Changing Cities Geographers are interested in the places around them. These places are far from static and stable – even if sometimes we would like them to be! – they often change in many ways: they change in terms of their material form (what they look like, the buildings, open spaces, thoroughfares, skyline), their social make up (the population size, type, age, their needs and interests), and in terms of its culture (what events happen, what customs are practiced, what religions believed in, what preferences valued). This place we live in – the place of Cardiff – changes too.

Changing Cardiff http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7843228.stm Writer Peter Finch turns his eye to these changes happening in Cardiff. Could I still find anything new to say about this drizzle-drenched place? Certainly. Cardiff - capital of so many things - changed and still changing. The western world's boom may have bust but the Cardiff landscape still keeps on shifting. The new centre is open, a new landscape spreads. Streets are wide and clean, lit like glory, full of buskers and traders and people in swarms. The malls beckon like Beijing stadia. There is high rise everywhere. New hotels, new stores, new apartments, new administrations. Blocks that glisten, house offices, corporations, enterprises, libraries. Stores selling everything any Western purchaser could ever want (except maybe a can of beans or a packet of screws) open in droves. Further out, Canton's Chapter Arts Centre becomes a giant all-welcoming bar for the creative millions. Ninian Park moves itself to an aluminium and grass site of modernist wonder and surrounds itself with new stores that go on forever. The Bay thrashes skywards with flickering I-gotta-have-one apartments. The Ferry Road peninsular flexes its sports-driven muscles. If a city could sing as the wind blows through its buildings then this one would. So Cardiff is changing. Its built form is changing – new assembly buildings, new entertainment venues, new shopping arcades, new homes. Its culture is changing – no longer the coal city, but the cultural city – culture is now the big business of Cardiff – be it sporting occasions, tourism, or new forms of consumption, the old and the new are blended together in a distinctively Welsh package. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7843228.stm

Are all changes a good thing? What consequences do they have? What is good about these changes? What are bad? What consequences are not accounted for? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8052183.stm

Built form: Are these homes what the population need and want? Do we need more arcades? Do we need a sense of community, a sense of belonging, and how do the changes affect that? What changes could be introduced to create, or recreate that?

Culturally: With more tourists do we make the city into a museum, making our culture a relic of the past? Do we change our culture and mix it with the best bits of England, Europe and America?

Environmentally: If we have more tourists, we have more cars, we have more congestion, more pollution? Do we need a congestion charge? More public transport? More trams? Landfill to be full up by next year. What are we going to do with our waste?

Key functions of cities Environmental Reduce environmental impact Enhance environmental quality Economic Enhance long term competitiveness Promote employment Social Enhance education, health, diversity

Growth of cities The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population are living in towns and cities. By 2030 this number will swell to almost 5 billion Urban growth concentrated in Africa and Asia. Mega-cities Population of more than 10m

Mumbai Population 11 914 398

Beijing Population 11 509 595

Shanghai Population 14 348 535

Chongqing Population 9 691 901 More than 32 million people live in Chongqing's Administrative Area

Urban development in China Year Urban population % of population 1980 190m 20 2000 460m 36 2015 (est) 660m 60

Problems of development Poorly planned Social problems Pollution Affects on health Economic congestion

Air pollution and “blue sky days” Air Pollution Index of 100 or less are “blue sky days” But 100 is still “slightly polluted” Investment of millions of pounds to improve air quality in Beijing 1998 100 blue sky days 2007 246 blue sky days

Cardiff and Xiamen Twin cities since 1983 Coastal cities Similar populations @250,000 Today both cities have experienced Regeneration Cardiff Bay Special Economic Zone Population growth Cardiff now home to 325,00 people Xiamen now has a population of 1.31m

Challenges for Chinese urban planners Pace of change Rapid structural change Move from centrally planned to a market economy Institutional reform in land use From state to diversified ownership High levels of migration Major shifts in the rural population to urban areas

Conclusions Cities are dynamic Growth of Cities Increasingly dominate their hinterland Who should decide the future of our cities? Can we make our cities better places to live? Can we make our cities more sustainable? Use less resources Change the ways in which people live their lives

Changing Cities Is change a good thing? What would you change? Why? What do you value? What would you protect? What makes your place special? What would make your place better? Changes therefore affect the social, the cultural, the built form, and the environment. What do we think is important about our city, our place, your place? What should be protected? What should be changed? What elements of your place do you value? What would you add to make your place better?