1. Topic: Urban Patterns & Processes
Aim: What primary functions do cities serve?
Do Now: Would you ever consider moving to a major city? Why or why not?

2. Making Connections
We’ve already learned a lot that’s relevant to urban geography!
How do you think cities relate to:
Population geography
Migration geography
Cultural geography
Ethnicity / race
Gender
Language
Religion
Political geography (consider scale)

3. Urban Geography Key Questions
Why do people live in cities?
When and why did the rise of modern cities begin?
Where are cities located and why?
How are cities organized?
How are cities different outside of North America?
What problems are associated with cities?
How do cities connect people around the world?

4. What’s a city? Canada: <1000 inhabitants = village; >1000 = town
United States: > 2500 inhabitants = town
India: up to 5000 inhabitants may still be a village
Japan: need 30,000 inhabitants to be considered “urban”
Is size the best criteria for designating a city? What other criteria could be used?
Common occupation
If most inhabitants are farmers = rural
If most are involved in commerce, manufacturing, or other industries = urban
…but it’s difficult for countries to figure this out…

5. Why do people move to the city?
Rural-urban migration
Push
Lack of electrical, water and sewage services
Hard work, long hours and little pay for farmers
Shortage of education, health and welfare services.
Chance of natural disasters leading to crop failure
Pull
The availability of schools, doctors, hospitals and entertainment
A greater variety of jobs with higher wages
Improved housing
More reliable sources of food
More enjoyment of life

6. Shanghai from
Cities illustrate rapid development

7. Cities also illustrate inequality…

8. Brazil
The richest 10% own two-thirds of all the land and control more than half of the wealth
The poorest 20% live in the most squalid conditions anywhere on Earth
“Some of the world’s most architecturally magnificent central cities are ringed and sectored by the most wretched favelas where poverty, misery, and crime converge.” – deBlij, The Power of Place

9. Hyderabad, India

10. Hyderabad, India - How does this relate to the concept of scale?

11. Urbanization
Imagine humankind’s existence on Earth as a 24-hour day. In this metaphor:
Settlements of more than a hundred people are only about a half-hour old
Towns and cities emerged only a few minutes ago
Large-scale urbanization began less than 60 seconds ago
Urban explosion has gone hand in hand with the industrial revolution
Estimates demonstrate the world’s urban population more than doubled since 1950
Urban population doubled again by 2000
Over 50 percent of Earth’s population live in cities (1994)

12. Six Urban Hearths Mesopotamia between Tigris and Euphrates rivers
Iraq
Indus River Valley
Pakistan
Nile River Valley
Egypt
Huang He River Valley
China
Maya
Mexico
Inca
Peru
About 3500 BCE
SAME AS AGRICULTURAL HEARTHS

14. Common Qualities of Urban Hearths
Agricultural surplus
Dependable water supply
Long growing season
Domesticated plants and animals
Social stratification
Plentiful building materials
A system of writing records

15. Trade-Based Urban Hearths
Some cities grew as marketplaces
Traders came from across the region
Urbanism diffused westward and eastward through Mediterranean region
Westward: Phoenecia, Greece, Rome
Eastward: Persia/Pakistan  India  China  Japan
Specialization
Cities focused on certain goods
E.g., today Hollywood = film

17. Urban Morphology (layout) Greco-Roman Cities: Administrative Centers

18. Ancient Chinese Cities: Religious Centers

19. Medieval Cities European Feudal Cities
After collapse of Roman Empire in 5th Century, Europe’s cities were diminished or abandoned.
European Feudal Cities
Begin in 11th Century
Independent cities formed in exchange for military service to feudal lord.
Improved roads encouraged trade
Dense and compact within defensive walls
Paris, France
Cittadella, Italy 19

20. Colonial Cities European cities in conquered lands
What were the major North American British colonial cities?
Mostly coastal – trade ports
Wide boulevards, prominent architecture

21. Fez, Morocco
(French = New Town)

22. Industrial Cities
By early 1900s, most of the world’s greatest cites were American or European industrial cities
Manchester, Chicago, Barcelona
Primary function: make and distribute manufactured goods
How have cities changed since the Industrial Revolution?

