Download - Urban Patterns
Urban Patterns
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Where Have Urban Areas Grown?
• 1800, 3% world’s population was urban; Beijing was the only million city
• 2000, 47% world’s population is urban; 400 million cities worldwide
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Urbanization• The process by which the
population of cities grow is known as urbanization– Increase in the number of
people living in cities– And the increase in % of
people living in cities within a country
• 1800 = 3% world’s population urbanized
• 1850 = 6% world’s population urbanized
• 1900 = 14% world’s population urbanized
• 1950 = 30% world’s population urbanized
• 2000 = 47% world’s population urbanized
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Percent Urban Populations - Worldwide
Urban %
Global Patterns
• MDCs – 75% urbanized• LDCs – 40% urbanized• Latin America – ~73% urbanized• Except for Latin America, the level of
urbanization reflects the level of development• Industrialized countries are highly urbanized
because of the clustering of manufacturing industry
• However rapid urbanization rates in LDCs are caused by rural-urban migration and high natural increase rates, not industrialization
Most Populous Cities 2004
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Defining Urban Settlements
• During the 1930's, Louis Wirth argued that people living in urban areas led a different kind of life than people in rural areas. He believed that human sociology was affected by three characteristics of urban areas:– Large size – contractual rather than
social/familial relationships– High density – specialization of labour in
urban jobs– Social heterogeneity – great variety of people
Physical Definition of Urban Settlements
• Legal: city is an urban settlement that has been legally incorporated into an independent, self-governing unit
• Urbanized area: contiguous built-up area• Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA): the sphere
of influence of a city goes beyond the legal and urbanized boundaries – a MSA is– Urbanized with a population > 50, 000– Contained in the county in which it’s located– Is adjacent to counties with high population densities
Physical Definition of Urban Settlements (cont.)
• Micropolitan statistical areas:– 10,000 – 50,000 inhabitants– Includes county and adjacent counties
• MSAs may overlap– E.g.: BOSNYWASH corridor– A large continuous urban area flowing from
one city to another is called a megalopolis• CBDs of the cities are distinct• But the peripheries are difficult to determine
US Megalopolises
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European example: Ruhr (Dortmund, Düsseldorf & Essen)Asian example: Tokyo-Yokohama
Where are People Distributed Within Urban Areas?
• People are distributed according to the way they cluster in specific neighbourhoods according to their social characteristics
• 3 models have been developed to explain the internal structure of urban areas
• All were based on Chicago, Illinois and were later applied to cities elsewhere in North America
Burgess – Concentric Zone Model
According to the model (1923), a city grows outward from the central area in a series of concentric rings
Harris & Ullman - Multiple Nuclei Model
• According to the model, a city is a complex structure with more than one centre around which activities evolve
• Certain nodes attract certain land uses and incompatible land uses repel each other and locate far apart
Garreau – Edge City
• According to the edge city model by Joel Garreau, nodes form in response to the rapid development of cities at major suburban freeway interchanges
• Many say edge cities “have it all;” they are characteristically composed of office parks, shopping malls, industrial districts, and service centers located near major highways
• The edge cities are very new; about 30 years ago they were villages or rural farmland
• At present they are homes to the largest retail locations containing more than 600,000 ft² of retail space. The area also contains more than 5 million ft² of office space
• There are more jobs than homes in the edge cities • Edge cities often lack local government and may also be
unincorporated.
Edge Cities
The central city is surrounded by a ring road, around which are suburban areas and edge cities, shopping malls, office parks, industrial areas, and
service complexes.
The European City• E.g.: Paris, France
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High class residential close to CBD – access to boutiques, parks, cafes, opera
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Low-class residential in the outskirts or suburbs – long commutes to jobs
Griffin & Ford - Latin American Model
– Zone of maturity (better houses – colonial, paved streets, street lighting, good transport, schools and sewage.)
– Zone of in situ accretion – mixed quality of housing, only main streets paved, some schools but not universal electricity.
– Zone of peripheral squatter settlements – makeshift shanty houses, high unemployment, poverty, no basic services (such as piped clean water, sewage, paved roads.)
