Unit 7

Cities and Urban Land Use

Alvin High School
Cities are everywhere
Physical City
 Isa continuous
development that
contains a central
city, many nearby
cities, towns and
suburbs.
Social Classification-Sjoberg Cities
change over time
 1. Folk- (preliterate)- earliest cities, predating written
language.
 2. Feudal- During the middle ages- dependent

relationship between wealthy land owners and

peasants.
 3. Preindustrial- little machine technology, people and

animals form basis for economic production.

 4. Urban- industrial- W. Europe, America, Japan.

Production through machines, and energy sources from

fossil fuels and atomic power.
 Function and Location of
Ancient Cities
 Functions of cities included:
◦ Centers of power-headquarters of early heads of state.
◦ Religious centers-priests, temples and shrines located in cities.
◦ Economic centers-markets for trade, wealthy merchants, land
and livestock owners, traders operating and living in urban
areas.
◦ Educational centers-city residents included teachers and
philosophers to educate the urban elite.
City
Medieval, Preindustrial and Industrial
World Cities
Medieval cities
 The largest settlements were centers of government,
church and markets.
 Roads connected to hinterlands.
 Most cities were surrounded by walls.
 Streets were narrow and winding.
 Occupational groups were clustered together.
 Ethnicity defined communities and sought to keep out

people who differed from themselves.

 “ghetto” first described the segregation of Jews in

Venice.
Urbanization and Mediterranean
 City-states-self-governing communities that included the
nearby countryside.
 Greeks
◦ Athens-first city to reach 100,000 in population.
◦ Urban empire included large parts of the interior of Europe along
with Mediterranean shores.
 Phoenicians-SW Africa
 Romans

 The cities were connected by a network of land and sea

routes.
Preindustrial Cities.
 Urban centers for culture.
 Mark Jefferson named them: Primate Cities –larger

than other cities in the area and representing

national culture.
◦ Kyoto-old Japan
◦ Paris-French culture
◦ London-all that is English.
Preindustrial Cities
 Mercantile City-where trade became central to the city
design.
◦ No matter where the city was located, it’s central square was
fronted by government and religious buildings, housing for the
rich.
◦ Streets leading to the square were arteries of commerce, lined
with shops that specialized in products brought by the trade
routes.

◦ Ex. London, Lisbon, Amsterdam

Industrial Revolution Cities
 Industrial Revolution
 Created the Manufacturing City
◦ Factories attracted workers from rural areas. In some countries
tenements were constructed for worker housing.
◦ Broad, straight boulevards to accommodate the flow of
commercial traffic, eventually cars.
◦ Developers divided cities into regular sized lots as land was a
commodity to be bought and sold.
◦ Some cities retained their historic square, others lost
organization.
◦ Problems of sanitation, overcrowding, pollution and disaray.
Cities
 Modern City- Little attention is paid building aesthetics or
design. Multiple CBD’s and disbursed suburbs. The
Hallmark of American Life.

 Postmodernism- city spaces become more people friendly

 Edge City- characterized by extensive office and retail
space
◦ 1950’s-60’s- suburbanization
◦ 1970-80’s- malls
◦ 1990-2000’s- big box retailers
Urbanization
 Process by which cities grow. This has two
dimensions:
◦ An increase in the number of people living in cities.
◦ An increase in the percentage of people living in cities.
Percent living in urban areas. More developed countries have higher % in urban areas.
Urbanized area
 70% of USA lives in
urbanized areas
◦ 30% in central cities
◦ 40% surrounding
jurisdictions
Cities with 3 million or more
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)
An MSA includes the following:
1. An urbanized area with a population of at least
50,000.
2. The county within which the city is located.
3. Adjacent counties with a high population density
and a large percentage of residents working in the
central city’s county.
Micropolitan Statistical Area
 Urbanized area between
10,000 and 50,000.
 The county in which it

is found and adjacent

counties tied to the city
Megalopolis
 Megalopolis
 Adjacent MSA’s overlap.
 A county between two central cities may send large
number of commuters to jobs in each.
 Megalopolis-Greek word meaning “Great City”

