Lesson 2 Urban Geography

1.
Unsettling Cities, Cities of Connection and Disconnection
The first is the rise of chains of activity that are worldwide in

scope, such that social relations and institutions have become stretched
across space. For instance, transnational firms now have global
production networks, there is now a global financial system separated
from national money markets and controls, and global cultural values and
habits are emerging under the influence of large consumer or media
organizations such as Coca Cola, News International and IBM.
Major cities at least have become key dynamic staging points in
these global chains of activity (see Borja and Castells, 1997). They are the
sites of ceaseless flows of people, money, commodities, ideas,
information and cultural influences. They are home to the institutions
associated with these flows and, as such, also centres of influence within
the chains. This global linkage #/s increased the heterogeneity of cities by
adding a new layer of influences upon older connections between the city
and the countryside, the nation, and the rest of the world.
The second related global process is the intensification of
contact between places, now that day-to-day activities are increasingly
influenced by events in far-off places owing to the rise of global transport
and communications technologies. Thus, a local economic downturn in
one region or city of the world may force new migrants and refugees to
cities on the other side of the world, while investment decisions in the Far
East create or destroy jobs in locations within distant continents.
It could be argued that these two global processes—the stretching
of relationships and the intensifying connection between places—are
currently involved in shaping virtually all cities of the world. It is clear that
traditionally open international cities such as London, Cairo or Bombay
(Mumbai) have long been ‘gateways’ to the world—centers bringing
together remarkable mixtures of diverse industries, social groups, and
flows of people, goods and information. But now even in more ‘provincial
cities, such as Bristol, Bordeaux and Bamako, local traditions are
disturbed by cosmopolitan cultures that are introduced by travel,
migration, television and global consumerism. Here, too, contrasts and
contradictions are an intrinsic part of city life.
Most cities, then, are becoming increasingly permeable—places of
multiple and changing connections. Cities juxtapose cultures, people and
flows within more or less concentrated material spaces through which they
become proximate. Because of this it is not possible—if indeed it ever was
—to ascribe to any city a singular purpose or fixed coherence. Dig deep
enough and you will find diverse social worlds even in cities which at first
sight seem apparently homogeneous— university cities such as Stanford,
cities of industry and design such as Bologna or Bangalore, cities of
government such as Brasilia or Canberra, and cities of high consumption
such as Nice.
When it comes to planning better cities for the future there’s one
simple rule: connect people to places, people to transport and people to
people.
The quality and efficiency of our connections have a major impact

on how we experience city living. Too often when a city plans for
connectivity the needs of people are neglected. We forget the deceptively
simple principle that we must ensure that people are at the center of how
we plan, where we live, how we travel and how we get to work.
Despite our obvious need for connectivity, many of us are living in a

state of “urban disconnect”. Cities have been designed for cars rather than
people. Urban disconnect and discontent grow on the back of, and are
compounded by, increasing pollution, depleting fossil fuels, rising fuel
prices, traffic congestion and traffic fatalities.
As we become more disconnected, we suffer the consequences.

These include greater inequality, a rise in obesity and social alienation –
not to mention lost economic opportunities.
How to diagnose connectivity

Bringing the people and place connections to fruition requires an
accurate diagnosis of current levels of connectivity. Connected places
have three key attributes:
People connectivity
This exists where a place promotes social interaction and
community engagement; where there is a sense of place, identity,
community attachment and social diversity; and where people from all
walks of life come into everyday contact with each other. This builds social
capital and empathy across the social-cultural spectrum.
Place connectivity
This involves land use that provides easy access to a mix of
neighbourhood activities, enabling short-distance travel. This brings place
A and place B closer together.
Transport connectivity
This exists where low-impact modes of travel allow for sustainable
mobility, which enhances the quality and liveability of places, making the
journey between place A and place B safe, efficient and enjoyable.
Place and people connectivity encourage place-making and creates
vibrant, liveable and attractive urban places.
Place and transport connectivity, on the other hand, is about urban
function and describes how accessible urban places are. High place and
transport connectivity mean that places A and B are brought closer
together, or it is faster and easier to travel between them.
To measure the connectivity attributes of places and the success of
strategies to meet people’s needs, I developed an audit tool for continual
quantitative and qualitative evaluation. The tool can be used to measure
the “before and after” situation of a place to assess whether strategies to
improve connectivity have been successful.
The audit tool incorporates five key dimensions:
city and neighborhood structure

