URS 1006

Green Cities

"Green cities" are those that are on the way to environmental sustainability; no city is yet a green city, but thousands of cities around the world are trying to lessen their environmental impacts.

Large cities

5 million to 10 million inhabitants

Conurbation

Ex. Dallas-Fort Worth Urban Area As urban areas expand, they engulf smaller cities in the urban expansion zone, turn nearby towns into full-fledged cities, sometimes stimulate the development of new cities, and bump into other expanding urban areas.

Urban primacy

...

Megacities

10 million + inhabitants "Megacity" is used colloquially rather than formally to designate the very largest urban places, usually conceptualized as an urban core and its peripheral expansion zone. A city with more than 10 million inhabitants may be called a megacity. World cities function as the command-and-control centers of the world economy. They offer advanced, knowledge-based producer services (businesses serving businesses). The top-tier cities, defined by their financial centrality, are called "global cities" of which there are three: New York, London, and Tokyo. One rung lower are the second-tier, "world cities": Paris, Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Chicago, Hong Kong, and Singapore, among others.

Postindustrial City

A relatively new type of city has emerged, especially in the world's wealthiest countries. It is the postindustrial city. Its economy is not tied to a manufacturing base but instead to high unemployment in the services sector. Cities that are mainly the headquarters for governments and intergovernmental organizations are examples, as are those specializing in research and development, health and medicine, and tourism/recreation.

Primate City

A type of city solely described based on size and function is the primate city. Coined by geographer Mark Jefferson in reference to a city that is exceptionally large, economically dominant, and culturally expressive of national identity. A true primate city is at least twice as large as the largest city, but the gap is often much larger. The presence of a primate city in a country usually suggests an imbalance in development: a progressive core, defined by the primate city and its environs, and a lagging periphery on which the primate city may depend for resources and migrant labor.

Industrial City

An industrial city has an economy based on the production of manufactured goods, sometimes light industrial products and sometimes heavy industrial items.

Urban Place

As a place increases in population, it eventually becomes large enough to assume that its economy is no longer tied strictly to agriculture or to other primary activities. At that point, a rural place becomes an urban place. Translating the diving line between rural and urban into a minimum population size varies significantly from country to country. (Sweden, only 200 people are needed for a place to be classified as urban; Greece, the number is significantly larger at 10,000)

The greatest number of cities and the greatest number of large cities (3 million and above) are now found in __________.

LDCs

Capital City

Capital cities are literally "head cities", the headquarters of government functions. Every country has one and a few have more than one. Capital cities are seats of political power, centers of decision making, and loci of national sovereignty.

Post-Socialist City

Cities evolving under "post-socialist" regimes are breaking away from the urban plans so strictly enforced by communist/socialist governments. Socialist society were structured internally and regionally to be self-sufficient, but this is changing today as individuals and businesses make their own decisions about where to locate businesses and residences in freer market economies. Three growth trends alter the urban form, function, and spatial structures of post-socialist cities; these trends are reforming socioeconomic and political processes in addition to the built environment. 1)Emerging land markets and commercial real estate spaces transform the urban fabric as new housing, shopping, and industrial developments are created within city limits and in suburban or exurban locations and in suburban or exurban locations. 2)Increased automobile and cargo truck ownership causes new kinds of movements in and around cities 3) As suburban growth develops, there is a tendency for previously compact post-socialist cities, often radial or quadrangular in form, to become linear in form, as economic activities occur along arterial routes out of cities into the surrounding countryside. Redevelopment and growth from city centers to peripheries often occurs chronologically, where the inner city redevelops first, followed by the periphery and suburbia. Thus, post-socialist growth is both vertical (upward) and horizontal (outward).