 Boswash Corridor
World’s 26 Largest Cities
 1. Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan - 33,200,000  14. Los Angeles, United States -
2. New York, United States - 17,800,000 11,789,000
3. Sao Paulo, Brazil - 17,700,000 15. Buenos Aires, Argentina -
4. Seoul-Incheon, South Korea - 11,200,000
17,500,000 16. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 10,800,000
5. Mexico City, Mexico - 17,400,000 17. Moscow, Russia - 10,500,000
6. Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto, Japan - 18. Shanghai, China - 10,000,000
16,425,000 19. Karachi, Pakistan - 9,800,000
7. Manila, Philippines - 14,750,000
20. Paris, France - 9,645,000
8. Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay) -
21. Nagoya, Japan - 9,000,000 (tie)
14,350,000
21. Istanbul, Turkey - 9,000,000 (tie)
9. Jakarta, Indonesia - 14,250,000
10. Lagos, Nigeria - 13,400,000 23. Beijing, China - 8,614,000
11. Kolkata, India (formerly Calcutta) - 24. Chicago, United States - 8,308,000
12,700,000 25. London, United Kingdom -
12. Delhi, India - 12,300,000 8,278,000
13. Cairo, Egypt - 12,200,000 26. Shenzhen, China - 8,000,000
World Cities and Megacities
 In the place of great
manufacturing cities are
modern world cities that
have become centers of
business, consumer and
public sectors.
Megacity
 LDC’s
 Large, chaotic,

unplanned sprawling
growth
 Pollution
 Widespread poverty
Megacities
 Coined by the United Nations in the 1970’s for cities
over 10 million.
 House new arrivals in overpopulated apartment

buildings, tenements or slums.

 Shantytowns have grown up around many.
 Lack of zoning allows the very wealthy to live next to

the very poor.

 Urban Hierarchy-
from smallest to largest
 Hamlet-cluster of farmer’s houses with a few basic
services.
 Village-smallest urban settlement. Several dozen services

more specialized than a hamlet.

 Town-has more specialized function. May have a bank,

post office, hospital, schools. Towns have a hinterland-

smaller villages or hamlets economically dependent on it.
 City-large population, functional specialization. Well

defined central business district.

 Megalopolis-multiple cities that have grown together.
Urban Components
 CBD- Central Business district
 Central City- urban area that is not suburban
 Ghetto- inner city that has become dilapidated
 Node- centers of activity
 Suburb- residential communities
 Exurb- ring of prosperous communities beyond the

suburbs
CBD-Downtown
 Retail
◦ High end shops
◦ Retail services such as malls,
grocery stores
◦ Business services
 High cost of land
◦ Tokyo-$500 million/sq acre
◦ Intensive land use
◦ skyscrapers
 Excluded activities
◦ Declining manufacturing
◦ Lack of residents
Bid Rent theory
 How the price and
demand for real estate
changes as the distance
from the Central
Business District (CBD)
increases. It states that
different land users will
compete with one
another for land close to
the city center.
Urban Influence Zones
 Areas outside the city
that are affected by it.

 How big an area,

depends on the city.

The urban hierarchy is at

work.
 Rural to Urban Migration and
Urban Growth
 ¾ of people in developed countries live in cities.

 Urbanization in the USA

◦ 1800-5% urbanized----1950-20%

 Migration rural to urban has increased in less developed countries in

Asia, Africa and Latin America.
◦ By 2000, 32 of the 48 cities with populations over 5 million were in less
developed nations.

 All countries have in common:

◦ The proportion of people living in cities is rising.
◦ Cities themselves are large and growing.
 Functions of Cities
 Urban centers are functionally connected to other cities
and to rural areas.
◦ Transportation centers-major routes converge.
◦ Special function cities-engaged in manufacturing, mining, or
recreation.
◦ Central places-provide goods and services for the surrounding
areas.
◦ Cities carry out activities that are necessary simply to support
itself.
The economic base of cities
 Export activities-produce goods and services for
outside the city. They are the basic sector of the
city’s economy.
 Non-basic or service sector- produce goods or

services for the residents of the city itself.

 Base ratio-ration between workers employed in

basic and non basic sector. The larger the city the
larger the ratio of non-basic workers.
◦ Multiplier effect-new basic sector employment is
accompanied by a larger share of non-basic workers.
Decreasing the ratio of basic to non-basic workers.
Economic base
Models of Urban Systems
 Two theories of settlement geography or
patterns of settlement on the earth’s
surface.
◦ Rank-size rule.
◦ Christaller’s Central Place Theory
Rank Size Rule
 Rank size ordering describes patterns of urban sizes in
complex economies where urbanization is well
established.

