Urbanization PP #1
Download
Report
Transcript Urbanization PP #1
Urbanization
Urbanization
Definition
Growth and diffusion of city
landscapes and urban lifestyle
Can be difficult to define what a
city is and number of people
needed to classify it
Most MDCs are highly
urbanized
Number and % of urban
dwellers in LDCs has exploded
in recent years
Many city governments are
trying to manage explosive
urbanization
10 million a year die from
overcrowding and inadequate
infrastructure
Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)
MSA a term used by the U.S.
Census Bureau to identify a
geographic unit of area including
central city and all of its
immediately interacting counties
with commuters and people
directly connected to the central
city
An MSA is an urbanized region
with a minimum of 50,000 people
in it
Often MSA boundaries overlap
Example “The Triangle” N.C.
Urban “blobs” led to coining of
term “megalopolis”
Originally used to describing fusing of
Washington, D.C. and Boston
Also uses a unit called a
micropolitan statistical area
Area of the surrounding counties
integrated into a central city with a
population of 10,000 to 50,000
Many formerly rural areas now
reclassified
Rate vs. Level of Urbanization
Rate of urbanization
Definition:
Speed at which the population is
becoming urban
Level of urbanization
Definition
Is the % of people already
considered urban
Level of urbanization in the U.S.
is nearly 75%
That means nearly 75% of U.S.
population lives in urban places
HOWEVER rate of urbanization
much higher in China
Versus its overall lower level of
urbanization
Where Urbanization Began
Geographers analyze where
urbanization 1st developed and
why urbanization because in these
urban hearths
Geographers analyze the path of
urbanization’s diffusion from
these hearths and related gaps in
urban development among
different countries
Several qualities are common
among places that were urban
hearths
A dependable water supply, a long
growing season, domesticated
plants and animals, plenty of
building materials, and a system of
writing records
Where Urbanization Began
Agricultural Urban Hearths
Earliest cities were born
around 3500 B.C.E.
Came from agricultural villages
Earliest urban hearths existed in:
Mesopotamia
Indus River
Nile Valley
China
Mexico, Peru
Trade-Based Urban Hearths
Some cities grew as established
marketplaces where traders
came together to buy and sell
goods from across the region
Urbanism spread westward
throughout the Mediterranean
region and spread eastward
through overland and caravan
routes through Persia into India,
China, and then Japan
Specialization began to occur
as certain cities began to
focus on economic
development on the goods
over which they had a
comparative advantage
Where Urbanization Began
Greco-Roman Urban
Hearths
Greeks and Romans erected
cities as centers of political
and administrative control
over their conquered
regions
Cities were planned
Religious Urban Hearths
Some cities grew as centers
of religious ceremony that
were determined to be holy
by sites
Pre-Industrial Cities
Definition:
Those that are developed
prior to industrialization
and shared several
characteristics
Rural settlements surrounding
the urban space provided
agricultural products to urban
dwellers, who in turn provided
different economic functions
Cities served as trade centers
and gateways to foreign lands
and markets
After fall of Roman Empire,
pre-industrial cities
experienced a decline in
development
Pre-Industrial Colonial
Cities
Definition:
Cities built and developed by
colonizers in conquered lands
European imperialism fueled
creation
Shared common
characteristics
Wide boulevards
Classical architecture
Constructed with the aim of
exporting raw materials
back to the mother country
Pre-industrial cities
The “urban-banana”
By the beginning of the 1500s,
a majority of cities were
located in trade centers that
extended from London to
Tokyo
Made a crescent shape , “urban
banana”
Included:
London, Paris,
Constantinople, Venice,
Cairo, Nanking, Hanchow,
and Osaka
The “urban banana” resulted
from both site and situation
factors
Pre-Industrial Cities
Internal Economic Structure
of Pre-Industrial Cities
Often had a diverse mix of
economic functions in any
given space
Rather than zoning that came
with industrialization
Shops, markets, homes, and
government often jumbled
together in urban space
Still separated by wealth
In feudal European cities:
Guilds led to clumping of
certain functions in particular
areas of town
Industrialization and City Structure
Urban-Industrial Revolution
In 1800, only 5% of world’s
population lived in cities
Diffusion of industrialization is
largely responsible for urbanizing the
world’s people
Not equal distribution
European Industrial Revolution
related to Imperialism
Triggered diffusion of city growth
Urbanization grew in a snowball
process
Growth of factories and urban jobs
attracted rural farm workers
Started in England
Created a steady rural-urban
migration pattern
England’s urban population was 24% in
1800, 99% by 1999
The 2nd Agriculture Revolution
Supported the pattern of industrial
and urban growth
More efficient and productive
agricultural practices developed
Led to more workers moving to cities for
jobs
Improved food supplies also
supported an increasing population
Industrialization and City Structure
The Industrial City
By mid-1700s formerly great land-
based cities were fading away
Sea-trade centers were growing rapidly
St. Petersburg, Russia
By the early 1900s, most of the
world’s great cities were American
or European industrial cities
Manchester, England; Chicago, Illinois;
