1. Urban Geographies

2. Objectives
Describe urbanization and major patterns associated with it.
Review Central Place Theory in relation to cities.
Discuss urban and suburban development challenges in US.
Contrast problems in US with problems in LDCs.

3. Urbanization Process of concentrating people in urban places
The process of growing urban areas
Can be measured two ways:
Level of urbanization - % of people living in urban areas in a particular region
Rate of urban growth – the annual % increase in an urban population

4. World Percentage urban (%) 1950-2050
Year Percentage urban
World Percentage urban (%)
Source: Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision and World Urbanization Prospects: The 2009 Revision,

5. Percentage urban and urban agglomerations by size class
How Urban are Countries?
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division: World Urbanization Prospects, the 2011 Revision. New York 2012

7. Urbanization Facts from the World Bank
3.5 billion people live in cities.
21 megacities –population >10 million
60% of all people will live in cities in developing countries by 2030—and 70% by 2050 according to our book.
(In 1800 only 2% did, and in 1950, only 30% did)
Roughly 180,000 people move into cities each day.
urbanisation/html/urbanisation.stm

8. http://matthartzell. blogspot

9. http://matthartzell. blogspot

10. Questions
Why does urbanization happen?

12. Megacities in 1950, 2007, and 2025 Projection

13. Central Place Theory
Walter Christaller—worked on these ideas in the 1930s.
Suggests “market forces account for the distribution of central places in an area, and that the optimal spatial arrangement of central places creates hexagonally shaped trade areas.”
Explains an urban hierarchy based on threshold, range, and market area/hinterland.

14. Central Place Theory
Range – distance someone will travel for a good or service.
High range services
Threshold – minimum # of people required to support the business.
High threshold services
Market area – places from which customers are attracted.

15. Breakfast Burritos.

16. Central Place Theory Assumptions Landscape is flat and uniform.
Population is evenly distributed with similar purchasing capacity.
People will be rational! They will go to the closest place to get the things they need.

17. Central Place Theory

19. Hierarchy of Urban Settlements
Settlements follow a regular pattern
Smallest settlements have the fewest services/goods, larger settlements have more diversity and specialization of services/goods.
Rank-size rule: The nth city is 1/nth the size of the largest city

20. Other Urban Structures
Urban primacy
Primate cities – have populations two or more times the size of the second largest city.
Uneven growth
Mexico City
Mexico.vg
Rio de Janeiro
Ekosystem.org; orangesmile.com

21. One Classification of World Cities
Hinterworld—the global market area served by a world city

22. Urban Ecology and Social Area Analysis
Urban ecology: the social / demographic composition of city districts and neighborhoods.
Thinking about where people live and why is called a social area analysis.

23. Why Do Cities Look the Way They Do?
Centralization – processes/forces that draw people and businesses downtown.
Agglomeration – occurs in different types of places—clustering of similar business/activities.
Functional zonation – the division of a city in to areas that are similar in usage.
Filtering – gradual transitioning of neighborhoods from high/middle income neighborhoods to low income.

24. Why Do Cities Look the Way they Do?
Decentralization
Suburbanization – relocates businesses, services, and people to the burbs.
Sprawl– rate of land urbanization exceeds rate of population growth.
Population change maps

25. Suburbanization
A flattened population density gradient as people move out of the city center.
Used to see a density gradient where density decreased with increasing distance from the city center.
Possible because of the highway systems and because so many people own cars.
Photo by David Shankbone
Urban Expansion: Annexation of land to city jurisdictions. More and more places end up organizing their own jurisdiction.

26. What Kinds of Problems Are Associated with Inner Cities in MDCs?
Remember redlining, white flight, and blockbusting?
Seattle Map – Home Owners Loan Corporation
Helped influence change in the city structure by tending to approve loans in suburban areas.

28. Urban Redevelopment Process of redeveloping part of a city
Government can take over “blighted” properties
(Federal Housing Act 1949)
Eminent Domain
Housing Projects
Gentrification – redevelopment/restoration of properties by affluent peoples.
Problems?
Gentrifying Harlem

29. Urbanization in LDCs
8/10 most populous cities in developing areas: Buenos Aires, Delhi, Dhaka, Kolkata, Mexico City, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Shanghai
Increasing rates of migration for work bring people to the city – how to accommodate all these people?
Squatter settlements
People occupy land don’t own or rent
Eventually build permanent structures
Informal sector
Microfinancing – India Grapples with Pitfalls of Microfinancing
Squatter Settlements on the Skyline

30. Pearl River Delta Settlements – Largest Megacity

31. Urban Planning
Field focused on improving the physical and social characteristics of towns & cities through space management.
Involved in zoning decisions
Switch from decisions to zone activities into separate areas with mixed-use development.
New urbanism
Tries to improve environmental sustainability, affordable housing opportunities, and development of urban communities.

32. High Point in Seattle

33. High Point

34. Review
Terms to know in addition to the ones below: central places, hinterlands, functional complexity, central city, central business district, urbanized area, metropolitan area, megalopolis, megacities
What is urbanization? What regional trends describe urbanization? What factors influence these trends?
What parts of the world are seeing the most growth in megacities?
What does central place theory suggest and how do range, threshold, market area/hinterland relate?
What does the rank-size rule say? What are primate cities? How is the distribution of services different?
What are centralization, decentralization, agglomeration, filtering, fiscal squeeze, and functional zoning?
What is suburbanization? How did redlining, white flight, and blockbusting influence the arrangement of urban spaces?
What are some methods involved in urban redevelopment? Problems associated with these strategies?
What are squatter settlements? How do they change over time?
What is urban planning and new urbanism?