Urban Environments

Key Terms and Concepts

• Urban Area: A built-up area that forms part of a city or town.

• Informal/Formal Activities:

  • Informal: Untaxed, unregulated jobs.

  • Formal: Taxed, regulated activities (e.g., office and factory work).

• Suburbanization: Outward growth of towns/cities, engulfing surrounding rural areas.

• Gentrification: Improvement of residential areas (often by immigrants/residents), including economic development (e.g., retail).

• Counter-urbanization: Movement of population from larger urban areas to smaller ones (e.g., commuter towns, villages).

• Re-urbanization/Urban Renewal: Development of activities to increase residential population densities within existing built-up areas.

• Urban Circular System: A sustainable city emphasizing recycling, reuse, resource reduction, renewable energy, and minimizing ecological footprint.

• Urban Ecological Footprint: Amount of land needed to sustain a population (resources, waste assimilation).

Introduction to Urban Environments

• Over half the world's population now lives in urban environments, including megacities.

• Cities are centers of intense social interaction, production, wealth generation, and consumption.

• Urban areas exhibit diverse patterns of wealth and deprivation, potentially leading to conflict.

• Cities may share common characteristics/processes, irrespective of national economic development levels.

• Transport improvements have fueled rapid urban growth, creating stresses and challenges for urban planners.

• Sustainability is key: cities must minimize harmful social and environmental impacts.

• Studying urban environments enhances understanding of processes, places, power, and geographical possibilities.

• Specialized concepts include hierarchies of settlements, systems for managing movement/flows, and sustainability.

Key Questions Regarding Urban Environments

• How do the characteristics and distribution of urban places, populations, and economic activities vary?

• How are economic and demographic processes changing urban systems over time?

• What are the varying powers of different stakeholders in relation to urban stresses?

• What are the possibilities for the future of urban environments?

Characteristics of Urban Places

• Defining an Urban Place:

  • No single definition exists.

  • Characterized by population size, specific features (CBD, residential zones), predominant economic activities (manufacturing, services), and administrative functions.

Site and Situation

• Site: Actual land on which a settlement is built.

• Situation: Its relationship with the surrounding area.

• Historically, physical conditions were emphasized (settlement patterns, land tenure, agriculture).

• Social and economic factors increasingly important, especially for rural settlements.

• Early settlers considered factors like:

  • Readily available water.

  • Flood protection.

  • Level land.

  • Local timber.

  • Sunny slopes.

  • Rich soils.

  • Trade/commerce potential (bridges, estuaries, etc.).

Industrialization and Urban Growth

• Areas with good access to resources developed into cities (e.g., Johannesburg, Bloemfontein).

• Places near rivers (e.g., New York) developed due to trade advantages.

Function and Land Use in Urban Areas

• Urban places have industrial (manufacturing, high-tech), service (healthcare, education, retail, government), and residential roles.

• Limited agriculture exists (allotments, farms), but it's a small proportion.

• Rural areas primarily focus on agriculture with few residents.

Land Use Variations

• Land use proportions vary across cities and over time.

• Decline in industrial land in Europe, North America, and Japan (post-industrial era).

• Some urban areas associated with specific functions (fishing, mining, tourism, political).

• Former rural settlements become dormitory towns (residential function).

Types of Land Use in Urban Areas

• Residential: Housing.

• Industrial: Manufacturing, processing raw materials.

• Services: Education, healthcare, retail, entertainment.

• Open Space: Parks, gardens, sports facilities.

• Recreation: Open space, sports centers, playgrounds, stadia.

• Transport Routes.

• Vertical Zoning: Different functions on different floors (e.g., retail on ground floor, offices above).

Case Study: Land Use in New York City

• Area: Approximately 825 $km^2$.

• Commercial:

  • Focused on midtown and downtown Manhattan.

  • Lower Manhattan: Finance (Wall Street, Stock Exchange).

