Urban Environments Exam Notes
The Variety of Urban Environments
Urban Places Characteristics: Defined by
Population size
Specific features like CBD and residential zones
Predominant economic activities (manufacturing, services)
Administrative function
Site vs. Situation:
Site: Actual land where a settlement is built.
Situation: Settlement's relationship with surrounding area.
Favorable Site Factors:
Reliable water supply
Freedom from flooding
Level building sites
Timber for construction/fuel
Sunny, south-facing slopes (northern hemisphere)
Fertile soils
Trade/commerce potential
Function and Land Use:
Functions evolve (e.g., fishing villages becoming tourist spots).
Urban areas have industrial, service, and residential roles.
Agriculture is limited in urban areas.
Megacities:
Cities with over 10 million inhabitants.
Grow due to economic growth, rural-urban migration, and natural increase.
Age structure dominated by young adults.
Swallow rural areas and nearby towns, becoming multi-nuclei centers.
Growth can be planned or spontaneous (squatter settlements).
Driven by trade potential and accessibility.
Planned Cities Examples: Brasilia, Canberra.
Hierarchy of Settlements:
Hierarchy implies order/importance, often based on settlement size.
Concepts:
Range: Maximum distance people travel for goods/services.
Threshold: Minimum population for a business to survive.
Low-order goods: Frequently bought convenience goods (bread, newspapers).
High-order goods: Infrequently bought luxury goods (watches, cars).
Sphere of influence: Area served by a settlement.
Settlement Types and Functions:
Hamlets: Only low-order functions.
Market Towns: Low and specialized high-order functions, drawing from surrounding areas.
Distinctions between hamlet, village, and town are not always clear.
Urban Economic Activities
Factors Influencing Urban Economic Activity:
Bid Rent: Land value varies based on purpose; highest at city center due to accessibility and limited availability.
Land prices decrease from the center, with peaks at transport route intersections.
Retail Land Use Hierarchy:
Low-order goods in neighborhood stores/shopping parades.
High-order goods in high street shops, department stores.
Out-of-town superstores and retail parks.
Central Shopping Areas: Characterized by department stores, chain stores, specialist shops, pedestrianized malls.
Modern Retailing Changes: Growth of superstores and retail parks on edge-of-town sites.
Reasons for Retail Hierarchy Changes:
Population changes (smaller households, more elderly).
Suburbanization of wealthier households.
Technological changes (deep freezers).
Economic changes (higher living standards, car ownership).
Congestion and inflated land prices in city centers.
Social changes (more women in paid work).
Commercial Land Use - The CBD (Central Business District):
Commercial/economic core; most accessible, highest land values.
Characteristics: Multi-story development, banks/businesses, vertical zoning, high pedestrian density, pedestrianized zones, no manufacturing.
CBD Decline Factors:
High development/upkeep costs (business rates, rents).
Lack of coordinated planning.
Increased car ownership.
Congestion reduces accessibility.
Suburbanization and urban sprawl.
Planning policies encourage out-of-town development.
Peripheral locations are cheaper and near customers/staff.
City centers seen as dirty, unsafe, with aging environments.
CBD Zones:
Core: Concentration of department stores, high shopping quality, functional zoning (banks/shoe shops).
Frame: Specialist services, wholesalers, parking, some derelict land, limited manufacturing, low residential population.
Industrial Activity Locations:
Inner-city near railways/canals.
Brownfield suburban sites near airports.
Sites away from residential areas.
Factors Affecting Urban Residential Areas
Physical Factors:
Wealthier people near attractive landscapes (HICs).
Poor near flood-prone areas (LICs).
High ground attractive to wealthy (HICs), steep relief forces poor to live there (LICs).
Ethnicity:
Ethnic groups cluster, forming neighborhoods (positive segregation).
Positive segregation: Advantages from locating together (supporting services).
Negative segregation: Exclusion from certain areas.
Land Values:
Highest residential densities in inner-city (HICs).
Residential density decreases with distance from city center.
Poorest on expensive inner-city land due to job access needs.
Wealthier in outer areas with lower-density housing and commuting.
Urban Residential Planning:
Planning aims for balanced social mix.
"Edge cities": Gated communities of wealthy (self-segregation).
Urban Value Surface: Offer prices for retail, office, and residential uses vary with distance from the city center.
LQ < 0.7 low;
;
;
Retail;
Office;
LQ > 1.9 high
Family Life Cycle:
Status changes (individual, household).
Housing type evolves (rented, house, assisted living).
Age-related events (training, marriage, children, retirement).
