6.

1 The Origin and Influence of Urbanization

Ecumene
- The ecumene is the human-populated parts of the earth. While people live in
most places, most of the population lives in the
- Northern hemisphere
- Temperate zone
- Low elevation close to the sea and/or river

Factors Driving Urbanization and Suburbanization

- Agricultural villages began to develop ~12,000 years ago
- Agricultural surplus
- Social stratification based on wealth, leadership, and elite class
controlled the land
- Job specialization
- Development of trade networks
- Development of record keeping (writing systems)
- Technology-driven development (Irrigation)
- People settled near resources and plentiful food
- Cities were a result of the 1st Agricultural Revolution

City States
- A city that is also a state (country)

Site and Situation of a City

- Site refers to the city's proximity to the resources necessary for the city to
prosper.
- Soil type determines the kind of food that can be grown in an area
- Climate and annual rainfall
- Available labor force
 - Resources for fuel, housing, fresh water, etc..
- Topography (flat open plain, hills, etc..)
- Situation refers to a location relative to its surroundings and other places.

Cities - Centers for Services

- Definitions of Cities
- The metropolitan area (metro) includes the city and surrounding urban
areas
- Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)- Consists of a city of at least
50,0000 people
- Micropolitan Statistical Areas have from 10,000-50,000 people
- Administrative centers
- Religious centers
- Trade centers
- Specialized products
- Cultural centers
- Exchange of ideas

Characteristics of Cities
- Heterogeneous population
- Tolerant to differing lifeways
- Many different languages are spoken
- Many religions or philosophical systems coexist
- Diversity of income levels, housing
- It can be very lonely
- Ethnic enclaves
- A large number of immigrants
- Public Transportation
6.2: Cities Across the World

Megacity
- A megacity is a city that has over 10,000,000 inhabitants. (10 millian+
populations)
- Often time considered parasitic because it consumes a looooot of resources of
a country to support its infrastructure
- Usually found in developing countries
- A result of rural-to-urban migration as people go to cities looking for
opportunities (jobs/economic opportunities and hustle/bustle of a city)
- Challenges include- cultural clashes, social problems, high unemployment, lack
of infrastructure, inadequate housing, and pollution.

Metacity
- A city that has over 20,000,000 people is called a metacity (20 millian+
population)

Suburbanization
- Suburbanization is the process of people moving from cities to residential
areas. (urban to suburban migration)
- These communities are connected to the city for jobs and services. (people who
work in a city, but don’t want the lifestyle of a city - they live here)
- They are not as diverse as cities. (they are mostly residential and do not have
as many options as a city may have)
- Why a suburb?
- Economic expansion
- Greater purchasing power
- The desire for more space/green space
- Car-centered lifestyle
- Vast highway systems
 - Racial tensions “White Flight”
- Businesses moved out of the cities
- FHA provided low-interest mortgage loans for people to buy houses in
the suburbs

Urban Sprawl
- The rapid spread of urban development outward from the inner city. (the city
is becoming larger from the center outwards)
- It is facilitated by the availability of automobiles, the creation of interstate
highways, and inexpensive land outside of the city. (there are resources
available to make the city larger)

Edge City
- An edge city is an urban area with a large suburban residential and business
area surrounding it. These areas are tied together by a beltway. (smaller cities
on the edge of larger cities)
- The edge cities started as suburban areas for those who worked in the
central cities

Exurb
- Exurbs are residential and prosperous, but rural areas beyond the suburbs.
(the in-between of suburbs and rural communities)

Boomburg
- A rapidly growing (double-digit growth) suburban city with a population
greater than 100,000. (a suburb is becoming larger and more city-like quickly)

Shifting Trends
- Reurbanization is the process of leaving the suburbs and returning to the city.
(migration from suburbs to cities)
 - This occurs as cities go through a process of renewal and gentrification.
- Exurbanization- the process of leaving the suburbs and moving to live in the
urban areas. (less populated areas) (migration from suburb to rural areas)
- Some people decide to move out of the suburbs as they become
crowded.
- They move even farther away from the metro areas. Sometimes
the exurbs will develop into their little city, a satellite city.

6.3: Cities and Globalization

Economic Power and World Cities

- Modern World cities have become command and control centers for the global
economy. (the important “markets” of the world - think Von Thunen Model)
- They have financial (stock) markets
- Headquarters for Multinational Corporations
- They have major banks
- Important business services
- Cultural Centers (the “markets” for people who are artistic and creative)
- Culturally diverse
- Museums
- Art Galleries
- Music and Theater Venues
- World-class restaurants and hotels
- Attract creative and talented people from all over the world

World City/Global City

- Cities that exert their influence far beyond their national boundaries are
media hubs, financial centers, and headquarters for international
organizations. (they have importance/power/influence over a large span
including locations outside their country of origin)
6.4: The Size and Distribution of Cities

Rank-Size Rule
- A lot of larger cities but they tend to follow a pattern
- The cities start large and the cities get smaller and smaller (nth largest city is
1/n smaller than the largest city.)