Socialist City

Cities that evolved under Communist regimes in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, North Korea, Southeast Asia, and Cuba have given us the concept of the "socialist city". Communism was characterized by massive government involvement in the economy, coupled with the absence of private land ownership and free-markets. Communism produced cities that were distinct in form, function, and internal spatial structure. Although most Communist regimes collapsed in the late 20th century, central planning and the command economy have left a lasting, visible impression on urban landscapes. Only North Korea, and to some extent Cuba, continue to maintain cities under the principles of communism.

The Middle Period (5th-17th Century A.D.)

From the fall of the Roman Empire to the 17th century, cities in Europe grew only slowly or not at all. The major reason for the decline of cities was a decrease in spatial interaction. After the dissolution of the Roman Empire, urban localities became isolated from one another and had to become self-sufficient in order to survive. The disruption of the Roman transportation system, the spread of Islam in the 7th and 8th centuries, and the pillaging raids of the Norse in the 9th century almost completely eliminated trade between cities. These events, plus periodic attacks by Germanic and other groups from people in the north, resulted in an almost complete disruption of urban and rural interaction. Urban revival occurred 600 years after the Roman Empire, however, growth in population and production remained quite small. Exchange was limited - conducted largely with people of the immediate surrounding region. The economically active population was organized into guild- for crafts persons, artisans, merchants, and others. One's social status was determined by one's position in guild, family, church, and feudal administration. Merchants and the guilds saw innovative possibilities in "free cities", where a person could reach his or her full potential within a community setting. Over time, commerce expanded and linked the city to expanding state power, resulting in a system called "mercantilism".The purpose of mercantilism was the use of the power of the state to help the nation develop its economic potential and population. Mercantile policies protected merchant interests through the control of trade subsidies (financial aid), the creation of trade monopolies (absence of competition, total control over a trade or product), and the maintenance of a strong armed force to defend commercial interests. Mercantilism restrained and controlled individual merchants in favor of the needs of society. However, the rising new middle class of merchants and traders were against any restrictions on their profits. They opposed economic regulation and used their growing power to demand freedom from state control. As the power of the capitalists increased, the goal of the economy became expansion, with economic profit the function of the city growth. It was capitalism that ushered in the Industrial Revolution and led to the emergence of the industrial city. In East Asia, the city did not suffer the decline it went through in Medieval Europe. In China, numerous cities founded before the Christian era remained continuously occupied and economically viable through the centuries. Changan (7th century) and Kyoto (18th Century) had populations of over 1 million people.Although most of the ancient cities of Asia had populations of less than 1 million, they were still far larger than cities in Europe until the commercial/industrial revolutions there. Pre-modern cities in Asia continued to serve as vital centers of political administration, cultural and religious authority, and markets for agricultural surplus. Western Colonialism added a new kind of city to the regions of Asia, a Western commercial city sometimes grafted onto a traditional city, sometimes created anew from virgin land. In the Greater Middle East, the traditional city also existed until Western Colonialism, but then a similar process occurred as the one in Asia, with the Western commercial cities appearing in similar fashion. In Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, the urban experience varied somewhat from that of much of Asia and the Middle East. In the case of Latin America, the traditional city was obliterated by Spanish conquest and colonization. The Spanish, as well as the Portuguese, thus created new cities in the vast realm of Latin America, cities that reflected the cultures of Europe. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the indigenous cities of various African kingdoms had existed for centuries. By the 19th century, they were largely destroyed, and Europeans created new commercial cities, usually coastal, that quickly grew to dominate the region. Hence, as it materialized in Europe and was exported with the creation of colonial empires after 1500 A.D., the European-created city became the model for urban growth and development worldwide.

Urbanism

Generally refers to all aspects - political, economic, social - of the urban way of life. Urbanism is not a process of urban growth, but rather the end result of urbanization. It suggests that the urban way of life is dramatically different from the rural way of life in ALL respects; as people leave the country and move to the city, their lifestyles and livelihoods change.