  • Midtown: Shops (Fifth Avenue), theaters (Broadway), hotels, landmarks.

  • Occupies <4% of land, but is space-intensive providing 3.6 million jobs.

• Industrial:

  • 4% of land; South Bronx, Newtown Creek (Brooklyn/Queens), western Brooklyn/Staten Island.

  • Riverfront locations are valued.

• Residential:

  • Low-density: Staten Island, eastern Queens, southern Brooklyn, north-eastern/eastern Bronx.

  • High-density: 12% of land; >2/3 of housing units; mainly Manhattan.

  • 4-12 story apartments common in Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens.

• Public Facilities/Institutions:

  • 7% of land; Schools, hospitals, museums, places of worship, police/fire stations, courts etc; spread throughout the city.

• Open Space:

  • 25% of city; Public parks, playgrounds, cemeteries, beaches, stadia, golf courses.

• Vacant Land:

  • 8% of city; Staten Island most (2,100 hectares), Manhattan least (162 hectares).

Table G.1: Land Use (%) in New York City by Borough

*Includes:
* Low-density residential.
* High-density residential.
* High-density apartments/commercial
* Commercial/office.
* Industrial/manufacturing.
* Transport/utility.
* Public facilities and institutions.
* Open space.
* Parking facilities.
* Vacant land.
* Miscellaneous.

Activity 1: Study Figure G.1 and Table G.1 (New York City Land Use)

• Describe the distribution of commercial land in New York City.

• Comment on the distribution of industrial land.

• Compare the distribution of low-density residential areas with high-density residential areas. How do these compare with apartments?

• Compare and contrast the main land uses in Manhattan with those in Queens.

The Hierarchy of Settlements

• Hierarchy: Order or importance.

• Settlement size used as a measure (also jobs and wealth generated).

Terms to Explain Settlement Hierarchies

• Range: Max distance people travel for a good/service.

• Threshold: Min number of people for a business to stay open.

• Low-order goods: Necessity goods (bread, newspapers).

• High-order goods: Luxury goods (watches, cars).

• Sphere of Influence: Area served by a settlement (hinterland).

Levels in Settlement Hierarchy

• Dispersed, individual households (base).

• Hamlets:

  • Small collection of farms/houses.

  • Lacking services/facilities.

  • Supports only low-order services (general store, sub-post office, pub).

• Villages:

  • Larger population.

  • Wider range of services (school, church, community center, shops).

Distinguishing Different-Order Centers

• (a) Type, (b) number of functions, (c) market area, (d) employment, and (e) population size.

• Hamlets have basic functions; larger settlements (villages and market towns) support specialized ones (high-order functions).

• Market towns draw custom from surrounding areas and serve their own population.

• Distinction between hamlet, village, and town not clear-cut (continuum).

Larger Urban Areas

• Cities offer a wider range of services and goods.

• Conurbation: When ≥2 cities merge.

• Millionaire City: >1 million inhabitants.

• Megacity: >10 million inhabitants.

• Metacity: Large-scale city regions where large cities merge (e.g., China's Pearl River Delta).

• Megalopolis: Cities sprawl and merge into one (e.g., Bosneywash, Boston-New York-Washington).

• Metacity is denser than megalopolis with less defined areas between cities.

Generalizations About Settlement Hierarchy

• More small settlements than large.

• Villages provide limited low-order goods to few people in the village and surrounding areas.

• Small urban areas provide a wider range of goods (high and low order) to a larger population.

• Large urban areas provide many goods to a very large population over a wide area.

Megacities

• Cities with a population >10 million people.

• Grow due to economic growth, rural-urban migration, and high natural increase.

• Age structure dominated by young adults due to migration.

• Migration, high birth rates are seen in younger populations. Multi-nuclei centers are the result. Rapid growth, swallowing up rural areas and nearby towns and cities.

• Contain only 4-7% of world's total population, grow at a relatively slow rate (1.5% per year).