Sao Paulo, Brazil
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Wealthy live near CBD in high rises
Poor live in favelas on the city perimeter
A favela is a squatter settlement or shanty town. It is also known as a barrio. They have few services, although some areas are quite well organized. 30% (L.Am) 60%+ (Africa)
Fès (Fez), Morocco
• The old city has narrow winding streets and dense population. The French laid out a new district to the west with a geometric street pattern.
Why do Inner Cities have Distinctive Problems?
• Inner cities in the United States contain concentrations of low income people with a variety of physical, social, and economic problems very different from those faced by suburban residents.
Inner City Physical Problems
• Poor condition of housing as lower income families struggle to maintain homes
• Filtering: subdivision of former wealthy homes into multiple dwellings for families – may be neglected by landlords and abandoned by families
• Redlining: some banks draw red lines on a map to delimit areas where they refuse to lend money – illegal under Community Reinvestment Act
Urban Renewal
• Demolition of condemned buildings followed by reconstruction by private developers or public agencies
• Public Housing has replaced many substandard dwellings
• Public housing is reserved for low income households– US (2% of all dwellings); UK (30%+)
Inner City Public Housing Projects
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Public Housing
• 1950’s/60’s high rise housing projects have proven unsatisfactory for families:– Broken elevators– Juvenile gangs terrorizing families– High drug use and crime rate
• More recently low rise apartments & row houses have replaced high rises
• Scattered-site in which low-income housing is scattered throughout the city rather than clustered in a large project
• Reduced supply of public housing despite increased demand
Urban Renewal Case Study
• A nonprofit organization called Mi Casa buys and renovates dilapidated city buildings and sells them at below-market rates to families of modest means.
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Gentrification
• In some cases, middle class people buy and renovate deteriorated inner city housing – gentrification
• Houses are attractive– Larger, well-built homes, but cheaper– Character homes with architectural details– Close to downtown – lesser commute– Closer to theatres, cafes, restaurants– Grants offered by the City to renovate– DINKUM – no concerns about inner-city schools
• BUT displaces lower income families who can no longer afford rentals in the area
Inner City Social Problems
• Poverty is the leading social issue• Underclass suffer from high rates of
– Unemployment (lack of job skills & education)– Alcoholism (addiction & despondency)– Drug addiction (hopelessness)– Illiteracy (school drop outs)– Juvenile delinquency (territoriality)– Crime (sometimes gang related)– Homelessness (no job, family problems)– Ethnic & racial segregation (African American & Hispanics)
• Schools are run-down & public amenities (clinics, hospitals, policing) are inadequate
Inner City Economic Problems• Inner city residents cannot
afford to pay the taxes required to support services
• Cities can– Reduce some services to pay for
others– Raise tax revenues by attracting
redevelopment of luxury dwellings – drives lower income people away
– Annexation – legally adding land to a city
– Rural residents on city peripheries favoured annexation because of the improved public services – results in urban sprawl
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Why do Suburbs have Distinctive Problems?
• USA, 1950 20% Americans suburbanized
• 2000, 50% American suburbanized
• Suburbs attractive– Single detached family dwellings– Larger lots with gardens for children– Space for parking– Cleaner air, quieter– Lower crime rates, safer
Suburban Development-in the U.S. and U.K.
New housing in the U.K. is likely to be in planned new towns, while in the U.S. growth occurs in discontinuous developments.
Problems of Suburbs
• The peripheral model– Density gradient
• Density declines with increased distance from the city centre
• Changed – decrease in density in CBD; increase in suburbs (subdivisions)
– Cost of suburban sprawl• Competition for land; cost of
infrastructure; loss of farmland; traffic pollution
•Suburban segregation
Residents isolated from commercial & industrial areas; social class isolation; zoning ordinances separate land use functions
Problems of Suburbs• Transportation and suburbanization
– Motor vehicles• Dependence on cars; transportation networks and parking lots
require land; traffic congestion; rush hour
– Public transportation• Declined in public ridership in US (less convenient); LRT on the
increase – subsidized & encouraged; low income can ill afford public transit to reach jobs in suburbs
• Local government fragmentation (difficult to solve regional problems)– Metropolitan government (e.g.: CRD in Victoria – 14
municipalities; 1 federation)– Growing smart (Smart Growth)
• Curb sprawl; reduce traffic congestion; reverse inner city decline
• Achieved through urban in-filling; increasing densities; subdivisions; urban revitalization