Poverty, Deprivation, and the Informal Sector
Urban Quality of Life Variation:
"Poor areas": Zones of deprivation, poverty, and exclusion.
Inner-city areas/ghettos (HICs).
Shanty towns (NICs/LICs).
Inner City Decline Web:
Population loss, declining industries, lack of investment.
Poor infrastructure, aging population, lack of skills.
Housing stress, job loss, overcrowding, social unrest, high concentrations of ethnic groups, vandalism
Dual Economy: Formal (offices, factories) and informal (servants, taxi drivers) sectors.
Formal economy serves elite; informal is small scale and labor intensive.
Informal Sector Characteristics:
Easy entry, indigenous inputs, family property, small scale, labor intensive, adapted technology, unregulated.
Slums and Squatter Settlements:
Around 1 billion people live in slums (one-third of the world's urban population).
Located on unwanted land (steep slopes, floodplains, edge-of-town, near industrial complexes).
UN Definition of a Slum Household (lacks one or more):
Permanent housing structure.
No more than three people sharing a room.
Access to sufficient, affordable water.
Access to a private toilet.
Protection against forced eviction.
Slum Positives: Points of assimilation, informal entrepreneurs, home-based informal employment & sense of kinship
Slum Negatives: Lack of tenure security, basic services, hygiene & sanitation, overcrowding, disease & hazardous sites
Urbanization, Natural Increase and Population Movements (1)
Urbanization Definition: Increase in proportion of people living in urban areas.
Causes: Rural-to-urban migration, higher natural increase in urban areas, reclassification of rural areas.
Urbanization Trends:
HICs: Urbanization slowing or reversing (counter-urbanization).
Cycle: Urbanization, suburbanization, counter-urbanization, re-urbanization.
Natural Increase: Birth rate higher than death rate, common in cities with youthful age structures.
Rural-Urban Migration: Long-term movement from countryside to cities, especially in LICs and NICs.
Push and Pull Factors:
Push factors: Negative aspects of rural areas (unemployment, low wages).
Pull factors: Attractions of urban areas (better wages, more jobs, good schools).
Gentrification: Regeneration of inner-city areas by young, upwardly mobile residents.
Common in areas with brownfield sites.
Can lead to social displacement of poor due to rising house prices.
Urbanization, Natural Increase and Population Movements (2)
Centrifugal Population Movements: Outward movement from urban centers.
Suburbanization: Outward expansion of towns/cities due to transport improvements.
Early 20th century: Railways, tramways, and buses.
Factors: Declining farmland prices, rising wages/living standards, low interest rates, building societies/mortgages, utilities provision.
Counter-urbanization: Movement from larger urban areas to smaller urban/rural areas.
Reasons: High land prices, congestion, pollution, crime, lack of community, declining services.
Perception of better community, environment, safety in smaller settlements.
Urban Sprawl: Uncontrolled growth of urban areas at their edges.
Common in large cities (Tokyo, Seoul, Mexico City).
Green belts prevent sprawl by limiting urban growth.
Filtering occurs as housing deteriorates and it moves downwards through the social groups.
Gentrification reverses this process as middle-income groups upgrade older city properties by renovating them.
Urbanization, Natural Increase and Population Movements (3)
Urban System Growth:
Increased demand for water, sanitation, waste disposal, transport, telecommunications.
Limited economic activity without these.
Case Study: Shanghai
Population growth from 11 million (1978) to over 24 million (2015).
Rail transport key, carrying over 5 million passengers daily.
Rapid road expansion.
Increased water supply.
Increased sewage treatment.
Shift from landfill to incineration for waste treatment.
Increased access to mobile phones and internet.
Telecommunications in Shanghai
Mobile phone
Fixed broadband
Mobile internet users
Changes to building height in Shanghai
More Storeys
Challenges include increasing water demand, pollution, and saltwater intrusion.
The Causes and Consequences of Urban Deindustrialization
Deindustrialization Definition: Long-term decline in manufacturing employment.
Causes: Decline/increasing cost of raw materials, mechanization, increased competition, falling demand.
Types of Deindustrialization:
Positive: Workforce replaced by machines (increased competitiveness).
Negative: Worker decline without productivity/mechanization increase.
Reindustrialization: Growth of high-technology industries, small firms, and services.
highest rates of increase in small firms are found in the less industrialized, rural, peripheral areas rather than large urban areas with derelict sites.
Case Study: Deindustrialization in Detroit
Once the USA's fourth-largest city.
Factors: falling car sales, shrinking population, high pension/welfare costs.
Detroit files for bankruptcy
Ford Motor Co. founded
General Motors founded
Oil crisis
Motown Records founded
Car industry bail-out