diversity
walkability and cyclability
place-making
transport.
An economics-driven approach to urban development will inevitably

aim to maximize the value of land area; this has led to the construction of
dense, high-rise urban jungles in many countries and resulted in a swathe
of identical, generic urban skylines across the globe.
This is no way to create cities that are sustainable or liveable,
according to British landscape architect Andrew Grant, one of the key
figures behind Singapore’s award-winning park, Gardens by the Bay.
Speaking at a plenary session at the recent International Green
Building Conference, Grant, who founded and heads UK-based
architecture firm Grant Associates, said that most urban expansion
globally is taking place at the expense of surrounding natural spaces.
Many urban planners seem largely unconcerned about the need to
incorporate nature into cities, he added.
This is not only desensitizing people to pressing issues such as the
biodiversity loss resulting from habitat destruction and climate change, but
has also led to a dearth of opportunities for city dwellers to access the
inspiring and rejuvenating qualities of the natural environment, said Grant.
Upon observing how the green building world has developed, it is
amazing to see the mechanics and technologies that make buildings more
sustainable, said Grant. But he posed this question to delegates: “Do
these technologies factor in how we want to live, and whether we are
creating places that people can enjoy, feel connected to and create
memories in?”
To overcome this emotional disconnect between city dwellers and

their surroundings, Grant proposed a set of measures that urban planners
could consider, including:
1. Embracing the unpredictability of natural wilderness

Grant called for ‘ecological thinking’ to be introduced into urban
planning efforts, which is an approach that allows for natural spaces and
structures to evolve without intervention, and accepts the lack of
predictability and structure that this would introduce into the landscape. He
cited the example of how the presence of wild boars in Singapore had
generated excitement amongst some residents, and even served as a
muse for a local artist’s work.
Embracing the unpredictability and lack of structure that

accompanies natural spaces in a city would help to shift cities away from
being “ornamental, artificial worlds” and instead recreate a more organic
and engaging urban experience for residents, said Grant.
2. Going beyond cosmetic urban greenery

When looking at how to incorporate green spaces into a city, urban
developers should strive to go beyond cosmetic installations such as
vertical greenery and sky gardens, said Grant. “Measures such as sky
gardens or vertical greenery leave a veneer of green, but don’t create the
spaces needed for interesting encounters with nature.”
He added that in Singapore’s context, what would be needed to

create a unique and meaningful sense of landscape were big forest trees.
This “would not only capture people’s imagination, but also create an
integrated system that helps manage water flows in the city, allows spaces
for biodiversity to flourish, and improves air quality,” said Grant.
“I don’t think these multiple benefits can be achieved through

vertical greening, you need a bigger scale of landscapes to do that,” he
added.
3. Establishing a link between the growth of cities and the welfare of nearby
natural spaces
To minimize the destructive impact of urbanization on the natural
environment, Grant argued that it took both cities and wild landscapes to
make up a sustainable urban entity, and that both environments should
not be regarded separately. To highlight this symbiotic relationship, Grant
suggested that cities could be twinned with neighboring natural areas —
that is, the growth of cities could be jointly tracked with the health of wild
landscapes. A financial mechanism could ensure that a city invested in
measures to minimize or repair the harm done to surrounding green
spaces, added Grant.
He went on to acknowledge that it was not yet clear if this idea was
a practical possibility, but said that “twinning would be a powerful public
display of the recognition that cities have with surrounding natural areas”.
Additional Reading #1: Finding connections to nature in cities is key to healthy

urban living
The modern city is a place where a vibrant array of ideas, sights,

sounds and smells intermingle to spawn creativity, expression and
innovation. We are drawn to the noise, the constant connectivity and the
delicious food.
Simply put, society is tuned to the pulse of the city -- but at what
cost?
That's the question explored in a recent Science perspective piece

co-authored by University of Washington researcher Peter Kahn. Its
authors discuss the growing tension between an arguably necessary role
urban areas play in society and the numbing, even debilitating, aspects of
cities that disconnect humans from the natural world.
"Kids in large cities are growing up having never seen the stars.
Can you imagine that -- having never in your life walked under the
vastness of the star-lit sky, and there's that feeling of awe, restoration and
imaginative spark?" said Kahn, a professor in the UW's Department of
Psychology and School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.
"As we build bigger cities, we're not aware how much and how fast
we're undermining our connection to nature, and more wild nature -- the
wellspring of our existence."
Kahn, who directs the Human Interaction with Nature and

