Study Guide

UNIT 6: CITIES AND URBAN LAND-USE

PATTERNS AND PROCESSES

12-17%
AP Exam Weighting
The presence and growth of cities vary across geographical locations
because of physical geography and resources.

Site and situation factors influence the origin, function and growth of cities.

! Site Factors: availability of water, food, good soils, a quality harbor, and characteristics
that make a location easy to defend from attack

! Situation Factors: external elements that favor the growth of a city, such as distance to
other cities, or a central location.

Changes in transportation and communication, population growth,

migration, economic development, and government policies influence
urbanization.

! Economic development: Changes in economic structure - Industrial Revolution (19th

century) and growth of services (20th century) led to the growth of cities
o Work in factories and services located in cities
o Need for fewer farmers pushes people out of rural areas
o migration from the countryside to urban areas for jobs

! Population growth: high natural increase rates in LDCs leads to the growth of cities

! Transportation: John R. Borchert during the 1960s developed a view of the urbanization
of the United States that is based on epochs of technology. As the components of
technology wax and wane, the urban landscape undergoes dramatic changes.

o Stage 1: Sail-Wagon Epoch (1790–1830) " cities grew new ports and major
waterways which are used for transportation. The only means of international
trade was sailing ships. Once goods were on land, they were hauled by wagon to
their final destination.
o Stage 2: Iron Horse Epoch (1830–70) " characterized by the impact of steam
engines, technology, and development of steamboats and regional railroads.
o Stage 3: Steel Rail Epoch (1870–1920) " dominated by the development of long-
haul railroads and a national railroad network.
o Stage 4: Auto-Air-Amenity Epoch (1920–70) " with growth in the gasoline
combustion engine.
o Stage 5: Satellite-Electronic-Jet Propulsion (1970–?) " also called the High
Technology Epoch. This stage has continued to the present day as both
transportation and technology improves
Megacities and metacities are distinct spatial outcome of urbanization
increasingly located in countries of the periphery and semiperiphery.

! Megacity:: Urban settlement with a total population in excess of 10 million people

! Metacity: has more than 20 million people

o Only 3 of the 11 metacities are in developed countries: Tokyo, Seoul, New York

Processes of suburbanization, sprawl, and decentralization have created

new land-use forms – including edge cities, exurbs, and boomburgs – and
new challenges.

! Suburbanization is a population shift from central urban areas into suburbs, resulting in
the formation of urban sprawl.

! Suburban Sprawl: progressive spread of development over the landscape

! Decentralization is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly

those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a
central, authoritative location or group to a more local authority.
 ! Edge Cities: Large commercial centers that offer entertainment and shopping in the
suburbs.
o outside a traditional downtown or central business district, in what had previously
been a suburban residential or rural area
o Such cities may approach 100,000 in population.

! Exurb: rings of wealthier rural communities that grew just outside of the suburbs and
were hotbeds for continued urban growth and development

! Boomburg: one of the countless cookie-cutter suburban communities that sprung up like
mushrooms during the housing booms of recent decades.
o rapidly growing, sprawling city of 100,000 or more on the edge of a major
metropolitan area.

! Other challenges of suburban sprawl:

o Inefficient (leapfrogging)
o High cost
o Wastes land
o Reduces ability to get to the country
o Dairy products and fresh produce
o Segregation
o Dependence on transportation

World cities function at the top of the world’s urban hierarchy and drive
globalization.

Cities are connected globally by networks and linkages and mediate global
processes.

! Urban hierarchy: A hierarchy that puts cities in

ranks from small first-order cities upward to
fourth-order cities, which are large, world-class
cities.

! The higher the order of the city, the greater the

sphere of influence that city possesses on a
global scale.

! WORLD CITIES: The most important cities as

defined by Saskia Sassen, based on their
economic, cultural, and political importance:
New York City, London, and Tokyo.
Principles that are useful for explaining the distribution and size of cities
include rank-size rule, the primate city, gravity, and Christaller’s central
place theory.

! In many MDCs, geographers observe that ranking settlements from largest to smallest
(population) produces a regular pattern or hierarchy.

