APES CHAPTER 25 SUSTAINABLE CITIES: URBAN LAND USE & MANAGEMENT
Ecocity characteristics
-Matter and Energy used efficiently
-Far less pollution and solid waste produced – recycle, reuse
-Uses locally available energy sources
-Buildings, vehicles, and appliances meet stiff energy efficiency
-Native trees and plants planted to provide shade, beauty, reduce pollution, noise and habitats for
wildlife
-Lots and streams cleaned up
-Nearby farms, forest, grasslands and wetlands preserved
-food comes from nearby farms
-People oriented city – not car oriented
-Not the future now – Davis California
-A lot like the idea of Haile plantation
25.1
Urbanization and Urban Growth
A. Rate
1. Cities
a.
cradles of civilization, centers of commerce, communication, technology, education,
religion
b. centers of crowding, pollution and disease
2. If over 2,500 people called and URBAN Area
3. Rural Area – less than 2,500 people
4. Degree of urbanization – the percentage of population living in an urban area
5. Urban growth – is the rate of increase of urban populations- will happen more in developing
countries
6. 5 major trends
a. Since 1850’s 40%more population is living in cities
b. Number of large cities are mushrooming – megacities – cities with over 10 million
people – name three
c. Developing countries will have over half their population (57%) living in the cities –
more than N.A. Europe, Latin America and Japan combined
d. Developed countries will reach 84% urbanization
e. Poverty is becoming increasingly urbanized
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Slums – 5-6 people in a room inner city
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Squatter settlements or shanty towns - found in every country S.A. Barrios, Africa Bidonvilles, India –
bustees – undeveloped land (dumps)that poor move onto and live in shacks
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Cities do not improve because they do not want to encourage squatters – Some residents have made
efforts to improve.
B. Causes of Urban Growth
1. Natural increase – more births than deaths
2. Immigration
a. economic reasons – jobs, poverty
b. political reasons – war
c. Societal – cities get more charity/welfare
d. Educational reasons
C. Case Study – MEXICO CITY – (Makesicko City)
1. Problems
a. Air pollution
-
naturally caused by the terrain – no wind
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cars and factories
b. Slums – barrios – no water or sewer /fecal snow
c. Deforestation due to burning wood for fuel
d. Lakes dried up to over use
2. Solutions
a. industrializing other parts of Mexico – to lure people away
b. closed oil refinery
c. use unleaded gas and catalytic converters
d. plant trees to clean air
e. purchased land to provide green space
D. Urbanization of US
1. 3 shifts in US history – since 1800
a. people moved to large central cities
b. 1970 – moved from large central cities to suburbs
c. 1980 – moved from north and east to south and west
2. problems
a. since 1920’s decreased
b. deteriorating services – aging infrastructures
c. lost taxes causing budget crunch
d. violence, crime and unemployment increasing
E. Major Spatial Patterns of Urban Development
1. Concentric Circle
a. ex. New York City
b. Central Business District
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developed usually ringed with slums and then affluent neighborhoods
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developing usually ringed with affluent and then slums
2. Sector City
a. grows in pie shaped wedges
b. ex. San Francisco
3. Multiple nuclei city
a. develops around multiple centers
b. ex. Los Angeles
4. Any can develop into a Megalopolis ex. Bowash
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can cause urban sprawl when gas is cheap, plentiful land and good highways
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urban sprawl bad because gobbles up habitats and farmland, dependent on car
5. Can also grow vertically like NY and Tokyo
What pattern do you see in Gainesville?
25.2
Urban resources and environmental problems
A. Environmental Effects
1. Problems caused by poverty and Problems caused by Affluence
2. Cities are not self sustaining – must import everything
3. Produce massive amounts of waste – pollution
4. Benefits
a. recycling more feasible
b. birth rates less in urban areas
c. better education opportunities
d. helps preserve biodiversity
5. Cities need to convert from linear metabolism to Circular metabolism –
B. Trees and Food Production in cities
1. Trees important for
a. absorbs air pollution
b. gives off oxygen
c. helps cool the air
d. muffles noise
e. provides wildlife habitats
f.
worth $57,000 of environmental services over 50 year lifespan
2. Cities have a hard time growing own food, but many European countries do this in community
gardens
3. Cities can encourage farmer’s market.
C. Water Supply problems
1. Cities must import large amounts of water from far distances
2. Covering land with asphalt means rain is not absorbed and then flooding occurs
3. Many cities built in low areas – near water intensifies flooding problems
D. Pollution Problems of Cities
1. Solid wastes builds up and can spread disease
2. Air pollution
3. Water purification and sewage
4. Heat pollution – cities are warmer, rainier foggier and cloudier than surrounding rural areas
5. Heat also traps pollutants
6. Tree planting prevents urban heat islands
7. Noise pollution – noise that interferes with hearing
a. causes deafness, high blood pressure etc.
b. measured in decibel-A (dbA)
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75dbA damaging, 180 dbA can kill
c. 5 ways to control noise
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Modify noise activities and devices to produce less noise
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Shield noisy devices
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Move noisy operations away from people
-
Use antinoise, cancel out one noise with another
E. Cities affect on human health
1. Good
a. better education
b. better health care
c. better social services
2. bad
a. increases infectious diseases
b. industrial and traffic accidents
c. exposure to pollution
d. crime
F. Affect on rural areas
1. swallow up farmlands as they grow
2. means food must be transported farther – prices go up
3. Land prices and taxes rise – pushing farmers out
4. Crowd rural roads
5. Movement out eventually causes the same problems immigrants were moving away from. - +
feedback
25.3
A.