23. Urban Systems Aim: Where are cities located and why?
Do Now: How often do you go to NYC? Do you spend comparable time in other cities? Why or why not?

24. For tomorrow: Organization of Cities (263-268)
In your Expert Groups you will become experts in one of six city models. Read and take notes and bring in a detailed color sketch of your model, clearly labeled.
(Burgess) Concentric Zone Model – Michael, Jerry, Travis, Ms. W
(Hoyt) Sector Model – Chris, Chuck, Carter, Julia
(Harris-Ullman) Multiple Nuclei Model – Anthony, Noah, Dan, Liam
(Griffin-Ford) Latin American City Model – Austin, Kelsey, Lucas, Sam
Subsaharan African City Model – Nick, Kevin, Alex, Francesca
(McGee) Southeast Asian City Model – Maggie, Jake, Sasan, Brian

25. City Locations: Trade Areas

26. Hierarchy of Urban Places
Every city has a trade area
an adjacent region within which its influence is dominant
Trade areas and population combine to give us a hierarchy of urban places, commonly called the rank-size rule (George Zipf 1949)
The population of a city or town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy

27. Rank-Size Rule If the largest city had 12 million people:
the second largest will have about 6 million (1/2)
the third largest will have 4 million (1/3)
the fourth city 3 million; and so on
Does not apply to all countries
Does seem to apply in U.S. (Let’s Google it!)

28. Fact Check! Choose one of your two assigned countries
Determine whether the rank-size rule applies by looking up the population of the largest three cities in that country (on your phone – Google “largest city in…”)
Record the data – I will be collecting it
If the largest city has more that 2x the pop as the next largest city…

29. Primate City Rule
Largest settlement has more than twice as many people as 2nd largest settlement
Most important urban areas economically, politically, and culturally
Tends to lack effective distribution of goods and services.
Primate Cities:
Copenhagen, Denmark
London, England
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Bangkok, Thailand
Paris, France
Bucharest, Romania
Mexico City, Mexico
No primate cities in the U.S., China, India, Canada, Australia or Brazil

30. Primate City and Population 2nd Largest City and Population
Copenhagen, Denmark
1 million people
Arhus, Denmark
200,000 people
London, United Kingdom
7 million people
Birmingham, United Kingdom 1 million people
Bangkok, Thailand
7.5 million people
Nanthaburi, Thailand 481,000 people
Paris, France
9.6 million people
Marseilles, France
1.3 million people
Bucharest, Romania
2 million people
Iasi, Romania
320,000 people
Mexico City, Mexico
8.6 million people
Guadalajara, Mexico
1.6 million people

31. How far would you travel for…

32. How far would you travel for…

33. Central Place Theory Walter Christaller – 1930s
Way to study geographical patterns of urban land use
Trying to explain and predict pattern of urban places across the map
Based on some assumptions/generalizations
Flat land surface
Uniformly distributed rural population
Equal transportation methods spread throughout the space
Evolutionary movement toward the growth of cities

34. Main Ideas of Central Place Theory
Central places are
Urban centers that provide services to…
Hinterlands
Rural people surrounding the urban center
Threshold is
Minimum number of people needed to fuel a function’s existence in a central place
More unique function  higher threshold
Hospital has higher threshold than donut shop
Range is
Maximum distance someone will travel for a good or service
Hospital has larger range than donut shop

35. Central Place Theory: Rules
The larger the settlement, the fewer the number of settlements and farther apart they are
The fewer there are of a settlement, the larger the hinterland of its goods and services
Places of the same size will be spaced the same distance apart

36. CIRCLES DON’T WORKLE

37. Central Place Theory: Hexagonal Spatial Pattern

38. Urban Hierarchy
If a population is evenly distributed, there will be a hierarchy of evenly spread central places to serve that population
Few cities and increasingly more settlements on each lower level
Central places at the top of the hierarchy provide functions with the highest ranges and highest thresholds
New York provides functions like Broadway and Wall Street
Lots of smaller cities provide gas stations, fast food restaurants, etc.
Rank-size rule predicts urban hierarchy

39. Try to apply the model to this region…