WORLD GEOGRAPHY
Nov. 25, 2014
Remaining schedule
Unit 8 – Urban Geography
Unit 9 – Industry and Services
Unit 10 – Human Environment
Last Tuesday
Yeungdae
Kaclandia
Kmuland
Questions
- What is this state’s major industry?
- How dependent is the new state on its former colonizer
(France)
- Does Kaclandia have natural resources. If so, where are
they located?
- What is Kaclandia’s population?
What are its demographics (especially its labor force)?
- Does the new state plan on building new religious
structures?
Today
Unit 8 (Urban Geography)
Some basic terms
City: A conglomeration of people and buildings clustered
together to serve as a center of politics, culture, and
economics
Urban: The buildup of the city and surrounding environs
connected to the city (central city and suburbs)
Urbanization: Movement of people from rural to urban
areas—can happen very quickly in the modern world
Global Urban Population
Australia
Where are cities located and why?
Site
• Absolute location
• Static location, often
chosen for trade,
defense, or religion
Situation
• Relative location
• A city’s place in the
region and the world
around it
• Trade area: An
adjacent region within
which a city’s influence
is dominant
Trade Areas
Rank-size rule
• Characteristic of a model urban hierarchy
• The population of the city or town is inversely proportional
to its rank in the hierarchy
For example:
largest city = 12 million
2nd largest = 6 million
3rd largest = 4 million
4th largest = 3 million
Primate city
The leading city of a country, disproportionately larger than
the rest of the cities
Factors affecting primate cities:
- spread of colonialism
- strong centralized government
- economic factors
- rural-urban migration
- efficiency of modern transport
Advantages of primate cities
- Economies of large scale can be achieved because these
cities attract overseas investment and benefits that can
benefit the entire country/state.
- Attractive places of migration.
- Resources, services, and infrastructure available on a
large scale.
Problems faced by primate cities
- housing shortages
- traffic congestion
- crime
- pollution
- increase in land value (unaffordable housing)
- imbalance in development
Primate cities - examples
- France: Paris (popn. 9.6 million)
Marseilles, France’s next largest city (popn. 1.3 million)
- U.K.: London (popn. 7 million)
Next largest city (Birmingham) popn. 1 million.
- South Korea: Seoul (popn. 10 million)
20% of the country’s population.
Countries without primate cities
- India: Most populous city = Mumbai (16 million)
second most populous: Kolkata (13 million)
- China, Canada, Australia, Brazil, U.S.
Central Place Theory (Christaller)
- Predicts how and where central places in the urban
hierarchy (hamlets, villages, towns, and cities) are
functionally and spatially distributed
- Assumes that
– Surface is flat with no physical barriers
– Soil fertility is the same everywhere
– Population and purchasing power are evenly distributed
– Region has uniform transportation network
– From any given place, a good or service could be sold
in all directions out to a certain distance
Hexagonal Hinterlands
C = city
T = town
V = village
H = hamlet
Georgia, N. Carolina, S. Carolina
Organization of Cities and how Cities
Function
Urban morphology: The layout of a city, its physical form
and structure
Functional zonation: The division of the city into certain
regions (zones) for certain functions (purposes)
Zones of a city
Zones
- Central business district (CBD)
- Central City (the CBD + older housing zones)
- Suburb (outlying, functionally uniform zone outside of
the central city)
Zones of a city
Zones of a city
Zones of a city
Zones of a city
Modeling the North American city
- Concentric zone model (Ernest Burgess)
- Sector model (Homer Hoyt)
- Multiple-nuclei model (Chauncy Harris and Edward
Ullman)
Classical models of urban structure
Edge cities
Suburban downtowns, often located near key freeway
intersections, including
- Office complexes
- Shopping centers
- Hotels
- Restaurants
- Entertainment facilities
- Sports complexes
Urban Realms model
Each realm a separate
economic, social, and
political entity that is
linked together to form
a larger metropolitan
framework
Satellite cities
Seoul Capital Area
Satellite cities
Example: Seoul Capital Area (Sudogwon)
- Central city is Seoul (“Seoul Special City”)
Satellite cities include:
- Incheon
- Suwon
- Ansan
- Anyang
- Goyang
- Seongnam
- Bucheon
- Yongin
The Seoul Capital Area is the
world’s second largest metropolitan
area
popn. 25,000,000
Cities of periphery and semi-periphery
Latin America
Cities of periphery and semi-periphery
• Griffin-Ford model
• Blend of Latin American
traditions with
globalization
• Disamenity sectors
• Not connected to city services
• May be controlled by gangs
and drug lords
• Industrial park
• Gentrification area
Example: Rio De Janeiro (Brazil)
Industrial park
Cities of periphery and semi-periphery
Subsaharan Africa
De Blij model
- Low levels of urbanization
but rapid growth rates
- European colonial imprint
Nairobi, Kenya
Accra, Ghana
Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Cape Town, South Africa
Satellite township: Cape Town
Cities of periphery and semi-periphery
McGee model
- Colonial port and
surrounding commercial
zone as focal point
Functional zonation – real-life example
Xiamen
How people make cities
Role of powerful social and cultural forces
Periphery and semi-periphery:
- Sharp contrast between rich and poor
- Often lack zoning laws or enforcement of
zoning laws
Making cities in the core (U.S.)
Redlining:
Financial institutions refusing to
lend money in certain
neighborhoods
Blockbusting : Realtors
purposefully selling a home at a
low price to an African American
and then soliciting white residents
to sell their homes at low prices,
to generate “white flight”
Making cities in the core (U.S.)
Gentrification: Individuals buying and rehabilitating
houses, raising the housing value in the neighborhood
Gentrification (Harlem, New York)
Gentrification (Harlem, New York)
Gentrification (Harlem, New York)
Making cities in the core (U.S.)
Commercialization:
City government transforming
a central city to attract residents
and tourists, often in stark contrast
to the rest of the central city
Making cities in the core (U.S.)
Tear-downs: Houses that new owners buy with the
intention of tearing them down to build much larger homes
McMansions: Large homes, often built to the outer limits of
the lot
Mcmansions
Mcmansions
Mcmansions
Making cities in the core (U.S.)
Urban Sprawl: Unrestricted growth of housing, commercial
developments, and roads over large expanses of land, with
little concern for urban planning
Making cities in the core (U.S.)
Urban Sprawl:
New Urbanism
Development, urban revitalization, and suburban reforms
that create walkable neighborhoods with a diversity of
housing and jobs
Concerns:
- Privatization of public spaces
- Failure to address conditions that create social ills of cities
- Countering urban sprawl
New Urbanism
Next Class
- Wrap up Unit 8
- Introduce Unit 9 (Industries and Services)