1. Urban Geography
Chapter 9

2. When and Why did People Start Living in Cities?

3. Cities
City – a conglomeration of people and buildings clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture, and economics.
An urban settlement that has incorporated into an independent self-governing unit

4. Urbanization - the process of making an area more urban
Suburbanization - the shift from urbanization into suburbs
Reurbanization - the movement of people back into an area that was previously being abandoned
Exurbanization - the shift from living in the urban to rural, typically by upper class

5. Urban:
The buildup of the central city and the suburban realm – the city and the surrounding environs connected to the city.

6. Agricultural Villages
Before urbanization, people often clustered in agricultural villages –
a relatively small, egalitarian village, where most of the population was involved in agriculture.
About 10,000 years ago, people began living in agricultural villages

7. The First Urban Revolution
Two components enable the formation of cities: 1. an agricultural surplus 2. social stratification (a leadership class)

8. Hearths of Urbanization
In each of these hearths, an agricultural surplus and social stratification created the conditions necessary for cities to form and be maintained.

9. Hearths of Urbanization
Mesopotamia, 3500 BCE
Tigris-Euphrates Valley
Modern Iraq
Nile River Valley, 3200 BCE
Modern Egypt
Indus River Valley, 2200 BCE
Modern Pakistan
Huang He and Wei River Valleys, 1500 BCE
Modern China

10. Diffusion of Urbanization
The Greek Cities
by 500 BCE, Greeks were highly urbanized.
Network of more than 500 cities and towns
On the mainland and on islands
Each city had an acropolis and an agora

11. Athens, Greece
the agora
the acropolis

12. Diffusion of Urbanization
The Roman Cities
a system of cities and small towns, linked together with hundreds of miles of roads and sea routes.
Sites of Roman cities were typically for trade
A Roman city’s Forum combined the acropolis and agora into one space.
Roman cities had extreme wealth and extreme poverty (between 1/3 and 2/3s of empire’s population was enslaved)

13. Roman Empire

14. The Roman Forum
Aqueducts in Nimes, France

15. During the mercantile era, the cities that thrived were embellished by wealthy merchant families, who built ornate mansions, patronized the arts, participated in city governments, and supported the reconstruction of city centers.
Genoa, Italy

16. Historically, urbanization reached its highest point during the Greece-Roman era.

17. Borchert’s Model of Urban Growth
Epoch
Time Period
Conditions and Effects
Sail-Wagon
Water ports became very important.
Poor road conditions made long distance travel between cities difficult.
Iron Horse
Steam engines powered boats, which promoted the growth of river cities.
Regional rail networks connected cities.
Rail lines connected resources and industrial sites.
Steel Rail
Transcontinental railways emerged.
Cities emerged along rail lines in the interior of continents.
Auto- Air- Amenity
Cars allowed cities to spread out.
Airport hubs emerged.
Cities became far more interconnected.
Model ended in 1970, but could be expanded to include cities that have encouraged mass transit (rail lines), biking, and walking.

18. The Second Urban Revolution
A large scale movement of people to cities to work in manufacturing. Made possible by: 1. second agricultural revolution that improved food production and created a larger surplus 2. industrialization, which encouraged growth of cities near industrial resources

19. Industrialized regions of Europe, 1914

20. During the second half of the 20th century…
Nature of manufacturing changed and locations changed, too.
Many factories have been abandoned, creating “rust belts” out of once-thriving industrial districts.
Duisburg, Germany

21. Because of this change in industry, the Sun Belt region in the United States has seen the most population growth since 1945.

22. Where are Cities Located and Why?

23. Many of the earliest cities grew rapidly because there were religious centers that attracted pilgrims and pilgrimages.

24. Site and Situation Site Situation * absolute location of a city
* a city’s static location, often chosen for trade, defense, or religion.
* The physical qualities of the original location of a city
Situation
* relative location of a city
* a city’s place in the region and the world around it.

25. Hinterland
The hinterland is described as the outlying area serviced by an urban center

26. Rank-Size Rule:
In a model urban hierarchy, the population of the city or town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy.
For example:
largest city = 12 million
2nd largest = 6 million (1/2)
3rd largest = 4 million (1/3)
4th largest = 3 million (1/4)
* This rule does not work when you consider all the other cities in any given country in today’s world.

27. Primate City
The leading city of a country. The city is disproportionately larger than the rest of the cities in the country. It is usually a city that serves as the focus of a country and its culture. It has to be more than two times as large as the next largest city.