 Tells us that the nth largest city will be 1/n the size of
the largest city.
◦ Example the 2nd largest city will be ½ the size of the first
largest city.
◦ In some countries the primate city so dominates that no other
cities fit the rank size order.
 Internal Cities
 Geographers analyze the internal land spaces of cities
and the various uses that it serves.
 Cities are often arranged in similar ways, allowing

geographers to develop models of urban land use.

 The models are influenced by:

◦ Accessibility
◦ High cost of accessible space
◦ Transportation
◦ Societal and cultural needs.
Internal cities
 Accessibility
◦ Functions of cities be fulfilled in spaces accessible to its
inhabitants. Ex. High density housing within walking distance
of workers during the Industrial Revolution.
 High cost of accessible space
◦ The cost of land ↑ as available land↓
◦ Mass transportation allowed the amount of useable space to
grow.
◦ Population density pushes the cost of land and other
commodities higher.
Internal Cities
 Transportation
◦ Lines of transportation determine the growth of a city.
◦ Land with highest accessibility is the most desirable and
generally the most expensive.
 Societal and cultural needs.
◦ Economic competition determines land use.
◦ Some highly desirable land is usually set aside for parks,
schools, libraries. Look at Central Park in NYC
Models of Urban Land Use
Models of Urban Land Use
 Three different models developed to explain land use
within cities.
 The 3 models were all developed in Chicago, with flat

land and only Lake Michigan to disrupt the landscape.

 The three models:

◦ Concentric Zone
◦ Sector
◦ Multiple Nuclei Models
Concentric Zone Model
 Created in 1923
 Sociologist EW Burgess
 It views cities growing

outward from a central

area in a series of
concentric rings.
Concentric Zones
Concentric Zones
 Zone 1-CBD, nonresident activities, property costs↑.
 Zone 2-Zone in transition, light industry, housing for

poor, services in transition between CBD and

residential areas in outer zones. Housing formerly
occupied by the wealthy, who have moved farther out.
Industry in Zone 2 are too large to fit into Zone 1,
owners seeking cheaper land.
 Zone 3-working class homes, modest older homes on

smaller lots. Housing is less expensive than outer

rings.
Concentric Zones
 Zone 4-homes are larger and more expensive. Middle
class single family homes or high rent apartments.
These persons choose location and afford high cost of
transportation to the CBD.
 Zone 5-commuter zone, farthest from CBD. Beyond

continuous built up area. People live in small villages

where they spend leisure and sleep hours and commute
to the CBD.
Concentric Zone
 Burgesses model is dynamic.
 Invasion and succession explains the changes to the

model.
◦ Poorer inhabitants drive wealthy farther out from the center of
the city.
 Sector Model
Homer Hoyt
1939
Land Economist
Sector Model
 Cities develop in a series of sectors.
 Sectors develop by environmental factors or by chance.
 As cities grow, activities expand outward like a wedge.
 Once an area is established for industry, other industry

will cluster around it.

 Wealthy areas attract wealthy. Middle class live next to

wealthy.
Sector Model
Multiple Nuclei Model
C. D. Harris and E. L. Ullman
Developed in 1945
Multiple Nuclei Model
 Harris and Ullman
 Explains that large cities develop by spreading from
several nodes of growth, not just one.
 Individual nodes have special functions
 This model explains that incompatible land use activities
do not cluster in the same location.
 Nodes influence the type of development that occurs
around them.
 This model explains then clusters come into contact,
incompatible land uses will develop along juncture lines.
Multiple Nuclei Model
Summary
 All 3 models help explain not only land use, but the
different social characteristics of people living in areas
of a city.
 These models may be used along with census

information.
 Census tracts-division of urban land areas in the USA.

◦ Approximately 5,000 people

◦ Correspond to neighborhood boundaries.
Peripheral Model
 North American Cities follow this model.
 Created by Chauncy Harris-created the multiple nuclei

model.
 Strong desire for suburban living

◦ Families with children

◦ Amenities
◦ More space, play and protection than city
Peripheral Model
Urban Realms Model
James E Vance
Urban Realms Model
 Cities are made up of small “realms” which are self-
sufficient urban areas with independent focal points.