Transportation
Individual – cars, bicycles, walking
B. Mass – buses and rail systems
C. US – has 5% of pop but 35% of cars
1.
US uses cars not only for transportation but also for symbols of status, power, etc.
2.
One out of every 4 jobs are connected to the car
D. Car Cons
1. Very few people can afford it
2. causes death and injury
3. Largest source of air pollution
4. Use non renewable fossil fuels
5. Highways have caused social fragmentation
6. One third of urban land is used for roads, parking lots, etc.
7. Cars have not increased the average speed in cities
8. All these factors are hidden cost of cars – one way to pay for these things is to tax – user
pays approach – gas -$5-6
9. Do away with tax breaks for using your car for business (subsidies)
E. Bicycles
1. Most used type of transportation in urban settings
2. Cheaper
3. No pollution
4. Go faster in crowed conditions
5. Are increasing in some cities
6. Unfortunately – decreasing in developing countries as they acquire affluence
F. Mass Transit in US
1. Only 8% in US, 15% Germany, 47%Japan
3. Car industries bought out cable car systems and dismantled to increase car and bus sales
4. 20% of taxes go to mass transit 80% improvements of highways
5. Federal tax breaks for companies that provide parking, does not encourage use of mass
transit or walking
G. Rail Systems – electric engines
1. 3 systems
a. rapid rail – subway
b. regional trains – connect central cities with suburbs
c. light rail – trolleys or trams
2. Pros
a. energy efficient
b. less air pollution
c. fewer injuries
d. take up less land
e. availability to young, old, poor
f.
cost a lot less to build and operate than highways
g. More passengers per driver
H. High Speed Regional Trains – bullet trains
1. Expensive to run so only good on long well traveled routes
2. Europe, Japan, Australia, China – have trains that take less time to get to an area than by
flying. US is behind
3. MAGLEV trains – magnetic levitation rail - no friction, no noise, elevated over existing
highways – very expensive.
I.
Buses
1. Pros
a. more flexible – rerouted easily
b. don’t need tracks
c. cheaper
2. Cons
a. sometime operate in the red due to low fares to attract riders
b. can get caught in traffic
c. only profitable when full – some routes cut
25.4
Urban Planning and Control
A. Conventional Land Use Planning
1.
Zoning – controversial – controlled by elected officials
2. Based on assumption that population growth and economic development should be
encouraged.
3. Assumption made because most of revenue to run public services ( schools, police, fire,
water, sewer) comes from property taxes.
4. Positive feedback loop
Encourage growth
Get more people
Get more taxes
Need more taxes
Need more services
5. If taxes get too high business and people move – leaving environmental decay
B. Ecological Land use planning
1. Complex process that takes in to account Geological, ecological , economic, health and
societal factors
2. 6 basic steps
a. Make and environmental and social inventory
b. Identify and prioritize goals – areas critical for preserving water, soil erosion and
flooding
c. Develop individual and composite maps
d. Develop a master composite
e. Develop a master plan
f.
Implement the master plan
3. Difficult because requires many years – due to being controlled by politics and politicians
change every few years
4. Officials unwilling to pay for ecological land use planning
5. Need cooperation with surrounding areas – ex. Airport
C. Controlling land use
1. Allow zoning – land designated for certain activities
a. ex. Commercial, residential, industrial, utilities, transport, recreation, wetlands,
floodplains
2. Bad because encourages urban sprawl when jobs away from home
3. Limit # of building permits
4. Tax according to actual use instead of Potential use
5. Japan and Western Europe have most comprehensive land use plans
6. In US only Oregon has a land use plan
25.5 Solutions – Making urban areas more Liveable
A. “History shows that the level achieved by a civilization can be measured by the degree
to which it performs maintenance.” Eric Hoffer – philosopher/Longshoreman
B. Problems in US maintenance
1. Sewer backs us in Chicago, Boston has leaky pipes
2. Bridges and highways unsafe
3. Neglect due to budget cuts and neglect due to budget deficits
C. Urban Space can be preserved by
1. green spaces in the city – Central Park
2. Green belt around the city, kept by urban growth boundary
3. Cluster approach instead of typical row housing
4. Green ways – jogging paths, rail trails etc.
D. Build new towns?
1. Relieve pressure on overcrowded cities
2. 3 basic types
a, satellite Towns
b. freestanding new towns
c. in town new towns
3. Need government help
E. How can we make towns more sustainable
1. more self reliant and energy efficient
2. Examples
a. give up lawns
b. cluster building
c. develop town center
d. plant lots of trees instead of cutting them down
e. people friendly not car centered
F.
Good ex. Chattanooga Tenn, US and Curitiba, Brazil –
G. Primary problem not urbanization but our failure to make cities more sustainable and
livable