Primate city
- The country has one main city with the largest population (there are other
cities but they are drastically smaller)
- The primate city is the largest city when you follow this rule

Gravity Model
- Places that are larger and closer will have greater interaction than places that
are smaller and farther away.
- The model predicts the flow of workers, shoppers, and migrants

Exceptions to the Gravity Model

- Factors beyond size and distance complicate interactions between cities.
- Some cities have popular attractions and are tourist destinations like Las
Vegas and Orlando, Florida.
- Other cities are religious cities that attract pilgrims such as Mecca, Saudi
Arabia, and Vatican City.
- Some cities are the seats of government like London and Washington DC.

Christaller’s Central Place Theory

- 1933- developed to explain the distribution of cities of different sizes across a
region based on settlement distribution patterns in southern Germany. Each
settlement provides a marketplace for the exchange of goods and services. The
 distribution of settlements depends on the Threshold and Range for a certain
good or service.
- Threshold- the minimal number of customers for a business to be profitable.
- Range- How far will a customer travel to get to that good or service?
Specialty goods or services have a much larger range than ordinary
goods or services
- Hamlet- small town (very small population)
- Village - a couple of 1,000 people (small-ish population)
- Town - the larger population has some specialized things
- City- even larger population and has all the specialized things

Why Hexagons?
- The market area surrounds each central place (hamlet, village, town, city).
- The hexagon was a compromise between a square and a circle which would
create overlapping or in the case of a square, have people in the corners too
far away from the market area.
- His theory was also based on the following criteria:
- The distribution of central places was across a flat featureless plain
- The population has the same income
- The population had a demand for the same types of goods and services
- Critics of the theory argue:
- This is an unrealistic set of criteria, the theory is based on the European
experience, the theory was developed before technological advancements
gave people other marketplace options and the theory does not consider
different demands for different ages.
6.5 The Internal Structure of Cities

Burgess Concentric Zone Model (1925)

- These cities were created around industry
- The center is industry
- Transportation - at the time it was by foot or using horses
- 1920’s - transition from horses to cars
- The land in the center is the most expensive
- The land on the edge is the least expensive
- Rich people live on the EDGE
- Poor people live in the center
- Why???
- Closer - expensive land, apartments, bad conditions
- Farther away - cheaper land, expensive houses

Build UP not OUT

- bc of high land prices

Inner City Blight & Renewal

- Cities had bad conditions
- The rich didn’t care about cleaning them up - the cities would get worse
- They would draw the rich in - so that they would care about fixing up the city
- They then fix up the city and it becomes better
- FORT WORTH IS AN EXAMPLE OF THIS

Hoyt Sector Model (1939)

- The transportation/industry is on one side of the city
- The “elite housing” is on the opposite side of the city (upwind from the
industry)
 - The middle-class people (high middle class and middle-middle class) ive live
next to the high (high is separating 2 sections)
- The lower class is next to the industry section
- NO TRANSITION ZONE

Harris-Ullman Multi-nuclei Model (1945)

- Lots of middle-class housing
- The lower class is still surrounding the industries
- The high class is on the very outside and they are creating their own business
district
- The CBD is in between low and middle-class housing
- NO TRANSPORTATION ZONE
- NO TRANSITION ZONE

Harris Galactic City/Peripheral City Model (1960)

- A central city with suburban residential completely surrounding it
- a lot of connecting edge cities
- Development of gated communities for security and society

Griffin-Ford Latin America Model (1980)

- From European cities
- The rich live either in the center or along the transportation spine
- The transportation spine is a collection of really old housing
- Close to the spine are nice houses
- Away from the city is rundown
- On the edge/disamenity are the shantytowns with little or no income areas
- The middle class is on the outside near the transportation zone

McGee- Southeast Asia Colonial Port City Model

- Developed near a port in a fanlike shape
 - Have multiple cbd’s for different needs/cultures

de Blij Sub-Saharan African City Model (1977)

- Have multiple cbd’s for different needs/cultures
- And a traditional CBD
- Housing is separated by cultures and ethnicities

European City Models

- Bid-rent - rich people live in the center, poor people live in the edge
- Preserve old historical buildings

6.5 The Internal Structure of Cities

Low-Density Housing
- Low density, in real estate terms, describes the number of housing units per
given unit of land in a particular area.
- Low density housing typically refers to residential areas occupied primarily by
single-family homes or buildings with a small number of units.

Medium Density Housing

- The medium density residential zone covers land that is mainly used for
multiple dwellings such as apartments and townhouses.
- Buildings in this zone are likely to be medium rise, for example more than 3
stories high.

High Density Housing

- High density housing is defined as real estate developments that have a
higher population than average.
 - Typically, urban areas have high density buildings due to the high cost of land
in the city, while suburban and rural areas have low density housing

Infilling
- Infilling occurs where open space presents an economic opportunity for
landowners to build small multi-family housing units, placing more people into
existing city blocks.
- This is generally a part of the process of urban renewal and gentrification.

6.8: Sustainability

Sustainable Design Initiatives

- 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.
- Greenbelt - an area of open land around a city, on which building is restricted,
to limit urban sprawl

Zoning- Urban Planning and Design

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