APHUG Unit 6

Unit 6 - Cities and Urban Land Use Patterns and

Processes

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Urban Geography

● Study of systems of cities

○ The where and why of city locations

● Study of the internal parts of the city

○ Infrastructure (buildings, roads, canals, etc.) and land use

What is Urbanism?

● Urban areas are large in size, have high densities, and have social heterogeneity

(diversity)

● Nucleated: several core ares

● Cities are usually surrounded by suburbs

○ Suburbs actually depend on cities in order to thrive, but may have their own

government and separation from the central city

● Residential and non-residential activities take place

● CBD: central business district; where a lot of economic activity takes place (tends to be

central)

● Urbanized areas are created when multiple cities and towns are clustered together

○ There are more buildings and houses which means higher population

● Physical city: there is continual development in the central cities and surroundings

○ High possibility of this being part of metropolitan areas

● Metropolitan is larger than micropolitan

● Metropolitan statistical area: a county or multiple counties with a large number of

commuters (from in and out) and a minimum of one urbanized area with at least 50,000

people

● Micropolitan statistical area: like a metropolitan statistical area but only from about

10,000 - 50,000 people, and socioeconomic integration from outlying counties

Urban hierarchy (in order from smallest to largest)

1. 2. 3. 4. Hamlet: few general stores and buildings for necessities (like a gas station), farmhouse

cluster, not many branded items

Village: more stores that sell certain things (like a jewelry shop), some brands (such as of

gasoline)

Town: more functions than a village (hospital, bank, post office, etc.)

a. Hinterland: areas around a town like villages and hamlets that depend on the

economy of towns (come and sell goods, hospitals, etc.)

City: CBDs rather than business clusters, more functions than a town, commercial

suburbs

5. Megalopolis: multiple cities

a. Bosnywash: megalopolis from Boston to Washington D.C.

Systems of Cities

● Political, economic, and cultural factors affect the growth through the levels of hierarchy

○ Ex: natural resources, cultural centers, political capitals

● Location and topography affects residence

Origin and Evolution of Cities

● Cities appeared quite recently compared to the history of human origins

● Permanent settlements began later after first humans

● Job specialization was a big step to settlements being able to begin

○ Also farming!

The Role of Government

● 4000-2000 BCE: formative era

○ Development of states and urbanization

● As states grew, a central authority was needed to enforce certain rules

● Early states were near Mesopotamia, the Tigris/Euphrates Rivers, the Nile River, the

Indus River, and the Aegean Sea

Function and Location of Ancient Cities

● The urban elite (rich people) controlled resources in early states

● Functions include:

○ Centers of power (mostly in cities)

○ Religious centers (priests, temples, shrines)

○ Economic centers (markets)

○ Education centers (teachers, schools, philosophers)

● Population could not grow as it does now

○ Systems were not able to support that many people

■ People mainly had to fend for themselves (hunter-gatherers)

Early Urbanization Around the Mediterranean

● This is mainly where first cities were established

● City-states: the organization method of cities into areas where they each have their own

social, economic, and religious centers

● Settlement means there are government, military, and other public services available to

the people in the settlement and the hinterland (surrounding area)

● Urban settlements grew rapidly in the 8th and 9th centuries

● Athens was the first to reach a population of 100,000 people

● Roman Empire: an example of an urban empire of different continents

Urban Growth in China

● By the Han Dynasty period, China already had Chang’an as a developed area (a great city

in the world at the time)

● Silk Road, Mediterranean Sea, and trade routes brought great wealth to China’s economy

○ Diversity of products and cultural goods were also established

● 1100-mile Grand Canal was built under the Tang Dynasty

○ It linked the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers together

○ More cities were able to develop alongside the canal

● Hangzhou was the greatest trading city by the 11th century

● Silks, copper coins, and ceramics were the most common exports from China

Medieval, Preindustrial, and Industrial World Cities

● The fall of the Roman Empire (the Western side) caused urban settlements to decline in

Europe and around the West Mediterranean Sea

● Urban life was revived again in the 11th century

○ Started up because of trade in Venice and Genoa, and the Middle East crusades

● The tallest, and most elaborate, buildings of the time were churches

● Narrow winding streets with occupational workers clustered in different areas where

characteristic of this era

● Ethnicity defined the communities

● Asia beat Europe near the end of 1000 CE

○ Asia had many cities such as Baghdad, Constantinople, Chang’an, and Kyoto

○ And then London came along

● Primate cities: cities which are larger than other cities nearby and are representative of a

culture

○ Ex: Kyoto represents Japanese culture

● Preindustrial era = mercantilism (based on trade, think merchants)

● Industrial era = manufacturing

○ Ex: railroads rather than waterways

○ Mechanization and more transportation

Rural-Urban Migration and Urban Growth

● 1800s due to Industrial Revolution

● Rapid increases in LDCs (less developed countries) from rural to urban (MDCs, or more

developed countries, already had many people in urban areas

● In LDCs, longevity (life spans) increased because of the electricity, treatment, and water

○ Populations began booming

● Cities and populations were growing worldwide

● Rural: far from city, less dense, homogenous

● Urbanization: rural to urban shift

● Over half of all people are in urban areas now

● Opportunities and jobs increase because labor is needed to make and move material items

