Urban Patterns

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Where Have Urban Areas Grown?

• 1800, 3% world’s population was urban; Beijing was the only million city

• 2000, 47% world’s population is urban; 400 million cities worldwide

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Urbanization• The process by which the

population of cities grow is known as urbanization– Increase in the number of

people living in cities– And the increase in % of

people living in cities within a country

• 1800 = 3% world’s population urbanized

• 1850 = 6% world’s population urbanized

• 1900 = 14% world’s population urbanized

• 1950 = 30% world’s population urbanized

• 2000 = 47% world’s population urbanized

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1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

Percent Urban Populations - Worldwide

Urban %

Percent Urban

Global Patterns

• MDCs – 75% urbanized• LDCs – 40% urbanized• Latin America – ~73% urbanized• Except for Latin America, the level of

urbanization reflects the level of development• Industrialized countries are highly urbanized

because of the clustering of manufacturing industry

• However rapid urbanization rates in LDCs are caused by rural-urban migration and high natural increase rates, not industrialization

Most Populous Cities 2004

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Million Cities

Defining Urban Settlements

• During the 1930's, Louis Wirth argued that people living in urban areas led a different kind of life than people in rural areas. He believed that human sociology was affected by three characteristics of urban areas:– Large size – contractual rather than

social/familial relationships– High density – specialization of labour in

urban jobs– Social heterogeneity – great variety of people

Physical Definition of Urban Settlements

• Legal: city is an urban settlement that has been legally incorporated into an independent, self-governing unit

• Urbanized area: contiguous built-up area• Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA): the sphere

of influence of a city goes beyond the legal and urbanized boundaries – a MSA is– Urbanized with a population > 50, 000– Contained in the county in which it’s located– Is adjacent to counties with high population densities

St. Louis

Physical Definition of Urban Settlements (cont.)

• Micropolitan statistical areas:– 10,000 – 50,000 inhabitants– Includes county and adjacent counties

• MSAs may overlap– E.g.: BOSNYWASH corridor– A large continuous urban area flowing from

one city to another is called a megalopolis• CBDs of the cities are distinct• But the peripheries are difficult to determine

US Megalopolises

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European example: Ruhr (Dortmund, Düsseldorf & Essen)Asian example: Tokyo-Yokohama

Where are People Distributed Within Urban Areas?

• People are distributed according to the way they cluster in specific neighbourhoods according to their social characteristics

• 3 models have been developed to explain the internal structure of urban areas

• All were based on Chicago, Illinois and were later applied to cities elsewhere in North America

Burgess – Concentric Zone Model

According to the model (1923), a city grows outward from the central area in a series of concentric rings

Hoyt – Sector Model

• According to the model the city develops in series of sectors or wedges

Harris & Ullman - Multiple Nuclei Model

• According to the model, a city is a complex structure with more than one centre around which activities evolve

• Certain nodes attract certain land uses and incompatible land uses repel each other and locate far apart

Garreau – Edge City

• According to the edge city model by Joel Garreau, nodes form in response to the rapid development of cities at major suburban freeway interchanges

• Many say edge cities “have it all;” they are characteristically composed of office parks, shopping malls, industrial districts, and service centers located near major highways

• The edge cities are very new; about 30 years ago they were villages or rural farmland

• At present they are homes to the largest retail locations containing more than 600,000 ft² of retail space.  The area also contains more than 5 million ft² of office space

• There are more jobs than homes in the edge cities • Edge cities often lack local government and may also be

unincorporated. 

Edge Cities

The central city is surrounded by a ring road, around which are suburban areas and edge cities, shopping malls, office parks, industrial areas, and

service complexes.

Mann’s Model of a Typical British City

The European City• E.g.: Paris, France

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High class residential close to CBD – access to boutiques, parks, cafes, opera

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Low-class residential in the outskirts or suburbs – long commutes to jobs

Griffin & Ford - Latin American Model

– Zone of maturity (better houses – colonial, paved streets, street lighting, good transport, schools and sewage.)

– Zone of in situ accretion – mixed quality of housing, only main streets paved, some schools but not universal electricity.

– Zone of peripheral squatter settlements – makeshift shanty houses, high unemployment, poverty, no basic services (such as piped clean water, sewage, paved roads.)

