Chapter 8.1 Urbanization

Land Use in the U.S. Which type of land use covers the most area in the United States? Which type of land cover is in a close second? Do the percentages surprise you? Why/why not? Compare with your hypothesis

Defining a City A City is a place with at least 5,000 people/square mile. 80% of Americans live in urban areas and by the year 2025 2/3 of the world’s population will live in cities. Since the 1900s there has been a shift in where people live. The growth of cities as people move from rural to urban area is called urbanization.

ii. The term Urban Crisis was coined to describe this trend. 3. Many of these cities, however, have trouble coping with the rapidly growing population. Problems can occur because people may migrate to cities faster than jobs and infrastructure becomes available. With this increase living conditions deteriote and unemployment increases (not enough jobs for the increase in people). ii. The term Urban Crisis was coined to describe this trend. iii. Once consequence of this trend is a phenomenon called Suburban Sprawl which is the development of houses and ‘strip’ shopping malls that spread out around cities.

Land-Use Planning involves determining in advance where people will live, where they will locate their businesses and where land will be protected for recreation and wildlife. Included in land-use planning is where roads, malls, sewers, landfills, electrical lines, and other infrastructure will be placed within in the urban area. Three possible solutions to improve the land-use in urban areas are mass transit inner-city renovations and protection of open spaces

i. Mass transit is an economical, efficient alterative to a single person driving a car. ii. Examples would include buses, subways and trains iii. Open Spaces are areas that are not developed and come in many forms, such as parks, pools, hiking trails, bike trails, gardens or agricultural areas. iv. They give people a place to escape the crowded, noisy conditions of a big city Another function of open spaces, especially those with vegetation, is to reduce drainage problems.