28. For example:. London, UK (14 million, next largest = Manchester at 2
For example: London, UK (14 million, next largest = Manchester at 2.6 million)
Mexico City, Mexico (21 million, next largest = Guadalajara at 4.3 million)
Paris, France
Copenhagen, Denmark
Baghdad, Afghanistan
Bangkok, Thailand
Seoul, South Korea
Manila, Philippines
Cairo, Egypt
Lima, Peru
Tehran, Iran
Budapest, Hungary
- the rank-size rule does not work for a country with a primate city

29. Central Place Theory
Walter Christaller developed a model to explain the distribution of cities of different sizes across a region. 1933
* main purpose of a settlement or market town (central place) is to furnish goods and services to the surrounding markets
Assumed: 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

30. Hexagonal Hinterlands
C = city
T = town
V = village
H = hamlet
* Large cities are economic hubs with radiating connectors for commerce
Hexagonal Hinterlands
According to Christaller, the range or maximum distance a consumer will travel to buy a good is proportional to the cost of obtaining the good.

31. How do People Make Cities?

32. Angola- clear difference between rich and poor
Japan- very large middle class in a densely populated Tokyo
Powerful social and cultural forces shape the character of a city and create the cultural landscape of the city.

33. Making Cities in the Global Periphery and Semiperiphery
sharp contrast between rich and poor
- Often lack zoning laws or enforcement of zoning laws
India: Rich vs. Poor

34. Peripheral Models
The periphery highlights the problems of sprawl and segregation in and around cities

35. Urban challenges Economic challenges Urban decay Redevelopment
Overcoming poverty
Urban decay
Brownfields- dilapidated buildings and polluted or contaminated soils- devalue neighborhoods
Redevelopment
Government support for housing
Homelessness
Services
Food deserts
Racial segregation
Public transportation
Infrastructure
Informal economy
Crime
Terrorism
Pollution

36. Urban challenges
Redlining – banks and other financial institutions refusing to lend money in certain neighborhoods.
During the 1950s
Urban American neighborhoods became segregated
Today- as an urban neighborhood’s SES decreases, its residents are more likely to be denied the opportunity to enter into mortgages and receive home loans
Filtering
Neighborhoods undergo transformations over time as existing residents move out and new ones move in.
Filtering refers to then houses pass from one social group to another.
This usually occurs as the wealthiest residents move to new homes and people with less wealth move into the homes they leave.
The use of the house may also change from being single-family to being subdivided for use by two or more families.

37. Urban Sprawl
Unrestricted growth of housing, commercial developments, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for urban planning.
Henderson, Nevada

38. redefining Cities in the Global Core
Gentrification – individuals buy up and rehabilitate houses, raising the housing value in the neighborhood and changing the neighborhood.
Revitalizing force against urban decay, but a segregating force between rich and poor
Green Building raises property values throughout a neighborhood
Commercialization – city governments transform a central city to attract residents and tourists. The newly commercialized downtowns often are a stark contrast to the rest of the central city.

40. Redefining cities in the global core
Greenbelts
Areas of undeveloped land around an urban area
Often used for parks
Popular in Europe
Smart-Growth
Similar to greenbelt areas
Policies to preserve farmland and other open, undeveloped spaces near a city
Only a handful of states in the USA have these
Slow-growth cities: use the smart-growth policies to try and slow down growth
Mixed-Use Areas
Neighborhoods with a mix of homes and businesses.
Homes vary in size and price in order to create a socially diverse communities
Urban Infill
Process of building up underused lands within a city

41. Urban Sprawl How can we fight urban sprawl?
Efficient transportation policies
Urban growth boundaries
Economic incentives for locating in downtown areas

42. New Urbanism
Development, urban revitalization, and suburban reforms that create walkable neighborhoods with a diversity of housing and jobs.
some are concerned over privatization of public spaces
some are concerned that they do nothing to bread down the social conditions that create social ills of the cities
some believe they work against urban sprawl

43. The “City Beautiful Movement”
Starting in the late 19th century and ever-continuing
Trying to respond to:
Over-crowded inner-city tenements
Excessive pollution during the industrial era
Citizens’ need for urban green spaces
Communities’ needs to have clean air

44. Gated and planned Communities
Found in the suburbs
residents are thought to have high incomes and elite lifestyles
Urban and/or suburban communities reduce crime, increase property values, and create a space of safety

45. Ethnic Neighborhoods European City eg. Muslim neighborhoods in Paris
Cities of the Periphery and Semiperiphery
eg. Mumbai, India

46. Mumbai, India

47. What Role do Cities Play in Globalization?

48. World Cities
Cities that function at the global scale, beyond the reach of the state borders, functioning as the service centers of the world economy.