Barcelona, Spain
Industrial cities had a different
function from the pre-industrial city
Rather than serve mainly as
administrative, religious, trade, or
gateway cities primary function was to
make and distribute manufactured
products
Shock Cities
The pattern of rapid urban growth
and urban migration led to growing
urban spaces that were overwhelmed
with the influx of urban in-migrants
Definition:
Urban places experiencing
infrastructural challenges related to
massive and rapid urbanization
Challenges often include:
Slums, hazardous pollution levels,
deadly fires, urban prostitution, and
exploitation of children
Examples:
Manchester, England
Less than 80,000 in 1750
500,000 by 1850
Chicago, Illinois
30,000 in 1750
500,000 by 1830
1.5 million by 1900
Industrialization and City Structure
Strained Infrastructure
An important trend in modern
urbanization is its diffusion to
LDCs
Currently highest rates of
urbanization are occurring in LDCs
Urbanization in LDCs is often
focused on one or two major
cities with a high degree of
primacy rather than being spread
out throughout the country
Such intensely high rates of
urbanization in LDCs are straining
the infrastructural resources
Large migration streams of young
adults moving from rural areas to
urban areas add to strain
Squatter Settlements
Many migrants are unable to find
housing and build squatter
settlements
United Nations estimated that 175
million people lived in squatter
settlements in 2003
Definition:
Makeshift, un-safe housing
constructed from any scraps they find
on the land they neither rent nor own
Called favelas or barriadas in Latin
America, bastees in India, kampongs
in Malaysia
Urban Systems
Defining urban systems
All urban places are part of
an interlocking urban system
of cities that operate within
a network of spatial
interaction
A.k.a- urban places interact
with each other and are
interdependent
Geographers analyze the
spatial distribution of cities
and try to determine why
cities look the way they do
Central Place Theory
Walter Christaller’s theory
Developed the theory as a
means of studying the
geographical patterns of urban
land use
Specifically looking to explain
and predict the pattern of urban
places across the map
Assumptions:
Flat land surface
Uniformly distributed rural
population
Equal transportation methods
Evolutionary movement towards
the growth of cities
Main ideas
Central places are urban centers
that provide services to their
surrounding rural people
Also called hinterland
Range, Threshold
Spatial competition implies that
central places compete with
one another for customers
Illustrates that higher-order
central places contain economic
functions with high thresholds
and high ranges that require
large populations
Central Place Theory
Hexagonal Spatial Pattern
Model predicted hexagonal
pattern of urban, central
places
Central places vary in their
degree of “economic reach”
Higher-order central places
have larger ranges and
thresholds
lower-order central places have
smaller ranges and thresholds
Urban Hierarchy
Central place theory predicts that if a
population is evenly distributed, there
will be a hierarchy of evenly spread
central places to serve the population
Urban hierarchy
Definition:
System of cities consisting of various
levels, with a few cities at the top level
and increasingly more settlements on
each lower level
The position of a city within the
hierarchy is determined by the types
of central place functions it provides
Higher the position in the
hierarchy= the higher the population
being served by the central place and
the more variety of central place
functions performed in the city
A.k.a- have the highest ranges and
thresholds
Hierarchy
There are few urban central places
are the top of the hierarchy
Example: Chicago
Applying Central Place Theory and
Urban Hierarchy: An Example
Central place theory provides
one piece in the jigsaw of
understanding and predicting
geographic patterns or urban
places
Over past thirty years,
populations in the U.S. south
and west have increased and
become wealthier overall
With more people and wealth,
more services were needed
Phoenix, Atlanta, and Dallas
moved up on the urban
hierarchy as they grew to offer
more central place functions to
the newly growing populations
As these cities moved up the
ladder, other cities took their
place and others fell
Tampa, San Antonio, Charlotte
moved up
Cities from Northeast and
Midwest fell in rankings
Ex. Cleveland, Detroit
Rank-Size Rule/ Primate Cities
There is a relationship
between a city’s population
size and its place on the
urban hierarchy within its
urban system
In MDCs usually predicted
using rank-size rule
Some urban systems have
disproportionately large
cities, called primate cities
ex: Bueno Aires, Argentina is
nearly 10x the size of the 2ndlargest city
= high degree of primacy
World Cities
In the interlocking, interacting
network of cities throughout
the world’s urban system,
there exist some world cities
Powerful cities that control a
disproportionately high level of
the world’s economic,
political, and cultural activities
Sometimes called global cities
Distribution
Group of world cities have
shifted
1600s- London, Amsterdam,
Lisbon
1700s- Rome, Paris
1800s- Berlin, Chicago, New
York City, St. Petersburg
Today world cities are centers
of global financial decisions,
flows of information, and
TNCs
NYC, Tokyo, London
Pan-regional Influence
Definition:
A reach that extends beyond the
city’s own region into other
centers of economic control
Megacities
All megacities are large and
have over 10 million
inhabitants
Examples:
Beijing, Cairo, Mexico City,
Jakarta