 This model does a good job at explaining suburban

growth and how certain functions that are normally
found in the CBD can be moved to the suburbs (such as
shopping malls, hospitals, schools, etc.)
 These functions diminish the importance of the CBD

and instead create distant realms that accomplish

approximately the same thing.
Urban Sprawl
 Progressive spread of
development over the
landscape.

 Greenbelts-rings of
open space can fight
urban development.
London is an example.
Development
Zoning Ordinances
 Encourage spatial segregation.
 Prevents mixed land uses within the same district.
 This is a form of suburban segregation.

◦ Vertical segregation is replaced by territorial segregation.

◦ Legally requirements such as lot size, prohibition of

apartments, prevent many low income families from living in
the suburbs.
Planning for growth
 Urban redevelopment
◦ Revitalization of downtown areas
 Gentrification-middle class people drawn to renovated areas.
◦ Expensive condos replacing low income housing.
◦ Poor even further displaced.
 New public housing with less population density.

 Smart growth
◦ Produce a pattern of controlled development.
◦ Protect rural lands for agriculture, wildlife and recreation
◦ Urban growth areas designated by the local governments.
Planning Problems
 Redlining- It describes the practice of making a red line
on a map to delineate where banks would not invest;
later the term was applied to discrimination against a
particular group of people (usually by race or sex) no
matter the geography.
 Racial Steering- real estate agents guide prospective

buyers towards or away from affluent areas.

Ghettoization
 Forced segregation, limits residential choices, ethnic or
racial minorities may be confined to older, low-cost
housing areas typically close to the city center.

 Patterns of ghettoization have differed by region

Squatter settlement it is considered as a residential area in an urban
locality inhabited by the very poor who have no access to tenured land of
their own, and hence "squat" on vacant land, either private or public.
Squatter Settlement
Inner City Social Problems
 Underclass-inner city residents who are trapped in an
unending cycle of economic and social problems.
◦ Lack of job skills
◦ Homeless
◦ Poverty
◦ Crime
◦ Racial Segregation
◦ Annexation- legally adding land to the city
Concerns for Urbanization
 Sprawl-outlying areas farther out
 Loss of soil- farmland lost. USA 1 million acres/year
 Land use- less land more pavement
 Pollution- air, water and soil
 Waste- garbage, sewage
 Consumer habits- use more energy, food
Transportation and
Infrastructure
Cities and Urban Land Used
Infrastructure
 Refers to all the facilities that support basic economic
activities to such a degree that a city cannot function
without them.

 Transportation impacts the demographic layout and

function including:
◦ Motor vehicles
 About ¼ of city land allocated to roads and parking lots.
◦ Public transportation
 Busses, rail, subway
Public Transportation
 Comparative Urbanization
How do worldwide cities compare to American cities?
Comparative Urbanization
 European Cities
◦ Wealthy live close to town
◦ Small yards if any, parks are popular
◦ Wealthy have weekend homes.
◦ European suburbs are centers for crime, violence, drug dealing.
◦ Suburb residents are often immigrants from Africa or Asia who
face discrimination or prejudice in larger society.
Comparative Urbanization
 Latin American Cities
◦ Faster growth today
◦ CBD main focus of business, employment and entertainment.
◦ Socioeconomic levels and housing decrease in quality as
distance from the center city increases.
◦ Disamenity sector is a relatively stable slum area that radiates
from the central market to the outermost zone of periphery
squatter settlements that consist of high density shantytowns.
Layout of Latin American City
Comparative Urbanization
 SE Asian Cities
◦ Asia’s urban growth is explosive
◦ Sectors and zones that radiate from a port zone. Many still
focus on exporting goods.

 African Cities
◦ Northern Africa-Islamic influence, mosque in the center,
marketplace or bazaar. CBD, strong ethnic neighborhoods
◦ Southern Africa-Western due to colonization by Europe.
Squatter settlements on the outskirts
Comparative Urbanization
 Canadian City
◦ More centralized, less suburbanized. Wealthy live in SBD, less
deterioration of CBD’s

Eastern European City- less affluent than W. Europe due to

Communist Urban Planning. Micro-districts- fewer roads,
maximized living space.

Islamic City- mosques, open air markets, courtyards surrounded

by walls