Unit G4: sustainability

Sustainable Cities

Warm up – 2 minutes

Define sustainable

Name TWO cities found on each of the six

permanently inhabited continents

Finished? Swap your ideas with a partner/rest

of the group – how well did YOU do?

Challenge: How many of these can you locate

without an atlas?

Enquiry Question 4.1

How can cities throughout the world be classified?

Your starter for 10

To ‘classify’ means …. ?

Give THREE examples of ‘classification’, geographical

or otherwise, for example, the Dewey System for

classifying library books

Let’s get back to cities – how might you classify them?

Why classify them?

Learning is successful when I can:

• Give at least THREE examples of how cities throughout the World can be classified

• Suggest reasons for why Geographers should want to classify cities into groups

• Evaluate the validity of the three classifications

Over to you….

Study the information sheet provided. It provides data about 12 selected cities.

1. How could we classify these cities, based upon the data provided?

2. How representative is the sample provided? Explain your thinking!

Classified by size (population)Million-city – 1 million +

Super-city – over 5 million

Mega-city – over 10 million

Classified by size (area)

Eg Bangkok and Dhaka both have a similar population size, yet Bangkok covers 8 x the area of Dhaka – likely to need different solutions even if both have similar challenges

Classified by development indicators

Study fig 1 (table) Which indicators?

Evaluate the usefulness/validity of this

Classified by development indicesCDI – City Development Index

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_development_index

Developed by the UN in 1996

Is based on five sub indices namely, infrastructure, waste, health, education and city product

http://www.finfacts.ie/qualityoflife2007.htm similar list compiled annually by Mercer, ‘quality of living survey’ http://www.mercer.com/qualityofliving (2016 press release)

Classified by economic status of country

LEDC, NIC or MEDC, but is it that black and white?

Limitations of this approach …..

Classified by age

Old established MEDC city – Paris, London – stable populations/even declining? Growth due to industrial revolutionModern NIC city – Singapore – rapid – slowing growth nowRapidly expanding LEDC cities – Lagos; growth due to r-u migration and industrialisationNew forms of cities eg ‘edge’ cities Tyson’s Corner, Fairfax Virginia

Classified by status eg World cities

World city = cities of power (trade, political strength, innovation, communications)

Core – primary city (devp’d country) major capital or commercial city eg LA, Tokyo, London

Core – secondary city (devp’d country) less important capital/commercial city eg Sydney, Madrid

Semi-periphery primary city (developing country), major capital eg Singapore, Rio de Janeiro

Semi-periphery primary city (developing country), less important capital/commercial city eg Mexico, Seoul

Learning is successful now I can:

• Give at least THREE examples of how cities throughout the World can be classified

• Suggest reasons for why Geographers should want to classify cities into groups

• Evaluate the validity of the classifications

Homework

1. Check out the CDI and the Mercer equivalent.

How do London and Birmingham do?

How do Mumbai and Shanghai do?

Any other urban areas of your choosing?

2. Check out photos of the urban areas ‘classified by age’ on google earth or similar.

What might an exam question look like?

Using your own knowledge and Figure 1 (the table from earlier), explain how cities might be classified

[10 marks]

(13 minutes)