• First megacity: Tokyo, ~35 million population.

• By 2017, megacities included Mumbai, Delhi, Mexico City, São Paulo, New York, Dhaka, Jakarta, and Lagos.

• Lagos grows very fast (5% per annum).

• By 2020, most megacities in developing regions, mainly in Asia.

Impact of Megacities

• They are likely to require new forms of planning/management.

• Scale of environmental impacts is usually great.

• Rapid economic growth and urbanization in China impact environment negatively (pollution, greenhouse gases).

• Wealth generation is associated in HICs (urban areas generate >80% of national output), and LICs (>40%).

• Crime and environmental issues are less attractive features.

Activity 2: Study Figure G.2 (Population Growth in Megacities, 2014-2030)

 *   State how many megacities are located in high-income countries.
 *   Identify the largest megacity in 2014 and its projected increase by 2030.
 *   Identify the fastest-growing megacity shown in Figure G.2 and its population in 2030.
 *   Comment on the location of megacities, as shown in Figure G.2.
 *   Suggest why so many people migrate to megacities.

Urban Growth and Economic Development

• Correlation between urban growth and economic development.

• Levels of development often measured by $GNP per head.

• Suggesting one causes the other is not necessarily correct (high proportion in urban areas leads to wealth, or vice versa).

• There's a connection, but one does not necessarily cause the other.

Functions of Urban Places

1. Commercially: Market and exchange centers are necessary for the conversion from subsistence to cash crops.

2. Industrially: Stimulus for development (larger the town, the better for skilled and unskilled labor).

3. Politically: Focus for nationalist feeling; ethnic, tribal, and religious intermixing.

4. Administratively: Economies of scale for health and education.

5. Socially: Intermixing may help weaken ties to traditional rural beliefs/customs.

Negative Effects of Urbanization

• Significant contributions to economic wealth, but also lead to problems including pollution, ecosystem destruction, and poor living conditions.

• Deterioration Issues:

  • High unemployment/underemployment.

  • Insufficient housing (slums, squatter settlements).

  • Overloaded transport.

  • Pollution (air, water, noise).

  • Deteriorating infrastructure.

  • Growing inequalities (access to infrastructure/services).

  • Inadequate sanitation/water supplies.

  • Rising social problems (crime, suicide, drug abuse).

  • General deterioration in perceived quality of life.

Potential Impacts of Megacities

• Household/Workplace Issues:

  • Substandard housing, lack of water/sanitation, disease vectors, indoor air pollution.

• Community Issues:

  • Excreta-laden water/soils, rubbish dumping, flooding, noise stress, accidents.

• Metropolitan Area Issues:

  • Traffic congestion, water pollution, air pollution, toxic dumps.

• Regional Issues:

  • Acidification, global warming, lost natural environments.

• Continent/Planet Issues:

  • Ozone destruction.

Function of Urban Settlements

• Trade and communications:

  • Cairo grew due to meeting point of trade routes.

  • Paris grew due to its excellent location on the Seine for trade/ communications.

• Good Raw Materials:

  • Johannesburg, Kimberley, and Bloemfontein grew due to mineral resources.

• Functions Change Over Time:

  • Fishing villages evolved into tourist resorts.

  • South Korea rapidly industrialized and urbanized.

  • Administrative Roles:

    • New capital cities have developed important administrative roles in Brasilia, Canberra and Ottawa.

  • Government Services:

    • Planned cities like are Putrajaya - Malaysia and Incheon - South Korea, become important centers for government services and high-tech industries, respectively.

Growth Processes

• A number of factors affect the size, growth and
  function of a settlement.
  * Extreme environments lead to isolation due to food production issues.
  * Favoring food production enable settlements to expand.
  * Non-farming services include builders, craftsmen, teachers, traders, administrators, and thus, settlements in favored areas enable growth and function.
  * Favorable environments supporting farmland along the north-eastern USA's coastal plains helped to create and grow settlements. New York's access to the water favored it even more.
  * Settlement changes over time with some increasing and others declining.
  * Patterns of settlement change over time, but all evolve as colonial influence between settlements occurs.

