Chapter 22 Urbanization and
Sustainable Cities
22.1 Urbanization
• Cities have specialized functions as well as
large populations
– Trade Centers (New York)
– Resource Extraction (Pittsburgh, Houston)
– Manufacturing (Detroit)
– All Require Vast Array of Service Industries
• Large cities are expanding rapidly
Largest Metropolitan Areas
Tokyo
Japan
32,450,000
Seoul
South Korea
20,550,000
Mexico City
Mexico
20,450,000
New York
United States
19,750,000
Mumbai
India
19,200,000
Jakarta
Indonesia
18,900,000
São Paulo
Brazil
18,850,000
Delhi
India
18,600,000
Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto
Japan
17,375,000
Shanghai
China
16,650,000
Manila
Philippines
16,300,000
Hong Kong-Shenzhen
China
15,800,000
Los Angeles
United States
15,250,000
22.2 Why Do Cities Grow?
• Immigration is driven by push and pull factors
– Push
• Lack of Land
• Violence
• Social Pressures
– Pull
• Jobs
• Lifestyle
• Government policies can drive urban growth
Cities are Tough
• Small towns frequently die because of economic
problems, resource exhaustion, disasters or war,
but large cities are rarely abandoned
• Vijayanagara, India (Destroyed 1565) is one of the
most recent large cities (500,000) to be
completely abandoned
• Pripyat, Ukraine (50,000) was abandoned after
Chernobyl (1986)
• No large cities were abandoned because of World
War II
Cities Re-Invent Themselves
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•
•
•
•
Pittsburgh: Steel  Technology
Milwaukee: Brewing  Service
Dubai: Oil  Finance
Detroit?
New Orleans?
22.3 Urban Challenges In The
Developing World
• Traffic congestion and air quality are growing
problems
• Insufficient sewage treatment causes water
pollution
• Insufficient Public Utilities
• Many cities lack adequate housing
22.4 Urban Challenges In The
Developed World
• Urban sprawl consumes land and resources
• Expanding suburbs force long commutes
• Why not find out why people leave cities and
fix those problems?
– Crowding
– Behavior
• Mass-transit could make our cities more
livable
22.5 Smart Growth
• Garden cities and new towns were early
examples of smart growth
• New urbanism advanced the ideas of smart
growth
• Victor Gruen and the Shopping Mall
• Green urbanism promotes sustainable cities
• Open space design preserves landscapes
– Who pays for Open Space?