Unit 5: Consequences of Urbanization

Housing (or lack of), health, pollution, safety and crime For all the relative advantages of city life, however, widespread poverty casts a shadow over the urban future. A vast number of people in urban areas are threatened by homelessness, health hazards and violence among other things. These may affect a portion of the urban population directly, but their indirect effects are felt by the whole society. Residents of urban areas are at risk from pollution and other health hazards. Pollution from cars, the burning of fossil fuels and industry cause illnesses such as respiratory infections and lead poisoning. Crime and violence are other, specifically urban, problems that are not limited to one region of the world alone. Urban violence has been growing by about 3 to 5 percent a year over the last two decades. Poverty and social disintegration are cited as the causes of urban crime and violence. These are not problems that must exist simply because cities exist. They are often the results of poor income distribution (a few people with high incomes, many people with low incomes) and bad policy. They can be overcome and in many places they have been overcome. Homelessness is obviously related to poverty but it does not follow that poverty automatically leads to homelessness. High rents, lack of available urban land, a government's inability to build affordable housing and sudden shocks to the economy that make people lose their jobs are some of the direct causes of homelessness. Today, in both developed and developing countries the urban poor have the highest health risks. Lower income and poor living conditions are usually associated with poorer health status and increased mortality. High population densities and low resistance levels allow infectious diseases to move rapidly among large numbers of people. New infectious diseases, such as HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, have also emerged in urban settings. Water pollution and poor sanitation are major causes of urban illnesses, exacerbated in poor and overcrowded housing in low-income neighborhoods. Such areas become breeding grounds for a number of ordinarily preventable diseases. Every year, 4 million urban residents worldwide die from waterborne diseases alone. In Manila, the Phillipines, one researcher found 35 diseases that were caused by garbage and filth (filth-borne diseases), five of which were among the top five killer illnesses in the country. Improving sanitation will obviously improve health and the level of the population's productivity. Often the following reasons are given for not improving sanitation: governments cite high costs and richer residents claim that money should be spent on the productive sectors of the city. But these are false reasons. It has been shown time and again that the damage inflicted by poor housing and sanitation conditions is greater than the cost of improvements.

Unit 3: What is a city made of?

It is a tremendous task for a city to provide the necessary infrastructure and services to its citizens. Some of this task is handled by city ("municipal") governments, some of it by private groups, such as businesses or neighborhood organizations. All of it, however, requires cooperation between the citizens and the government. To take advantage of this idea of "efficiency", to get water, electricity or gas to people, to provide them with educational opportunities, to make sure that garbage and sewage is safely disposed of, to do all of this requires a complex process of planning and building an "infrastructure" and delivering "services". Education, electricity, health care, markets and public transport are examples of services. But such services require an "infrastructure" to help their delivery. Plumbing, electricity lines, road systems, drainage and sewers are examples of infrastructure. These are the things that keep a city running, the city's support system. How would we get water without plumbing? Electricity without lines? How would buses get around without roads? Services are the great advantages of a city, one of the reasons why people move to cities. In an ideal world, everyone would benefit from them. In reality, a great number of people don't have proper access to many services, including water and even housing.

Industrial and Postindustrial Urbanization (18th Century to the Present)

Only after the Industrial Revolution, which began around 1750, did significant urbanization occur. It was not until the 19th century (1800-1900) that cities emerged as important places of population concentration. By 1900, only one nation, Great Britain could be regarded as an urbanized society in the sense that more than half of its inhabitants resided in urban places. During the 20th century, however, the number of urbanized nations increased dramatically. In the US, the census of 1920 first revealed that a majority of Americans lived in cities. Only Africa and parts of Asia continue to lag behind the rest of the world in urbanization. The city is not a static entity, but a system in flux. Within the city, some sectors may decline and die as investment is withheld, while others may grow and prosper as investments decrease. Those without access to opportunities, skills, or transportation will be left out by the operation of the market system. Whenever and wherever the market system operates, it serves the affluent, rather than the poor.

