Unit 6: Cities and Urban Land Use

Urban Hearths

• Focus on how site (absolute location) and situation (relative location) impacted the origin and growth of urban areas.
• Many origin points were focused around trade, rivers, oceans, and access to arable land.

Transportation and Infrastructure

• Transportation influences how people live, societies are shaped, and opportunities are provided.
• Changes in transportation, infrastructure, and communication influence urbanization.
• Cities evolve and change with culture, population, and economic development.

Mega Cities and Meta Cities

• Mega city: A city with more than 10 million residents.
• Meta city: An area with more than 20 million residents.
• Many of these cities are located in periphery or semi-periphery countries (less economically developed areas).
• This trend connects to stage two of the demographic transition model, which involves high population growth rates and movement to urban areas.

Urban Decentralization

• Movement of population away from the core urban area to peripheral areas (suburbs, boomburbs, exurbs).
• This leads to money, power, and voters leaving the urban core.

Urban Sprawl

• Unrestricted growth and expansion of urban areas.
• Often replaces arable land and negatively impacts the environment.

Suburbanization and Sprawl

• Leads to decentralization (power shifting out of the urban core).

Vocab Terms

• Boomberb: Rapidly growing suburban area developing its own identity.
• Exerb: Settlement outside the suburban area, connected to the metro but with fewer opportunities and lower population density.
• Edge City: Contains a high concentration of businesses, shopping centers, and services, often located near a beltway (highway).

World City

• Major cities that influence the global population through economy and culture.
• Often have stock exchanges and embassies.
• Sit on top of the urban hierarchy, diffusing culture and ideas.

Linkages

• Connections between different places, industry sectors, communication, and migration.
• Flow of goods and services. Quality infrastructure leads to more linkages.

Primate City and Rank-Size Rule

• Primate City: Significantly larger than other cities in a country, concentrating resources and opportunities.
• Can lead to inequalities in resource distribution and uneven economic development.
• Rank Size Rule: Population of a city is inversely proportional to its rank (2nd city is half the size of the largest, 3rd is a third, etc.).
• $population = (largest \frac{city}{rank})$
• Indicates more even economic development.

Interdependence

• Reliance between different groups, organizations, and regions.
• Countries do not exist in isolation.

Gravity Model

• Likelihood of interaction between places, factoring in size and distance.
• Larger places have a greater pull due to more opportunities and resources.
• Thicker arrows = stronger pole.

Central Place Theory

• Consists of threshold (minimum number of people needed to support a service) and range (distance people are willing to travel for a service).
• Specialized goods/services have longer ranges and higher thresholds.

Urban Models

• Concentric Zone Model: Decreasing density as you move further out, lower-income residents in the transition zone.
• Hoyt Sector Model: Transportation routes influence the location of industries and businesses.
• Multiple Nuclei Model: Multiple nodes or centers attract and repel different people, creating specialized zones.
• Galactic Model: Factors in edge cities and beltways (highways), reflecting modern transportation infrastructure.
• Latin American City Model: Impact of colonialism, central plaza/market, spine consisting of wealthier residents and high-end commercial activity.
• African City Model: Colonial CBD, traditional CBD, market zone, ethnic neighborhoods divided by roads.
• Southeast Asian City Model: Port zone is unique (no traditional CBD), influenced by colonialism, trade, and rapid urbanization.

Density Gradient

• Gradual change in density from urban core to periphery.
• High density: Reliance on public transportation, close to services, vibrant communities, but can have issues with poor planning (food deserts, crime).
• Medium density: Some apartments, some single-family homes, restaurants/stores nearby.
• Low density: Single-family homes, dependence on personal vehicles, lack of public transportation.

Infrastructure

• Roads, pipes, internet cables, power, etc.
• Location and quality directly affects spatial patterns of economic and social development.

Urban Sustainability

• Promotes sustainable economic, social, and environmental growth.
• Considers economic equality, social equality (housing, education), and environmental sustainability.

Zoning

• Government regulates land use, allowing certain buildings to be created in each zone (commercial, agricultural, residential, industrial).
• Municipalities (local government units) control zoning.

Mixed Land Use

• Buildings with different activities in the same building (businesses on the bottom, residential on top).
• Common in medium to high-density areas.

Walkable Cities

• Promote walking by having mixed-use buildings and services located close to each other.

Transit-Oriented Development

• Locate public transit stations strategically to reduce car use.

New Urbanism and Smart Growth Policies

• Focus on creating functional, sustainable urban environments.
• New urbanism: Design and feel of small-scale neighborhoods.
• Smart growth policies: Broader policies, managing urban development and efficient use of resources.

Green Belt

• Area of land left undeveloped for recreational or conservation purposes.

Infilling

• Building on unused or underdeveloped land within a city to increase density and services.

Slow Growth Cities

• Limit growth to be more sustainable, often using growth boundaries (prevent building outside a certain area).

Growth Boundaries

• Boundry that's going to be put in place to actually prevent anyone from building outside of it.

Smart Cities

• Utilize technology and data to reduce inefficiencies.

Brownfield

• Abandoned properties with contamination, redeveloped to prevent urban sprawl.

Negative Consequences and Segregation

• Post-de facto segregation: Separation of people along racial/economic lines, not enforced by laws.
• Gentrification: Wealthier people move in, increasing prices and displacing lower-income residents.
• Leads to placelessness where some of these newer neighborhoods actually sorry older neighborhoods as they become reimagined.
• Redlining: Banks refusing loans to people in minority neighborhoods.
• Blockbusting: Real estate agents using misinformation to motivate white homeowners to sell at a lower price, leading to white flight.
• Environmental injustice: Disproportionate environmental hazards in marginalized communities.
• Dismenity zones: Areas lacking services, infrastructure, and safety.

Squatter Settlements

• Areas where people build homes on land they don't own.

Inclusionary Zones

• Local policies incentivize developers to create affordable housing, promoting mixed-income communities.

Ecological Footprint

• The amount of land and resources used to support the population of a city.
• Countered by farmland protection policies, brownfield redevelopment, urban growth policies, and inclusionary zones.

Qualitative and Quantitative Data

• Qualitative: Observations and descriptions (opinions).
• Quantitative: Facts and objective data (crime rates).
• Cities use both to determine funding and policies.