The Overseas Colony

• Vance's model stresses external influences.

• A hierarchy evolves from the top down, with large cities acting as centers on innovation for external commercial forces.

• August Losch: Stressed the importance of transport accessibility.

• Cities grow more where there are good transport links.

  • Transport links produce corridors of urban areas.
    *M4 corridor in the UK has become a region for high-tech industry.
    *Attempts to reduce the importance of larger cities such as including London, Rio de Janeiro and Seoul were attempted. Developers have attempted to build new towns and new capital cities to deflect from main areas.

• New towns such as Sadat City in Egypt were designed to accomodate the population overspill from Cairo.

• Planned capital cities Gongju-Yongi in Korea was designed to replace Seoul by 2020. Was to ease chronic overcrowding in Seoul, redistribute the state's wealth, and to reduce the impact of a military attack from North Korea.

Factors Affecting the Pattern of Urban Economic Activity in Cities

• The value of land varies for different purposes such as commercial, manufacturing, residential.

• Known as bidding rent of land.

• Central land is more expensive and contains greater accessibility due to public transport. Decreases away from the central area, although there are secondary peaks near roads.

• Levels of accessibility caused by private transporation can now make edge of town areas more accessible than inner areas.

Retail Land Use

• Traditionally geographic accounts of retailing concentrated on the location and type of retailing outlet.

  1. Low order goods concentrated in residential parts and shopping parades.

  2. High order goods located in streets and departmental stores.

  3. Out of town superstores and retail parks.

Central shopping areas are characterized by chain stores, departmental stores and specializing in high order services. Offer a wide threshold. A wider sphere of influence. Green field superstore sites are more valued. These are large residential areas with over 2,500 km, ample parking that are well accessed.

Verticla Zones in Tokyo

Modern retailing has focused on hyper markets and people shop less frequently. This may be due to demographic change such as a decrease in population growth as well as smaller households. High pricing and traffic problems in areas that have smaller shop locations have created this focus on superstores and out of town precints. As a result government policies favor a return to central shopping areas. Renovation may consist of:
*Full scale developement
*Traffic Free zones
*Scale redevelopement. Cheaper land values and free parking on the sides of the city.

Commercial Land Use - the CBD

• The central business district (CBD) is the commercial and economic core of a city.

• It is the heart of the city, the area most accessible to public transport, and the location with the highest land values.

• It has a number of characteristic features and internal zoning (clustering of similar types of business).

Characteristics of the CBD

1. Multi-storey developement

   • High land forces force buildings to grow upward.

2. Concentration of retailing:

• High levels of accessibility attracts shop with high characteristics including specialised shops.

1. Public transport is concentrated in CBD.

2. Offices are concentrated in the CBD.

3. Different types of zoning within the CBD.

4. Vertical zoning is apparent (Shops on the ground floor. offices on upper floors).

5. Few people live in the CBD.

6. Pedestrian flows are high - commercial outlets occur.

7. Traffic restrictions are greatest within pedestrian access .

8. CBDs change over time.

Factors Influenceing CBD Decline

• City councils often offer green field sites for developement for new industry investments.

• Cheaper costs near customers in leafy suburbs on periphary locaitons.

• People find central shopping areas to be perceived as dirty, unsafe, etc. Congestion reduces accessibility of CBDs.

• Citys that are more determined to attract in wardinvestment offer greenfield sites for developen .

Industrial Activity

• Inner-city areas are close to railways or canals that export industry.

• Brownfield suburban are close to airports.

• Cities need skilledd labor such as instruments that all have essential central solutions.

Large City Industries Are Attractive Based On:

• Capital cities are the largest manufacturing center a nation.