Site and Situation

Site: refers to the physical characteristics of the place where the city originated and and evolved. Surface landforms, underlying geology, elevation, water features, coastline configuration, and other aspects of physical geography are considered site characteristics. Situation, by contrast, refers to the relative location of a city. It connotes a city's "connectedness" with other places and the surrounding region. A city's growth and decline is more dependent on situation than it is on site characteristics. In fact, a good relative location, or situation, can compensate for a poor site. (Examples: Venice, NYC)

New Town

The _______ is a phenomenon of the 20th Century, and refers to a comprehensively planned urban community built from scratch with the intent of becoming as self-contained as possible by encouraging the development of an economic base and a full range of urban services and facilities.

City

The term "city" is essentially a political designation referring to a large, densely-populated place that is legally incorporated as a municipality. However, a settlement of ANY size can call itself a city, whether it is large or small. Towns are generally smaller than cities.

Early Urbanization (Antiquity to 5th Century AD)

The first cities were found in Mesopotamia along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Most cities of antiquity remained in the range of 2,000 to 20,000 in population and the number of cities did not increase significantly. Rome has been regarded as "the first great city on Earth". It was the first and only ancient city to have surpassed 1 million people in population. Ancient cities appeared where nature and the state of technology enabled cultivators to produce more food and other essential goods than they needed for themselves and their families. Cities were political, religious, and administrative centers. In these cities were specialists working full-time, such as priests and service workers, as well as a population that appreciated the arts and the use of symbols for courting and writing. Other attributes of these early cities included taxation, external trade, social classes, and gender differences in the assignment of work. Ancient cities demonstrated the emergence of specialization. Trade was a basic function of ancient cities, which were linked to the surrounding rural areas and to other cities by a relatively complex system of production and distribution, as well as by religious, military, and economic institutions.

Unit 2: Brief History of Urban Expansion

The origin of cities passes through at least three distinct phases: 1)The first phase began 5 to 6 thousand years ago with settlements that grew into what we call the early river valley civilizations of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), Egypt, India, and China. Early on these civilizations depended on agriculture and domesticated animals. However, when they grew in size and trade routes got larger, these became centers for merchants, craftspeople, traders, and government officials. The division between "town" and "country"; "rural" and "urban" had begun. The early cities were located on fertile flood plains next to large rivers and had access to pasture land for raising animals. They also benefited from a warm climate and a permanent supply of water. These conditions were necessary for the transformation to a settled and organized society. They helped settlers domesticate animals and cultivate crops. Over time, small and simple settlements grew into larger and more complex centers for a variety of activities. A greater volume of trade and a slowly growing settled population encouraged labour to become more specialized. Families and individuals dedicated themselves to a specific task or profession. This made production more efficient and society more organized, while at the same time providing greater collective security for a city's inhabitants. Consequently, cities flourished and grew in size. 2) The second phase in the development of cities came much later during the Industrial Revolution when factories in the cities needed more workers, so people moved from the rural areas into the urban areas in order to find employment. Two significant factors contributed to the rapid changes in the sizes and lifestyles of cities: 1) The first factor was the development of large-scale manufacturing and mining industries which came about as a result of technological advances used to drive industrial machinery. Factories and mines required a large labour force, which migrated to the cities from rural areas and sometimes from other countries. 2) The second factor was the expansion of trade routes and access to cheap raw materials acquired through European colonization of other lands.The combination of wealth, a large population, and a diversity of goods created a market for consumer goods, which slowly evolved into the urban consumer patterns we see today. 3) The third phase began after the Second World War. As the world economy became more international and grew in size, cities all over the world began to grow larger at a very fast pace. Most of this growth has been concentrated in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. What distinguishes the current phase of urban growth from previous ones, is that urbanization is not limited to a specific region. It is now a worldwide phenomenon. Most of the highest urban growth rates are in the developing nations. Unfortunately, developing countries have limited resources to help new migrants to the cities. With some exceptions in East Asia, their economies and industries are not strongly developed so that unemployment is high and many migrants live in poor conditions in shanty towns and slums.

