Urban Settlements: Chapter 15

• Chapter 15 is about the characteristics, factors, models, and concepts of urban settlements.

The Growth of Cities

• The first cities were made possible by advances in agriculture.
• Uruk, Mesopotamia existed in 4500 BCE
• Other early areas included the Nile River Valley, Indus River Valley, and Wei River Valley in China.
• Historically, only a minority of the population inhabited urban areas.
• The Industrial Revolution caused rapid urbanization
• In 1800, approximately 90% of Europeans lived in rural areas.
• By 1900, around 90% of Europeans resided in urban areas.
• Factories drew job seekers to cities.
• Currently, 55% of the global population lives in urban areas.
• A city and its surrounding suburbs is considered an urban area.
• Urban is a variable concept.
• The U.S. Census Bureau classifies two types of urban areas.
• Urbanized area: defined as having a population of 50,000 or more.
• Urban cluster: contains a population between 2,500 and 49,999.
• 85% of countries use a population of 5,000 or more to define what is urban.
• Metropolitan area: a city and its surrounding areas that are economically and culturally influenced by the city
• Suburbs are less densely populated residential and commercial areas surrounding a city.

Site and Situation

• Site is the actual physical place or location of the city and the land itself.
• Site factors include landforms, climate, availability of water, soil quality, and natural resources.
• Technological advances can change which qualities make for a good site.
• Situation refers to the connections between one site and other sites.
• Situation factors include access to trading partners, resources, and other connections.
• The relative location of a city often determines its functions.
• Cities are often located on trade routes.

Factors Influencing Urban Growth: Transportation and Communication

• Transportation is a dominant factor in urban growth.
• It enables the movement of raw materials to factories and goods to markets.
• It allows workers to access jobs.
• Transportation methods have influenced settlement patterns in the U.S.
• During the Colonial period, cities developed along the Atlantic Coast or rivers.
• New Orleans was able to grow due to its location on the Mississippi River.
• The Erie Canal and railroads helped inland cities grow, such as Chicago, Omaha, and Kansas City.
• Communication networks enable businesses to locate where they prefer.

Factors Influencing Urban Growth: Population Growth and Migration

• Push factors contributing to urbanization:
• Fewer opportunities to make a living in rural areas because of population growth.
• Drought or other environmental or economic factors.
• Pull factors contributing to urbanization:
• Availability of jobs in cities.
• Greater freedom, safety, schools, and healthcare in cities.

Factors Influencing Urban Growth: Economic Development and Government Policies

• A city's functions depend largely on its location and history.
• Some cities serve the following specific functions:
• Washington, D.C.: center of government.
• Detroit: center of automobile manufacturing.
• Houston: center of oil and energy industry.
• Military centers, processing sites for mines, consumer-oriented centers, resort communities.
• Foundational economic activity (basic industry) gives rise to secondary industries
• Secondary industries meet people's needs for housing, food, transportation, among others.
• Over time, a city's functions evolve as a result of technological advances or changes in economic or population trends.
• Most cities have continued to expand, although cities can decline.
• Governments use various means to attract businesses into cities:
• Tax breaks or financial incentives.
• Industrial parks or zones.
• Land-use plans and zoning ordinances.
• Transportation linkages or improvements.
• Safety and security.
• Policies that promote livability.

Factors Influencing Urban Growth: Suburbanization, Sprawl, and Decentralization

• Suburbanization has been led by the development of transportation systems .
• Suburbanization enlarges the land area of a metropolitan area without necessarily growing the population.
• Urban sprawl refers to the unplanned and uncontrolled expansion of urban areas.
• Sprawl is common in U.S. metropolitan areas, especially in cities that expanded with automobile use and freeway expansion after World War II.
• An edge city is located on the outskirts of a larger city.
• They are commercial centers with office space, retail complexes, and other amenities typical of an urban center.
• A boomburb is a suburb that has grown rapidly into a large, sprawling city with over 100,000 residents.
• They often consist of many planned communities that merge together.
• An exurb is a fast-growing community outside or on the edge of a metropolitan area, usually a low-density residential community with wealthy estates or small rural towns.
• Revitalization involves reusing or renovating buildings and beautifying an area by landscaping.
• Redevelopment involves converting existing properties into more desirable uses and creating new mixed-use neighborhoods.
• Infill refers to redevelopment that identifies and develops vacant parcels of land within previously built areas that are already served by transportation and other public infrastructure.

Patterns of Urban Location

• Different cities have different functions within an urban hierarchy.
• Within an urban complex, cities can function as centers of finance, commerce, arts, education, or tourism.
• Models used to describe interrelationships include:
• Gravity model
• Rank-size rule
• Primate-city rule
• Central place theory

Gravity Model

• Cities have an area of influence based on their size.
• The interaction of people and exchange of goods between cities is proportional to the product of their populations and inversely proportional to the distance between them.

Rank-Size Rule

• The second-largest city will be one-half the size of the largest city; the third-largest city will be one-third the size of the largest city, and so on.

Primate City

• A primate city significantly exceeds the country's next-largest city in population size and influence.
• The existence of a primate city suggests an unbalanced level of development.
• Examples: Mexico City, Paris, Bangkok
• Many primate cities trace their origin to a colonial past; European colonizers concentrated political and economic activities in one place.
• Dakar, Senegal is an example.

Central Place Theory

• Created by German philosopher Walter Christaller.
• Central place theory explains the hierarchical patterns in the number, size, and location of cities and other settlements.
• There are several types of settlements within the hierarchy.
• It is based on consumer behavior and decision-making regarding how they spend their money on goods and services.
• A central place: is a settlement providing goods and services for the surrounding area.
• The pattern is based on the behavior and decision-making of consumers.
• Consists of an urban hierarchy of cities, towns, villages, and hamlets.
• Cities serve larger populations and are located far apart from one another.
• The size and location of a central place is determined by the market's:
• Threshold: number of people needed to support a certain good or service.
• Range: the distance a person is willing to trave for a good or service.
• Higher-order goods and services draw people from the towns, smaller settlements, and rural areas.
• Consumers are less willing to travel long distances for lower-order goods.

Central Place Theory Limitations

• A flat surface with no natural, political, or other barriers.
• It assumes range is equal in all directions.
• It does not account for physical geography or differences in transportation linkages.
• It assumes the retail market is the most important influencer.

Cities Across the World

• A Megacity is a metropolitan area with a population of more than 10 million people.
• 2 megacities in 1950.
• 33 megacities in 2018.
• 43 megacities expected in 2030.
• A Metacity is a metropolitan area with over 20 million people.
• 9 metacities in 2020.
• Cities are growing fastest in peripheral countries, as well as the semi-peripheral countries of India and China.

World Cities

• Cities that wield political, cultural, and economic influence on a global scale.
• They are major centers of banking, communications, and finance.
• Sites of leading global markets for commodities, investment, and foreign exchange.
• Sites of trade associations, professional associations, and nongovernmental organizations.
• Headquarters for media organizations.
• Home of fashion, design, entertainment, and cultural industries.
• Headquarters for multinational companies.
• World cities are not necessarily the largest in population size.

World City Linkages

• World cities are connected globally and drive globalization.
• Multinational corporations have a major presence in world cities, creating linkages.
• World cities are centers of innovation, manufacturing, and trade, which are exported through diffusion.
• Many elements of contemporary culture, such as hip-hop, Bollywood, and fast food, have diffused from world cities.