Sustainable Cities: Urban Land
Use and Management
Chapter 26
Miller 11th Edition
Definitions
• Urban (metropolitan) area = town plus its
suburbs
– City = large number of people with a variety of
professions who depend on resources from the
outside of city boundary
• Rural area = an area with a population less than
2,500 people
– Village = group of rural households liked by custom,
culture,family ties. Historical utilization of natural
resources
Urbanization & Urban growth
• Degree of urbanization is percentage of population
living in area of greater than 2,500 people
• Urban growth due to:
– natural increase - births
– immigration - poor are pulled to urban areas or are
pushed from rural areas
• Trends of urban growth:
– Increase of 2% to 45% of people in urban areas since
1950
– By 2050 about 66% of the world’s people will be living
in urban areas.
Urbanization & Urban growth
• The number of large cities is mushrooming
– megacities and megalopolis
– Today, more than 400 cities have over 1 mil. or more
people. 19 megacities with over 10 mil. People
i.e.Tokyo (28 mil), Mexico City (18 mil), New York
(17 mil).
• Most of growth in developing countries will be
urban growth with all of its problems
– 38% of the people in live in cities. But by 2025 it will
be 54%. Many of these cities are already short on
water, have waste & pollution problems.
Urbanization & Urban Growth
• Urban growth is slower in developed countries
– 75% of the people live in cities. But by 2025 it will be
82%.
• Poverty is becoming increasingly urbanized
– slums, squatter settlements and shantytowns
– at least 1 billion people live in crowed slums of inner cities.
No access to water, sewer, electricity, education etc. 100 mil
people are homeless & sleep on the streets
• Case study - Mexico City
Mexico City
• The world’s second largest city with 18 million
people or one in five Mexicans
– severe air pollution (over 4 million cars) within a valley
that causes an estimated 100,000 premature deaths/year
– high unemployment rate, close to 50%
– high crime rate
– over one-third (6 million) of its residents live in slums
(barrios) without running water, sewer (but running
sewage), or electricity
– high infection rates i.e. salmonella, hepatitis
United States Urbanization
•
•
•
•
Migration to large central cities
Migration from cities to suburbs
Migration from north & east to south & west
Urban sprawl, growth of low-density development
on the edge of cities. Encouraged by:
- availability of cheap land, (forests, agriculture fields etc.).
- government loans guarantees for new single-family homes
- government & state funding of highways
- low-cost gasoline encourage car use
- low interest mortgage
Major Spatial Patterns
• Concentric Circle City such as New York
• Sector City is the large urban area extending
from San Francisco to San Jose, CA
• Multiple Nuclei City is Los Angeles
• Megalopolis is when separate cities join
such as the Bowash (Boston to Washington
D.C.)
Concentric Circle Model
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Central business district (CBD)
Deteriorating transition zone
Worker’s homes
Middle-class suburbs
Commuter's zone
Sector Model
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
High-rent residential
Intermediate-rent residential
Low-rent residential
Education and recreation
Transportation
Industrial
Core (CBD)
Multiple-Nuclei Model
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
CBD
Wholesale, light manufacturing
Low-rent residential
Intermediate-rent residential
High-rent residential
Heavy manufacturing
Outlying business district
Residential Suburb
Industrial Suburb
Major Urban Problems in U.S.
• Deteriorating services
• Aging infrastructures
• Budget crunches from lost tax revenues as
businesses and affluent people leave
• Rising poverty with violence, drugs, decay
• Urban sprawl - growth of low-density
development on edges of cities and towns
– 9 consequences of “bad growth”
75% of the US population live
in urban areas occupying 3%
of the country’s land area
Urban Resources & Environmental Problems
• 45% of people living in 5% of land – cities –
consume 75% of the world’s resources
• Urban areas depend upon imports
• Benefits of urbanization:
– recycling more economically feasible
– decreased birth rates reduces environmental pressures
– per capita expenditures on environmental protection
high in urban areas
– population concentration impacts biodiversity less
Urban Resource and Environmental
Problems
• Destruction of plant life - what is $ value?
• Cities produce little of own food
• Urban heat island effect --> dust dome
– 5 ways to counteract this effect
• Water supply and flooding problems
– 5 ways to reduce demand on reservoirs and
waste treatment systems
• High pollution exposure
•The enormous amount of heat generated creates an urban heat island
•Additional heat changes climate of surrounding area
Urban Resource & Environmental Problems
• Excessive noise exposure  health effects
– Hearing loss, hypertension, muscle tension,
migraines, headaches, higher cholesterol levels,
gastric ulcers, irritability, insomnia,
psychological disorders, aggression
Urban Resource & Environmental Problems
• Beneficial effects:
– education
– social services
– medical care
• Harmful effects
– infectious disease spread
• high density population
• inadequate drinking and sewage system
– physical injuries
– pollution exposure
– Urban Sprawl
Impacts of Urban Sprawl
Land and Biodiversity
Water
Human Health
and Aesthetics
Increased runoff
Contaminated drinking
water & air
Increased surface water
& groundwater pollution
Noise pollution
Increased use of surface
water & groundwater
Loss of cropland
Loss of forests &
grasslands
Loss of wetlands
Loss & fragmentation of
wildlife habitats
Increased wildlife road kill
Increased soil erosion
Sky illumination at night
Decreased storage of
Surface water &
groundwater
Traffic congestion
Increased flooding
Decreased natural
Sewage treatment
Impacts of Urban Sprawl
Energy, Air, and Climate
Economic Effects
Increased energy use
and waste
Higher taxes
Increased air pollution
Decline of downtown
business districts
Increased greenhouse gas
Emissions
Enhanced global warming
Warmer microclimate
(heat island effect)
Increased
unemployment
in central city
Loss of tax base in
central city
Transportation and Urban Development
• Determines where people live, where they
go to work and buy stuff, how much land is
paved and exposure to air pollution
• Cities grow up if they can’t grow out; more
prone to use mass transit
• Urban sprawl due to cheap gas and land and
highways; dispersed car-centered cities use
10x more energy
Motor vehicle concentration
• Ground transportation: individual (cars, etc) and mass
(buses and rail)
• U.S. has 35% of cars and trucks used for 98% of all
urban transportation
• Motor scooters - effort to change to electric
Drive alone 80%
• Riding bicycles;
less pollution and
dangerous and more
efficient than
walking
Other 4%
– bicycles available
for public use
– bike and ride
systems
Public transit 5%
Car pool 11%
Pros and Cons of Mass transit
• 3% mass transit use in U.S. to 47% in Japan
• 20% gasoline tax revenues to mass transit
• Rapid rail, suburban trains and trolley - efficient
at high population density
• High speed rail lines – replace planes, buses and
private cars; but require large government
subsidies
• Bus systems more flexible than rail systems but
efficient when full
Source
• https://sites.google.com/a/siskorea.org/scien
ce-bits/ap-environmental-science/apesassignments/ch-18-20-land-resources