Preindustrial City

The preindustrial city - sometimes referred to as the traditional city - identifies a city that was founded and grew before the arrival of industrialization in the 19th and 20th centuries and thus typically had quite different characteristics from industrial cities. Elements of the traditional cities are still part of urban landscapes, especially in the developing world, but no pure preindustrial cities are still in existence. Remnants of the traditional city include central markets, walls and gates, pedestrian quarters, and intimidating architecture

Urbanization

The process involving two phases: 1) the movement of people from rural to urban places, where they engage in primarily non-rural occupations, and 2) the change in lifestyle that results from leaving the countryside The important variables in the first phase are population density and economic functions. A place does not become urban until its workforce is divorced from the soil; trade, manufacturing, and service provision dominate the economies of urban places. The important variables in the second phase are social, psychological, and behavioral. As a population becomes increasingly urban, for instance, family size becomes smaller because the value on children changes.

Rank-size rule

The rule states that the population of a particular city should be equal to the population of the country's largest city divided by its rank. In other words, the fifth-largest city in a country should be one-fifth the size of the largest city. A deviation from this ranking may mean that the urban system is unbalanced.

Metropolis and Metropolitan Area

The term "metropolis" originally meant "mother city" of a country, state, or empire. Today, it is used loosely to refer to any large city. A metropolitan area includes a central city (or cities) plus all surrounding territory-urban or rural- that is integrated with the urban core (usually measured by commuting patterns). Metropolitan areas: 1) have an urban core of at least 50,000 people, 2) include surrounding urban and rural territory that is socially and economically integrated with the core, and 3) are built from county (or county-equivalent) units

Urban Area

The urban area is basically a city and its suburbs. The urban area is defined as "the built-up area where buildings, roads, and essentially urban land uses predominate, even beyond the political boundaries of cities and towns".

Unit 1: What Is A City? (United Nations website)

Today, the most rapid urbanization is taking places in countries like Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Cities have always been at the center of economic growth, technological advances, and cultural production. Their rapid growth has also brought negative things: urban violence and poverty, homelessness, overcrowding and health problems, pollution and waste. There is no consensus on the definition or strict & definite characteristics of a city. Some determine a city based on physical and economic boundaries. Overcrowding in cities causes problems with waste disposal, health, pollution, violence, drugs, crimes, and the over-consumption of energy and other resources. City planners must improve access to affordable housing and land, enhance public services, and take the plight of slum-dwellers whose situation has hardly changed despite lofty agreements that have been made in the past.

Megalopolis

Typically defined as a chain of roughly adjacent metropolitan areas. Used in 1961 by geographer Jean Gottmann to the urbanized northeastern seaboard of the US from Boston to Washington. Today, megalopolis is used as a generic term referring to urban coalescence of metropolitan areas at the regional scale.That coalescence is channeled along transportation corridors connecting one city with another. It is evident in the magnitude of vehicle traffic, telephone calls, e-mail exchanges, and air transport among cities strung along a megalopolitan corridor.

Urban Landscapes

Urban landscapes, visible and invisible, are the manifestations of the thoughts, deeds, and actions of human beings. They are charged with clues to the economic, cultural, and political values of the people who built them. At the macroscale, geographers may look at the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the landscape- at city landscapes and urban sprawl. At the microscale, they may look at architectural styles, signage, activity patterns near busy intersections, or urban foodways.

Colonial City

Virtually gone from the earth now, but had a profound impact on urban patterns throughout much of the world, starting around 1500 A.D. and ending with the global dominance of European imperial powers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The colonial city was unique because of its special focus on commercial functions, its peculiar situation requirements, and the odd blend of Western urban forms with traditional indigenous values and practices. There were two distinct types of colonial cities: 1) The European city was created virtually from scratch on a site where no other significant urban place had existed.This would then lead to in-migration of local peoples drawn by the economic opportunity created under colonial rule. ex.) Mumbai, Hong Kong, Nairobi 2) The European city was grafted onto an existing indigenous urban place and then became the dominant growth pole for that city, typically swallowing up or overwhelming in size and importance the original indigenous center. ex.) Shanghai, Delhi, Tunis Either type of colonial city would give rise to a "dual city" consisting of one modern, Western, part and another more traditional, indigenous part.