49. World/Global cities Ex: New York, London, Tokyo
Home to international business centers
There can be a lot of displacement of minority populations with low incomes because of the process of gentrification.

50. Global linkages
New York, London, and Tokyo are the three most important cities in the world today
North America and Europe are the two continents that have the most linkages between their world cities
World city rank:
1. NYC 2. London 3. Tokyo 4. Paris 5. Hong Kong 6. Chicago 7. Los Angeles 8. Singapore 9. Sydney Seoul

51. LDCs- Least Developed Countries
Sub-Saharan Africa is the most rapidly urbanizing area of the world.
Cities in the LDCs now make up a larger percentage of the top ten most populated cities of the world.
The most urbanized region in the developing world is South America

52. MDCs- More Developed Countries
Challenges:
Overcrowding
Infrastructure maintenance
Crime
Pollution

53. MEGA cities
A metropolitan area with a total population of over 10 million people
A growing number of mega cities are found in the LDCs
Problems: waste disposal and air pollution
Fastest Developing Cities
Top 10 Mega Cities

54. How are Cities Organized, and How do they Function?

55. Zones of the City Central business district (CBD)
Commercial heart of the city
Often near the physical center, or where the city was founded
Focus of transportation and services
Value of land is often too high for uses other than commerce
Central City (the CBD + older housing zones)
Suburb (outlying, functionally uniform zone outside of the central city)

56. Modeling the North American City
Concentric zone model (Ernest Burgess)
Sector model (Homer Hoyt)
Multiple Nuclei Model
(Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman)
Go in time sequence showing advancements in transportation

57. Three Classical Models of Urban Structure

58. Concentric Zone Model- Burgess
Series of rings
Outermost ring is the commuter zone
Closest ring is the zone of transition where the housing stock is most deteriorated and a sizeable percentage of residents are immigrants
Provided a way for urban residents to gradually move up economically and socially by allowing them to migrate progressively away from the CBD.
This model can be used in cities where there is more than one CBD.
Perhaps there are different ethnic and/or religious populations in the country that live separately from one another.

59. Three Classical Models of Urban Structure

60. Sector Model- Hoyt
1930s
Lower income neighborhoods are usually located adjacent to the industrial and transportation corridor
High-class residential areas don’t change much over time
In the future, geographers using the Hoyt Model would suggest that low-income populations would most likely live close to the high-speed rail lines.

61. Three Classical Models of Urban Structure

62. Multiple Nuclei Model- Harris and Ullman
They developed their model during a time when many people began using cars to navigate cities more easily.
1940s
A city could be lacking a CBD if their different industries were located throughout the city.
Broken up by the different nodes of activities
Examples: Universities, Hospitals, Airport and transportation, and the CBD

63. Urban Realms/ galactic city Model
Each realm is a separate economic, social, and political entity that is linked together to form a larger metro framework.
Most American cities are similar to this model

64. Gravity Model
Used to calculate the bonds between different urban centers.
It assumes that two cities located close together would attract more people that two cities located far apart.

65. Modeling the Cities of the Global Periphery and Semiperiphery
Latin American City (Griffin-Ford model)
African City (de Blij model)
Southeast Asian City (McGee model)

66. The elite residential section is located on either side of the main blvd that leads to the CBD
Squatter settlements dominate on the periphery
Contains a distinct residential spine proceeding outward from the center city along the main blvd
Inside Rio's Favelas

67. Disamenity sector – very poorest parts of the city eg
Disamenity sector – very poorest parts of the city eg. the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Slums of the World

68. The African City – de Blij Most African cities have three separate business districts due to colonialism, and a large influence of the informal economy and periodic markets

69. Southeast Asian City (McGee model) focus of the modern city is often a former colonial port zone that is export-oriented

70. Middle Eastern and Islamic Cities
Cities shaped by the spread of Islam.
Dominant feature is a central mosque that includes one or more tall and highly visable minarets.
The center mosque is usually surrounded by a complex of structures to serve the public, such as schools, soup kitchens, community activities, etc.
Many Islamic cities were built with a defensive citadel- a fort designed to protect the city. Walls with gates and towers were typical in earlier times

71. Edge Cities- A large node of office and commercial land use outside the central city with more jobs than residents
Suburban downtowns, often located near key freeway intersections, often with: - office complexes - shopping centers - hotels - restaurants - entertainment facilities - sports complexes
- Since the 1980s, there has been a trend to build suburbs and edge cities within the US that are farther and farther away from the Central City.
- Residents of edge cities and suburban areas have long depended on cars and public transportation to access jobs in large cities.