Technological Systems Lab at the UW, and co-author Terry Hartig at
Uppsala University in Sweden, point to research that shows the emotional
and mental strain cities can have on people. Mental illnesses and mood
disorders are more common in urban areas, and while many factors share
the blame, reduced access to nature is a contributing cause, Kahn said.
"There's an enormous amount of disease largely tied to our
removal from the natural environment," he said.
City dwellers in increasingly dense urban areas may have little or

no contact with the natural world in their daily lives. That void is producing
"environmental generational amnesia," a term Kahn coined and elaborates
on in a recent book that describes how each generation creates a new
idea of what's environmentally normal based on experiences in childhood.
If, for example, a child never crawls through the dirt looking for
critters, or never cranes her neck to take in the upward expanse of an old
Douglas fir tree, she may not see as an adult that forests are degraded or
certain species need protection.
To take that a step further, the authors write, "This helps to explain
inaction on environmental problems; people do not feel the urgency or
magnitude of problems because the experiential baseline has shifted."
Packing people into cities, then, can have serious consequences

for future generations, the authors argue. There may also be such a thing
as too much urban density, if the goal is to achieve access to nature
alongside the advantage’s cities can offer.
"I'm willing to say there's a naturalness we can achieve in cities, but

not at the scale we're building or at the scale we're headed with many
cities," Kahn said. "There's nothing natural about a megacity."
There are steps cities can take to introduce nature into the urban
core, including requiring buildings to have windows that open to allow in
fresh air and natural light; incorporating more rooftop gardens and urban
agriculture; and creating spaces within and around buildings to touch, see
and smell native plants.
But these remedies first require an appreciation for nature in urban

centers, as well as the space, resources and collective will to make these
changes.
Kahn argues that it's more than just introducing nature into urban
areas. People must be able to interact with these elements using more of
their senses in order to experience physical and psychological benefits of
nature, as well as to shift the collective baseline toward better
understanding and appreciation of the natural world.
For example, looking at an office plant on the windowsill might be
soothing, but having a place to sit in the grass on a lunch break and
perhaps even sink one's feet into the soil are sensory experiences that
can deepen a person's engagement with nature.
Thoughtfully designed cities with nature can offer both the

stimulation and energy of an urban area and meaningful interaction with a
psychologically restorative natural environment. The authors conclude:
"Thus, cities designed well, with nature in mind and at hand, can be
understood as natural, supportive of both ecosystem integrity and public
health."

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1.

Unsettling Cities, Cities of Connection and Disconnection

The first is the rise of chains of activity that are worldwide in

The quality and efficiency of our connections have a major impact

Despite our obvious need for connectivity, many of us are living in a

As we become more disconnected, we suffer the consequences.

How to diagnose connectivity

The audit tool incorporates five key dimensions:

city and neighborhood structure

An economics-driven approach to urban development will inevitably

To overcome this emotional disconnect between city dwellers and

1. Embracing the unpredictability of natural wilderness

Embracing the unpredictability and lack of structure that

2. Going beyond cosmetic urban greenery

He added that in Singapore’s context, what would be needed to

“I don’t think these multiple benefits can be achieved through

Additional Reading #1: Finding connections to nature in cities is key to healthy

The modern city is a place where a vibrant array of ideas, sights,

That's the question explored in a recent Science perspective piece

Kahn, who directs the Human Interaction with Nature and

City dwellers in increasingly dense urban areas may have little or

Packing people into cities, then, can have serious consequences

"I'm willing to say there's a naturalness we can achieve in cities, but

But these remedies first require an appreciation for nature in urban

Thoughtfully designed cities with nature can offer both the

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