ human induced hazards (eg. ignoring safety regulations or warnings - fire, oil spills and industrial accidents)

→ natural hazards - physical environment (eg, earthquake, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions)

→ hazards can cause damage to ppl and their properties (if not managed properly, may result in injuries or even deaths

→ use of better quality materials: buildings to be able to withstand the threat of hazards

→ example: Japan, world leader ind eg shining and building earthquake resistant buildings (leaf red from previous disasters and invested in resources to build better structures)

→ land use planning: decides how land resources are used (transport, housing and recreation) planning agencies will disallow some uses of these uses and intrusion in unsafe locations to prevent hazards form occurring

Improving quality of life in the cities

• Quality of life:

• safe housing

→ shelter from the weather elements

→ is a basic human need

→ Example: SG in the past faced a housing shortage due to a growing population. Hence HDB was set up to build affordable public housing for the masses

→ if there is insufficient or unaffordable housing, ppl may resort to building their homes illegally (squatter settlements)

• variety of transportation modes 🚌 🚊

→ travel around the city more easily and more affordably

→ reduces traffic congestion

→ less environmental pollution (bcos there’s less cars)

• considering the needs of different grps

→ elderly and disabled

→ example: tactile warnings on the 2 sides of the traffic crossing to Adi the visually impaired and elderly pedestrians

Formal housing

• built by government or private developers (HDB [government] or private businesses)

• Homeowners have a legal right to occupy the land (ability of individuals to freely obtain, use and posses the land - provides security and increases human capabilities, without these rights, people may feel less secure about their homes)

• Access to basic services (easy access to water, electricity and sanction services)

High quality building materials (concrete, metal, hardwood - can withstand elements such as heavy rain and strong winds, in SG buildings must be approved by the Building and Construction Authority [BCA])

Informal housing

• Squatter (settlements)

• Made of poor quality materials (scavenged materials like zinc sheets and recycled lumber - houses are at a risk of collapsing being flooded on rainy days, or catching fire easily)

• No legal right to occupy the land (built on any available plot of land due to necessity - usually occupies government or private property that is undeveloped or unsecured)

• Lack of access to basic services (Bukit in areas not meant for housing = lack access to electricity, water and sanitation; residents have to illegally tap onto nearby siphoning water from nearby pipes and disposing of sanitary waste until the ground or nearby waters → increase risk of injury and ill-health due to electrocution, consumption of contaminated water and water-borne diseases)

Where are diff types of housing found

• formal housing: found on desirable land (near greenery, away from pollution, with quality infrastructure like roads, piped water, electricity and proper waste disposal)

• informal housing: found in area of locally-unwanted land-use(near landfills, sewage treatment plants and large polluting industries)

the factors affecting the location of housing (formal)

• land use planning (depends on where planning authorities permit the building of houses)

• Developers (private developers: to make profit, hence they pick sites that are most commercially viable, while housing built by government considers the ppl’s needs more then profit)

• Land prices (too high = no one buy, hence given to has to regulate land prices to prevent this from happening, and informal housing to spring up)

• housing financial support (lower the cost of building homes = developers may consider building more houses; which prevents a shining shortage. Such financial schemes allow many ppl to have formal housing, instead of resorting to informal housing settlements)

How does housing affect the environment?

• use of a variety of natural resources

→ resources are used for building homes, making tools, fuel for cooking and warmth

→ wood to make furniture is extracted from forests, steel to reinforce shores is extracted from mines, and natural gases are burned to have electricity to power appliances

→ cities also use about 540 billion litres of water a day - ¼ cities is water stressed due to geographical and financial limitations

→ thus cities have a wide-ranging impact on their he natural environment

• environmental pollution

→ land pollution: soil contamination from garbage and industrial waste, and from mining and other forms of industry (can lead to long-term damage to the land, making it unsafe to build houses)

→ example: untied sates of America generated 258 million metric tonnes of waste in 2017

→ example: land scarce Singapore incinerates its waste and dumps at the Semakau Landfill

→ water pollution: surface run-off from the streets carrying oil, rubber, heavy metals and other contaminants from vehicles can be washed into water bodies, contaminating them, untreated/poorly treated waste discharge dumped into water bodies, leakage of fuel from, storage tanks into water bodies, agrochemicals from agriculture washed into water bodies, direct defecating into the water body near slums, direct washing at water bodies

→ air pollution: burning of fossil fuels for energy polluting the air - Major environmental risk to health

→ air pollution can be reduced by a combination of efforts: increasing public transport ridership, encouraging increase use of solar power etc. (many respiratory illnesses such as asthma can be avoided)

• concentration is a key factor in pollution (by concentrating ppl in a particular area, the waste created by them is also concentrated)

• Example: New York City, United States of America has the lowest environmental footprint beacuse ppl there have smaller homes and make greater use of public transport

Formal housing amenities and communities

• basic needs

• Presence of amenities

→

• presence of communities

How can housing be sustainable managed? (Land use planning)

• land use planning

How can housing be sustainable managed? (Inclusive public housing)

• provision of inclusive public housing

→ big and small houses for various-sized families (eg. multigenerational)

How can housing be sustainable managed? (Environmental features)

How can housing be sustainable managed? (Improvement to the conditions of slums)

Examples for water pollution 🇮🇩

• Jakarta, Indonesia faces major water pollution due to improper disposal of industrial waste in its water sources ; such as the Citarum River which contains dangerously high levels of mercury

Examples for air pollution 🇮🇩

• Jakarta, Indonesia, where its rapid urban growth and high vehicular leads to poor air quality. It ranks 10th in the Most Environmentally Vulnerable city due to its high Air Quality Index of 127

Example for less educational and employment opportunities in rural areas

• in many rural areas of India 🇮🇳, its literary and employment rates are very low

• Eg. bihar, India: its rural literacy rate is approximately 71.6% which is lower than its urban rate of 82.7%

• And only about 7.7% of Bihar’s rural workers have stable, salaried jobs compared to over 30% in urban areas