● Urban: high density, heterogenous, service-based jobs

● Enclaves: areas inside a larger area where a minority is clustered

● Suburban: live in mixed diversity suburbs, depends on cities, better schools and lives,

residential, consumer services, becoming more populous than cities in some cases

● Incorporation: if there is more land, more land can be used for cities

● Atlanta has a very large commuter’s zone

○ Commuters usually go to cities for work and go back to the suburbs for home

Urban Challenges

● Population is decreasing in cities

○ White flight: white people sold of their houses because they did not want to live

with incoming people of other races

● Blockbusting: housing discrimination

● Steering: real estate agents take and separate people into different communities based on

race

● Sequence occupancy: different cultures are living in that area

● Redlining: where loans are given; basically drawing boundaries of where people of

different races can and can’t live

● Economical issues:

○ Urban decay: urban areas stop developing (can be due to many reasons)

■ Ex: brownfields: pretty much dilapidated cities

○ Urban blight: the city is becoming unattractive and dying

○ Concentrated poverty

○ Cycle of poverty: poor areas lead to poor teachers which lead to poor students

who lead to poor areas

● Squatter settlements: create unsafe housing for the poor people

○ Usually on town outskirts

● One billion people live in slums

● Slums are areas which DO NOT HAVE:

○ Permanent housing

○ Water

○ Sanitation

○ Large living spaces

○ Safety

● South Africa, Kenya, India, Pakistan, and Mexico have the largest slums

● Favelas: slums in Brazil (the poor build their own houses though)

● Gang trouble is quite common in slums-like areas

○ Pacification: government punishes or removes gangs

● People own property to pass down wealth, but the poor are unable to do that and lift

themselves out of the cycle of poverty

● Exurbanization: the movement from suburban to rural areas

○ People do this when even suburban life has become too commercial like in cities

○ Rural areas are more peaceful

World Cities

● London, New York, and Tokyo are examples of top-tier cities

● Second tier examples: cities in the U.S. and West Europe, São Paulo, and Singapore

● Third tier examples: Bombay, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg in Africa

● Business Services

○ Businesses come in place of old factories

○ Stock exchanges

● Consumer Services

○ Much wealth is in cities

○ Retail companies locate in cities to get the most profits

● Public Services

○ Political stuff in world cities

○ What does the government do for you?

○ Ex: Washington D.C. is a center for public services

○ Brussels in Belgium is small but it is ranked higher since it has the EU

Headquarters

Megacities

● Started in 1970s

● 1990s: Africa had the fastest growing cities, then South Asia, then East Asia, and then

Central America

○ West Europe was not growing at all

○ These trends were mainly due to population growth in LDCs

● Megacities have the richest and poorest people

● Zoning laws: help manage land; some countries don’t use these laws

Economic Base

● The tertiary sector is the most common

● U.S. cities are usually manufacturing, retail, and diversity centers

● Base ratio: ratio between basic sector (exports) and tertiary sector (employees)

● Multiplier effect: basic sector grows, and that means there is also growth for non-basic

sector workers

Models of Cities

Concentric Zone Model:

● Published in 1923 by theorist Ernest Burgess

● Represents the Anglo-American City of the united states and canada during the height of

industrialization

1. The CBD

● All cities have a central business district(CBD). In all the models the cbd

contains the highest density of commercial land use. This density is

characterized by the tendency to build vertically( Ex: skyscrapers that

maximize the use of land). The CBD also contains the peak land value

intersection(PLVI) which is the downtown intersection surrounded by the

most expensive pieces of real estate.

2. Industrial Zone

a. In the model, the CBD is surrounded by an area of low-density commercial land

that contains factories, warehouses, and rail yards. Recently in the era of

deindustrialization, many American and Canadian cities have transformed former

industrial areas into festival landscapes(parks, museums, stadiums).

3. Inner City Housing

a. When this model was first made in the 1900s the average workers didn’t have car

so they tended to walk and/or use streetcars. This is why most people lived as

close to work as possible and this is the reason why high-density housing

surrounds both the CBD and industrial zones. This housing ranged from

tenements and small apartments to townhomes and new houses for better-paid

workers.

4. The Suburbs

a. In the 1870s, developments began for detached single-family homes began to

appear on the periphery of American cities. Suburbs continued to grow

throughout the 1920s, but there was less expansion during the great depression

and WW2. It was after the war that suburb growth really took off. Suburbs are

home to a mostly-middle class to upper-class population and around 52% of the

American population lives in suburbs.

5. The Exurbs

a. The commuter zone is a wealthy area of people that own large tracts of land

outside the city.Today many exurbs have the feel of large country estae homes on

multi-acre lots.

Sector Model

● First proposed in 1939 by theorist Homer Hoyt

● Also applies to cities in the u.s and Canada

● In this model, the concepts of the industrial corridor and neighborhood are combined

which result in much more realistic urban representation compared to the concentric zone

model

● Also used to depict ethnic variations in a city

Multiple-Nuclei Model

● Proposed by Chauncey Harris and Edward Ullman in 1945

● The first recognition of suburban districts forming on the urban periphery

● Instead of all commerce being focused on the center of the city as in the sector model the

multiple-nuclei model implies that there’s more than one commercial center in the city

landscape