Chapter 15 APG

15.1: The Origin and Influences of Urbanization (Pg. 403 - 406)

Ecumene

• Ecumene: The permanently inhabited portion of the earth’s surface 

  • Urban areas 

  • Suburbs 

  • Rural areas

Urbanization

• Urbanization: The ongoing process of developing towns and cities 

  • Sped up rapidly in the 20th century 

  • Creates new problems and opportunities 

Urban Hearths 

• Earliest cities generally located in river valleys that experience seasonal flooding and had fertile soil, leading to the creation of an agricultural surplus 

The First Settlements 

• Settlement: A place with a permanent human population.

  • First settlements established 12000 years ago when people learned how to domesticate plants and animals 

• The first agricultural settlements developed characteristics that made them the first true urban settlements

  • Agricultural surplus that allowed increasing numbers of people to live in the same place

  • Rise of social stratification and creation of an elite leadership class (emerged to control surplus)

  • Beginning of job specialization occurred since not everyone was needed to produce food 

Expansion of Cities 

• Percent Urban: Proportion of a population that lives in cities as compared to rural areas 

  • More than 50% of world’s population lives in cities today 

Drivers of Urbanization

• Population growth 

• Economic development (Industrialization)

• Migration (For jobs, opportunities, amenities, etc.)

• Government policies (Better security, provision of services)

• Changes in transportation (Modes, infrastructure)

Describing Cities 

• City: A palace where there is a relative concentration of people 

  • The number of people required for a place to be considered a city caries a country (In the US, 10,000+) 

Metropolitan Area

• Metropolitan Area: A city and adjacent areas across which population density is high and continuous.\

15.2: Factors that Influence Urban Growth (Pg. 407 - 411)

Ecumene

• Ecumene: The permanently inhabited portion of the earth’s surface 

  • Urban areas 

  • Suburbs 

  • Rural areas

Expansion of Cities 

• Percent Urban: Proportion of a population that lives in cities as compared to rural areas 

  • More than 50% of the world’s population lives in cities today 

Borchert’s Model of Urban Growth 

• Borchert’s Model of Urban Growth: A model developed by geographer John Borchert that describes urban growth based on transportation technology.

  • Suggested new form of technology produced a new transportation system that changed how people moved in and between urban areas 

  • Divided urban history into four periods, called “epochs” 

    • Each epoch has Amazon effects on the size, density, and spatial arrangement of cities 

Suburbanization

• Suburbanization: The process of people moving, usually from the cities, to residential areas on the outskirts of cities

  • Communities are connected to cities for jobs and services 

  • Often less densely populated and less ethnically diverse than cities 

Boomburbs 

• Boomburb: Large (100,000+ residents) fast-growing suburbs 

  • Maintain suburban characteristics and do not have own economic centers 

  • Mostly found in the sunbelt region of the United States

Edge Cities 

• Edge City: A suburb that grows to the point that it develops its own economic core and can exist independently of the city it borders 

  • Often found at intersections of major transport routes 

Counter-Urbanization

• Counter-Urbanization: When people move from urban areas to rural areas

  • Reaction to inner city conditions, pricing, and overcrowding

  • Growth in popularity with the advent of telecommuting 

Exurbs 

• Exurbs: Wealthy commuter communities located beyond the suburbs 

  • Motivated by cheaper property costs, more privacy, etc. 

Urban Sprawl

• Urban Sprawl: Urban areas that expand in an unplanned and uncontrolled way covering large expanses of land in housing, commercial development, and roads

  • Infill: Redevelopment that identifies and envelopes vacant parcels of all within previously built areas 

    • Helps to counter sprawl because it focuses on areas already served by transportation and other public infrastructure

15.3: The Size and Distribution of Cities (Pg. 412 - 415)

Gravity Model

• Used to predict the level of interaction between places 

• Places that are larger & closer together will have more interaction (flow of people, goods) than places that are smaller & farther away from each other

• Criticism: Interactions between cities are complicated by factors beyond size and distance

  • Tourist destinations, religious sites, government centers

Rank-Size Rule

• The population of a city or town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the urban hierarchy

  • The second-largest city will be ½ the population of the first-largest city

  • The third-largest city will be ⅓ the population of the first-largest city

  • The fourth-largest city will have ¼ the population of the first-largest city

• More common in developed countries

  • US, Canada, Australia, Germany, etc.

Primate Cities Rule

• If the largest city in an urban system is more than twice as large as the next largest city, the largest city is said to have primacy or be a “primate city”

  • Often found in less developed countries, countries                   that  have unitary governments, countries with agriculture-based economies, and/or a recent                    colonial history  

  • Center of finance, politics, and culture

  • Usually the capital city, but not always

• Advantages: centers of influence attract immigrants, international companies, and foreign investment

• Disadvantages: can have a parasitic effect (Sucking natural resources, funds, the population from other areas) causing uneven development; can become the center of pollution & crime

Rank Size Rule vs Primate Cities 

Central Place Theory

• Proposed by German geographer Walter Christaller 1933 

  • Noticed towns of certain sizes were equidistant in the flat landscape of southern Germany 

• A model that explains the size and spacing of centers that specialize in different goods and services

Assumptions

• Area is an isotropic plain

• Even population and resource distribution 

• Perfect competition conditions

• All consumers have similar purchasing power and demand for goods and services

• Consumers travel the least distance possible

Central Place 

• Central Place: A location where people go to receive goods and services

  • Cities (Big center)

  • Towns (Intermediate center)

  • Villages (Small center)

  • Hamlets (Sub center)

• The larger the settlement, the less there are of them and the farther apart they are

• Places of the same size will be placed the same distance apart

• Each central place is surrounded by a market area for which it provides goods and services

  • Depicted as hexagonal hinterlands  

  • Central places compete against one another to serve as markets for goods and services

Threshold

• Threshold: The size of population necessary for any particular service to exist and remain profitable

  • Services with a very low threshold (Gas stations, convenience stores, etc.) are present even in very small central places

  • Services with a higher threshold (Schools, hospitals, department stores, etc.) require a larger population to survive 

Range

• Range: The distance people will travel to obtain specific goods or services

  • People will travel far for high-order (specialized) goods and services 

  • People are less likely to be willing to travel far for low-order (common) goods and services

Criticisms

• Cities don’t usually form these patterns 

• Doesn’t account for variations in range and threshold from person to person and culture group to culture group 

• Competition would disrupt the pattern

15.4: Cities and Globalization (Pg. 420 - 423) 

Megalopolis

• Megalopolis: a chain of interconnected cities 

  • AKA “conurbation” 

  • Washington DC to Boston Corridor 

Megacity

• Megacities: Ascites with 10 million people or more 

  • Exert an influence that is felt nationally, regionally, and sometimes even globally

Megacities & the Developing World

• High birth rates and increased rural-to-urban migration made megacities more common in developing countries

• Megacities in poor countries face the same challenges as those in rich countries but do not have resources to fix them

Metacities

• Metacity: A city with a population of over 20 million people

  • Only 9 metacities as of 2024 but more megacities will become metacities in the future

World Cities

• World City: A city that exerts influence far beyond its national boundaries

  • Human capital (large population)

  • Economically influential (stock exchanges, banks, corporate headquarters, etc.) 

  • Culturally influential (educational institutions, museums, international sporting events, tourism, etc.) 

  • Politically influential (embassies and consulates, think tanks, political conferences, etc.)

  • Located primarily in highly developed countries 

  • Attract many educated/skilled workers

  • High degree of interconnectivity with other cities (particularly other world cities)