! RANK SIZE RULE = the country’s nth-largest settlement is 1/n the population of the
largest settlement.

! PRIMATE CITY = The largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the
second-ranking settlement. In this distribution, the country’s largest city is the primate
city.

! Why does this matter?

o A regular hierarchy – as in the United States – indicates that the society is
sufficiently wealthy to justify the provision of goods and services to consumers
throughout the country. Quick access to services
o LDCS – primate-city rule. There is not enough wealth in the society to pay for a full
variety of services. Absence of middle size settlements constitutes a hardship for
people who must travel long distances to reach an urban settlement with shops
and services such as hospitals

Advantages of a Primate City Disadvantages of a Primate City

! Magnetic attraction for businesses, services ! Urban-rural inequalities
and people (cumulative effect) ! Imbalance in development
! Can attract international trade and business ! Concentration of Power
! Centralize transportation and communication ! Has a parasitic effect, sucking
! Enhanced flow of ideas and information among wealth, natural and human
larger populations resources into city.
! Ability to offer high-end goods due to increased ! Become centers for
threshold unemployment, crime, pollution

Improving Rank-Size Distribution:

! Limit the growth of largest city
! (Permits to move there)
! Government can build new apartments, schools, shops, electricity, paved roads,
sanitation
! Give people greater access to services " Periodic Markets
 ! Central Place Theory: Christaller argues that urbanized areas are arranged in a regular
pattern across the landscape.

Assumptions:
- no geographic boundaries (flat land)
- humans will always purchase goods from the closest place that offers the good
- whenever demand for a certain good is high, it will be offered in close proximity to
the population

Central Place Theory. This diagram represents an idealized urban hierarchy in which people
travel to the closest local market for lower-order goods, but must go to a larger town or city for
higher orders goods.

! Central place: market center for the exchange of goods and services by people attracted
from the surrounding area

! Hinterland: the area surrounding a service from which consumers are attracted

! Range: maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service. The range is the
radius of the circle drawn to delineate a service’s market area

! Threshold: minimum number of people needed to support the service. Every enterprise
has a minimum number of customers required to generate enough sales to make a profit.
Models and theories that are useful for explaining internal structures of
cities include the Burgess concentric zone model, the Hoyt sector model,
the Harris and Ullman multi-nuclei model, the galactic city model, bid-rent
theory, and urban models drawn from Latin America, Southeast Asia, and
Africa.

CONCENTRIC ZONE MODEL

! A city grows outward from a central
area in a series of concentric rings

! Size and width vary, but basic types

of rings appear in all cities in the
same order

SECTOR MODEL
! Hoyt
! City develops in a series of sectors,
not rings
! Certain areas of the city are more
attractive for various activities
because of environmental factor or by
chance
! As city grows, activities expand
outward in a wedge, or sector, for the
center
! Once a district is established, new
additions are built on edge of the
district and extend further out from
the center
MULTIPLE NUCLEI MODEL
! Harris and Ullman
! A city is a complex structure that
includes more than one center
around which activities revolve
! Examples of nodes: port,
neighborhood business center,
university, airport, park
! Activities are attracted to particular
nodes, whereas others try to avoid
them
o University node may attract well-
educated residents, bookstores
o Airport node – hotels,
warehouses
o Heavy industry and high class
housing will rarely exist in the
same neighborhood
GALACTIC MODEL/PERIPHERY MODEL:
! Modification of multiple nuclei model by Harris
! Takes into account suburbanization
! Nodes of business form on the periphery/outside
! Tied together through beltways, new transportation

Latin America:
! Griffin/Ford Model
! Large plaza at the middle
! Boulevard for the cities elite
! Housing for wealthy and powerful as spines from
center
! No middle class, poor develop rings on the outside
! Squatter settlements

Sub-Saharan Africa:
! Least urbanized but most rapidly urbanizing
! Three CBDS: colonial, traditional, periodic market
Southeast Asian:
! contains some of the most populous and fastest
growing cities in the world
! 1967 model, McKee
! Old colonial port zone surrounded by a
commercial business district
! Western commercial zone
! Alien Commercial Zone(dominated by Chinese
merchants)
! No formal central business district (CBD)
! Hybrid sectors & zones growing rapidly
! New Industrial parks on the outskirts of the city

Sociologists, economists, and geographers have developed multiple models to help explain
where different types of people tend to live in an urban area.