Unit 4: What makes cities grow?

We can make a few general observations. For the most part, cities have grown as a result of three things: "economic growth", "natural increase" and "rural-urban migration". There are exceptions to this general rule. Some cities, for example, are "created" by governments that want to take the burden off the large cities. Sometimes, such cities are made the capitals of the country, as in the case of Yamoussoukrou which has replaced Abidjan as the capital city of Côte d'Ivoire. Assigning a new capital usually means transferring government offices, foreign embassies and businesses to a smaller city in order to attract people away from over-crowded and over-burdened sites. Another "created capital" city is Brasilia, in Brazil. People move to the city for various reasons, but the most significant reason is economic—when a city's economy is prospering it attracts people. The promise of jobs and comfort, glamour and glitter, "pulls" people to cities. There are also "push" factors: droughts or exploitation of farmers can cause extreme rural poverty and that "pushes" people out of the country-side. The city's promises are not always fulfilled. Cities may be known for their bright lights, but not everyone who moves to the city, or is born there, benefits from it. The city can't always keep up with the number of people who move there, so urban poverty and homelessness have have become global phenomena. The question that remains to be answered is how we can transform the disadvantages of cities into advantages for its inhabitants. Population growth has been the main factor in the growth of cities in developing countries, whereas cities in industrialized nations have grown to their current size mainly due to rural-urban migration. Global economic growth has also affected urban growth. Finally, an extra dimension has been added by the more recent phenomena of urban-urban migration and international migration. Up to 600 million people in urban areas in developing regions (nearly 28% of the developing world's urban population ) cannot meet their basic needs for shelter, water and health from their own resources. Up to half the population of cities in some of the world's poorest countries are living below official poverty levels, women and children being among the poorest people in the world. The World Health Organization estimates that there may be as many as 100 million street children worldwide.

Dual primacy

Where two large cities share the dominant role. Ex: Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil

Unit 6: A Healthy Urban Future

Yet, urbanization may be the best solution for the future. It may be the only way to deal with the massive population increase. The problem is not that cities are bad. The problem is that with more and more people relying on the city's services and infrastructure, governments, planners and the society have not managed to keep pace with the demands and the pressures. This world and its cities have the resources to provide for the population that lives there. What it takes is a stronger will and a better distribution of resources. To begin with, we should ask: what is a healthy city? As part of its healthy city programme, the World Health Organization (WHO) has come up with a set of criteria. Among other things, a healthy city must have: a CLEAN and SAFE environment meets the BASIC NEEDS of ALL its inhabitants involves the COMMUNITY in local government provides easily accessible HEALTH services The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has outlined these priorities as part of its urban strategy: increasing SHELTER for the urban poor provision of basic urban services such as EDUCATION, primary HEALTH CARE, CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION improving women's access to BASIC SERVICES and government facilities upgrading ENERGY use and alternative TRANSPORT systems reducing air POLLUTION In this unit, we will see some cities that have come up with the solutions. The rapid growth of cities presents serious problems for city managers in terms of unemployment, pollution, crime, homelessness, racism, corruption, and health. Yet each of these can also be seen as an opportunity if turned on its head. Job creation can generate wealth, anti-pollution measures can improve health, the building of homes can create self-help opportunities and increase the self-esteem of the homeless - problems, in short, can be opportunities. What most of these examples show is that: no one actor can improve the urban environment alone - responsibility must be shared between governments, non-governmental and community organizations and citizens; when the community is made a real partner in a project, the project is generally more successful.

The Global South

the world's developing regions