Sao Paulo, Brazil

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Wealthy live near CBD in high rises

Poor live in favelas on the city perimeter

A favela is a squatter settlement or shanty town. It is also known as a barrio. They have few services, although some areas are quite well organized. 30% (L.Am) 60%+ (Africa)

Fès (Fez), Morocco

• The old city has narrow winding streets and dense population. The French laid out a new district to the west with a geometric street pattern.

Why do Inner Cities have Distinctive Problems?

• Inner cities in the United States contain concentrations of low income people with a variety of physical, social, and economic problems very different from those faced by suburban residents.

Inner City Physical Problems

• Poor condition of housing as lower income families struggle to maintain homes

• Filtering: subdivision of former wealthy homes into multiple dwellings for families – may be neglected by landlords and abandoned by families

• Redlining: some banks draw red lines on a map to delimit areas where they refuse to lend money – illegal under Community Reinvestment Act

Urban Renewal

• Demolition of condemned buildings followed by reconstruction by private developers or public agencies

• Public Housing has replaced many substandard dwellings

• Public housing is reserved for low income households– US (2% of all dwellings); UK (30%+)

Inner City Public Housing Projects

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Public Housing

• 1950’s/60’s high rise housing projects have proven unsatisfactory for families:– Broken elevators– Juvenile gangs terrorizing families– High drug use and crime rate

• More recently low rise apartments & row houses have replaced high rises

• Scattered-site in which low-income housing is scattered throughout the city rather than clustered in a large project

• Reduced supply of public housing despite increased demand

Urban Renewal Case Study

• A nonprofit organization called Mi Casa buys and renovates dilapidated city buildings and sells them at below-market rates to families of modest means.

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Gentrification

• In some cases, middle class people buy and renovate deteriorated inner city housing – gentrification

• Houses are attractive– Larger, well-built homes, but cheaper– Character homes with architectural details– Close to downtown – lesser commute– Closer to theatres, cafes, restaurants– Grants offered by the City to renovate– DINKUM – no concerns about inner-city schools

• BUT displaces lower income families who can no longer afford rentals in the area

Inner City Social Problems

• Poverty is the leading social issue• Underclass suffer from high rates of

– Unemployment (lack of job skills & education)– Alcoholism (addiction & despondency)– Drug addiction (hopelessness)– Illiteracy (school drop outs)– Juvenile delinquency (territoriality)– Crime (sometimes gang related)– Homelessness (no job, family problems)– Ethnic & racial segregation (African American & Hispanics)

• Schools are run-down & public amenities (clinics, hospitals, policing) are inadequate

Inner City Economic Problems• Inner city residents cannot

afford to pay the taxes required to support services

• Cities can– Reduce some services to pay for

others– Raise tax revenues by attracting

redevelopment of luxury dwellings – drives lower income people away

– Annexation – legally adding land to a city

– Rural residents on city peripheries favoured annexation because of the improved public services – results in urban sprawl

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Why do Suburbs have Distinctive Problems?

• USA, 1950 20% Americans suburbanized

• 2000, 50% American suburbanized

• Suburbs attractive– Single detached family dwellings– Larger lots with gardens for children– Space for parking– Cleaner air, quieter– Lower crime rates, safer

Suburban Development-in the U.S. and U.K.

New housing in the U.K. is likely to be in planned new towns, while in the U.S. growth occurs in discontinuous developments.

Problems of Suburbs

• The peripheral model– Density gradient

• Density declines with increased distance from the city centre

• Changed – decrease in density in CBD; increase in suburbs (subdivisions)

– Cost of suburban sprawl• Competition for land; cost of

infrastructure; loss of farmland; traffic pollution

•Suburban segregation

Residents isolated from commercial & industrial areas; social class isolation; zoning ordinances separate land use functions

Problems of Suburbs• Transportation and suburbanization

– Motor vehicles• Dependence on cars; transportation networks and parking lots

require land; traffic congestion; rush hour

– Public transportation• Declined in public ridership in US (less convenient); LRT on the

increase – subsidized & encouraged; low income can ill afford public transit to reach jobs in suburbs

• Local government fragmentation (difficult to solve regional problems)– Metropolitan government (e.g.: CRD in Victoria – 14

municipalities; 1 federation)– Growing smart (Smart Growth)

• Curb sprawl; reduce traffic congestion; reverse inner city decline

• Achieved through urban in-filling; increasing densities; subdivisions; urban revitalization