BID RENT CURVE:

! How the price and demand for real estate change as the distance from the central business
district (CBD) increases.
! Different land users will compete with one another for land close to the city center
! Land users all compete for the most accessible land within the CBD.
! The amount they are willing to pay is called "bid rent". The result is a pattern of concentric
rings of land use, creating the concentric zone model.
The attitudes and values of a population, as well as the balance of power
within that population, are reflected in the built landscape.

Residential buildings and patterns of land use reflect and shape the city’s
culture, technological capabilities, cycles of development, and infilling.

The location and quality of a city’s infrastructure directly affects its spatial
patterns of economic and social development.

Sustainable design initiatives and zoning practices include mixed land use,
walkability, transportation-oriented development and smart-growth policies,
including New Urbanism, greenbelts, and slow-growth cities.

! Mixed-use zoning or mixed-use planning: a type of urban development, urban planning

and/or a zoning type that blends residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or
entertainment uses into one space, where those functions are to some degree physically
and functionally integrated, and that provides pedestrian connections. Mixed-use
development may be applied in new real estate development projects in a city or suburb,
or may apply to a single building, existing or new neighborhood, or in zoning policy
across an entire city or other political unit.

! Walkability is a measure of how friendly an area is to walking. Walkability has health,

environmental, and economic benefits

! Transportation-oriented development: urban development that maximizes the amount of

residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport. It
promotes a symbiotic relationship between dense, compact urban form and public
transport use

! Smart-growth policies: urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth
in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl

! New Urbanism: planning and development approach based on walkable blocks and
streets, housing and shopping in close proximity, and accessible public spaces
 ! GOALS OF NEW URBANISM/SMART GROWTH
o Reduce the amount of area of suburban or urban sprawl
o Increase walkability or pedestrian-friendly areas, increase bikeable areas
o Increase transit-oriented development, more energy efficient transport, more
public transportation. Decrease commuting time or live close to work.
o Expand the variety of housing types in the same area
o Increase diversity: ages, income levels, cultures, ethnicities
o Construct green buildings or energy efficient structures
o Enable healthier lifestyles: outdoor activities, eliminate food deserts
o Produce architecture and design to reflect local history or culture
o Construct denser or more compact built space; support dense population
o Develop more open public space
o Promote sustainability: minimal environmental impact, eco-friendly technology,
less use of fuels

! Greenbelt/Greenway: an area of open land around a city where building is restricted.

o Protect natural or semi-natural environments
o Improve air quality within urban areas
o Ensure that urban dwellers have access to countryside
o Protect the unique character of rural communities that might otherwise be
absorbed by expanding suburbs.

Praise for urban design initiatives

include the reduction of sprawl,
improved walkability and
transportation, improved and
diverse housing options, improved
livability and promotion of
sustainable options. Criticisms
include increased housing costs,
possible de facto segregation and
the potential loss of historical or
place character.

Quantitative data from census and survey data provide information about
changes in population composition and size urban areas.

• A census counts the population of a nation, state, or other geographic region. It

records information about the population's characteristics, such as age, sex, and
occupation

Qualitative data from field studies and narratives provide information about
individual attitudes toward urban change.
Urban areas face unique economic, political, cultural and environmental
challenges.

As urban populations move within a city, economic and social challenges

result, including: issues related to housing and housing discrimination such
as redlining, blockbusting, and affordability; access to services; rising
crime; environmental injustice; and the growth of disamenity zones or zones
of abandonment.