• Cities are large markets.
  *Port cities have access to international markets.
  *Major hubs of innovation
  A vareity of labor.

Government Assistance May be Provided to Regenerating a Declining Area

• The olympic games assisted in regenerating Barcelona's waterfront industries, and the redevelopment of London Docklands was a joint partnership between central investors.

• Planning urban economic activity.
  *Industrial zones tend to be more down widnd and stream for pollution.

Factors Affecting the Location of Urban Residential Areas

• These include physical, land values, ethnicity and planning:

• Wealthier people tend to live near rivers and canals - high grounds in urban areas are attractive in rich countries.
  *Building standards.
  *Land Values: POorer folk may be located near jobs near innner city areas, where high qualities are located father away from the city.

• The paradox of the poorest land locked inside the city reflects their need.
  *Landlords cram the most individuals possible in them.

• High class and low class residential.
  *High class and low class areas may be seperated by built barriers.

Ethnicity and Resident Areas

• Ethnic groups may live close to each other forming a region. New Malden, a suburb with good rail links to central London has increased Korean restaurants and supermarkets. In contrast negative segregation is a process whereby authorities prevent particular groups from locating in.

• Some governments may have a multiracial policy of locating all racial groups together on housing estates.

Urban Residential Planning

• Authorities try to achieve balanced social mixes. Such as Barra da Tijuca, Edge cities on the edge of Rio de Janeiro, are often gated communities of wealthy people.
  *There are key points to remember Cities in poor countries:
  *Rich generally live close to city center. Whereas the poor are likely to be found on the periphery, on poor-quality land.
  *Higher quality land is occupied by the poor.
  *Segregation by race, wealth, end ethnicity.
  *Manufacturing is scatted and evident.

Cities in Latin America:

• The CBD developed around the colonial core extending in commercial revenue becoming in the spine of a sector and open for parks and homes for upper middle classes. As you move further the shanties are found at the edge.
  A small activity is needed to explaint the high value
  of land and the other factors influencing poverty deprivation.
  A number if indices such as physical such as physical indicators, social indicators,
  economic indicators, and political indicitators influence the measure of deprivation.

Slums and squatter settlements make of 980 million people and are typically located on land that planners do not want; step slopes, flood points, land, or close to major industrial complexes such as UN, does define a slum household. Informal economic activity.
The poor and a variety of other factors, much of the formal economy, the upper economic serving for elite groups, the informal the lower it small skill labor intere. The sector's poverty may use 2345 to access jobs that might help.

Transfer Systems (Slums & Squatter Settlements):

• They are points of assimilation of immigratns - allow small enterprenures to work.

• Enable avoid commtuting.
  *Strong sense of kinship and family support.
  *They are points of missing security tenure.

They may be 85 per cent of some's activity.
to try and get that
living standards - such
Exploitation takes place due to the large number of the poor.

Changing Urban Systems

*What's the key content?
Urbanization, natural and population movements, including urban
*Industrializing cities inners cities gentrification
Centrifugal population movements
an infrastructure improvements
Waterways
The industrialisation
1st one how send to one high
Economic and demographic changes urban to
They have rural tourban move

What are the changes on there are for
Of the

The Process of Urbanization

*Almost in many rich countries, population is almost at it's end, where people have moved. It's the process of urbanization, urbanization, re-urbanization or something shaped curve.
*Natural Increases and Urban Attract many young migrants
In contrast, are rural areas that they leave behind develop more. There
Women who have low rates and high rates in women.
The reasons for this movement had been Described Push and Pull factors.

Push Factors are:

(for example unemployment low hazards).

Pull Factors are:

*The attractions at another Place wages and good schools. By urbanisation is the reinvestment capital in urban areas, There may have a brownfield with land in upgrading development with commercial developers of place for that is 1945 by areas.

Case: Gentrification and Relocation

*Woodstock is located Between location taken home become fashion and business take converted in fact in the 1990s.