! Redlining: drawing lines on a map to identify areas in which they refuse to loan money
o As a result of redlining, families who try to fix up houses in the area have difficulty
borrowing money.
o Can also include denial of other
services such as health care,
supermarkets
o Although redlining is illegal,
enforcement of laws against it is
frequently difficult.
o Redlining has contributed to the
long term decline of low-
income, inner city neighborhoods
and the continuation of ethnic
minority enclaves

! Blockbusting: the practice of persuading owners to sell property cheaply because of the fear
of people of another race or class moving into the neighborhood, and thus profiting by
reselling at a higher price. Largely between 1900 and 1970 during the Great Migration of
African Americans

! Disamenity Sectors (or zones) - the very poorest parts of cities that in extreme cases are not
even connected to city services (amenities) and are controlled by gangs and drugs

! Zones of abandonment: The lack of jobs, big declines in land value and falling demand can
cause properties to become abandoned, extending even to entire neighborhoods. These
areas are zones of abandonment. As more people leave, even more businesses close.

Squatter settlements and conflicts over land tenure within large cities have
increased.

! Squatter settlements are any collection of buildings where the people have no legal
rights to the land they are built upon. The people are living there illegally and do not
own the land. They provide housing for many of the world's poorest people and offer
basic shelter

! Land tenure is the legal regime in which land is owned by an individual, who is said to
"hold" the land. It determines who can use land, for how long and under what
conditions. Tenure may be based both on official laws and policies, and on informal
customs
Responses to economic and social challenges in urban areas include
inclusionary zoning and local food movements.

! Inclusionary zones: Municipal and county planning ordinances that require a given share
of new construction to be affordable by people with low to moderate incomes.

! Local food movements aim to connect food producers and consumers in the same
geographic region, to develop more self-reliant and resilient food networks; improve local
economies; or to affect the health, environment, community, or society of a particular
place.

Urban renewal and gentrification have both positive and negative

consequences.

! Urban Renewal: a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in
cities. Cities identify blighted inner-city neighborhoods, acquire the properties from private
owners, relocate the residents and businesses, clear the site, and build new roads and
facilities. The land is then turned over to private developers or to public agencies, such
as the board of education or the parks department, to construct new buildings or
services.

! Gentrification: is a process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the

influx of more affluent residents and businesses.

Positives of Gentrification Negatives of Gentrification

•Increasing property values or as properties are •Displacement due to rising property
renovated they rise in value. values and rents; impacting less
affluent, elderly, or marginalized
•Stimulating new businesses and/or investment. groups.
New businesses are attracted to the area due to
increased incomes of new residents and/or •Changing cultural landscape as
increased tourism. modern or contemporary buildings
take the place of traditional or historic
•New employment either in construction (short term) architecture.
or in the new businesses that open (longer term).
•Increased social tension due to
•Changing cultural landscape as a result of changes in neighborhood
restoration efforts, aesthetic improvement of older or characteristics, diversity, and
decaying structures, neighborhood rehabilitation, or opportunities.
historical preservation of structures or
neighborhoods. •Displacement may lead to increased
homelessness.
•Improvement in business services and consumer,
resident, or visitor amenities (e.g. young, diverse, •Changing businesses as small,
“cool city” factor). locally-owned businesses are
replaced with national or global
•Improvement in public infrastructure, e.g., new chains, franchises or companies with
sidewalks, repaved roads, community centers, prohibitively expensive goods and
parks, upgrading of utilities. services.
What can be done to offset the negative effects of gentrification?

! Affordable housing programs

o Rent control
o Public housing developments
o Require developers to add affordable housing units
! Historical preservation laws
o Enforce historical preservation laws to maintain character
o City government can purchase rights of buildings
! Urban planning or zoning
o Ensure planning involves participation of entire community
o Development of services or retailing for lower-income residents

Functional and geographic fragmentation of governments – the way

government agencies and institutions are dispersed between state, county,
city and neighborhood levels – presents challenges in addressing urban
issues.

Challenges to urban sustainability include suburban sprawl, sanitation,

climate change, air and water quality, the large ecological footprint of cities,
and urban energy use.

Responses to urban sustainability challenges can include regional planning

efforts, remediation and redevelopment of brownfields, establishment of
urban growth boundaries, and farmland protection policies.

! Brownfield: any previously developed land that is not currently in use, whether
contaminated or not. The term is also used to describe land previously used for
industrial or commercial purposes with known or suspected pollution including soil
contamination due to hazardous waste