Geography - Changing Urban Enviroments

A very large city, typically one with a population of over ten million people.

Eg.

• New York
• London
• Paris
• Los Angeles
• Tokoyo

Most mega cities are in the northan hemisphere (above the equator). They are also often found on the coast and the majority of mega cities are in Asia.

Built up areas like towns and cities are called urban areas. The countryside around them is called a rural area.

Urbanisation is a process where an increasing proportion of the population lives in an urban area.

There are 2 main causes:

• Rural-to-urban Migration as a result of push and pull factors
• Natural population Increase

PUSH FACTORS are negative things that  make you want to move

• EG. No schools, No jobs and No transport

PULL FACTORS are positive that encourage you to move to a new location

• EG. More things to do, closer to schools and jobs

• 18th and 19th century - indudtrial revoloution led to poeple moving to urban areas for the jobs in the factories
• Machienary replaced labour farming so there were less jobs in rural areas
• 1990's redevelopment encouraged people to move to cities as more houses instead of factories were being built.

Settlements- A group of buildings or homes where people live eg. town, villiage

Function- The purpose of a place eg. residential or recreational.

CBD - central buisness district, city centre, largest shops, leisure and entertainment, goverment buildings, high land value, accesible with travel, sykscrapers.

Inner City - derelict land and buildings due to closed down factories, rundown, cheap small terraced housing, housing arranged in a grid, popular with young adults.

Suburbs - mostly residential, expensive, popular with families as they have large garages and gardens.

Rural urban fringe - Edge of the city, countryside, villiages, fields, recreational (walking, golf) getting  bigger as thats where all new housing estates will mostly be built.

• CITY CHALLENGE - local authorities, privarte companies and the local community all work together to improve the area

Case study - The Hulme Manchester - through city challenge it recieved £37.5 million. cresents were built, old buildings retained, local schools are parks were built, homes designed to be energy efficient and save water.

• URBAN DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONS - large scale projects with the help of mainly privarte companies but also public investment to imporve areas to encourage more people to live and work theire

Case Study - London docklands - the am was to craete an attractive enviroment. PTO

• £1.86 billion from the public sector
• £7.7 billion from the privarte sector.
• 762 ha reclaimed derilict land
• 24, 046 new homes built

Social

• Housing was small and un modern
• so over 20,000 new homes were build
• they had a negative impact of the were then to expensive for anyone to buy

Economic

• no shopping centres
• so they built new leisure centres including and indoor sports and water sports complex
• positive impact- the new centres provided new jobs

Enviromental

• over half of docklands was derilict
• so they reclaimed 762 ha of derilict land and planted trees
• impacts- office blocks were built and luxuary flats by propety delevlopers.

Run down derelict areas where factories and terraced housing is no longer used. often polluted and needs cleaning up (usually found i the inner city)

Positives by redoing brownfield sites.

• New housing leads to improving areas.
• Provides better travel networks
• Easier to get panning permission as the coucil  want all land to be used.

Negative

• Traffic congestion
• polluted areas
• Increased prices

Rural land that hasnt been built on before. often agricultral or woodland. Easier to build on as nothing has to be knocked down. further from the city.

Positive

• More attractive with bigger gardens and garages
• less congestion

Negative

• not sustainable
• infastructure need to be built eg. roads, eletricity

Revitilising the CBD

Issues

• Dangerous at night
• Poor air quality due to congestion
• Crime and vandilism

Solutions

• Pedestrianising shopping streets - more shopper friendly
• Encourage people to live there

Problem- noise pollution, air pollution, road accidents, arriving late

solutions

CONGESTION CHARGE - Making people pay to drive in the city centre eg. london which prevents public transport experiencing traffic. (negative - some people cant afford it)

PARK AND RIDE - Park outside the city centre then get a bus into the centre. reduces congestion (negative - waiting and paying for bus)

CYCLING PATHS - Encourages cycling (rain many people dont own/can ride bikes)

PUBLIC TRANSPORT - Carries more people so there is less air pollution (negative it can run late)

GREEN TRANSPORT - Buses that run on elecrticity.

Multicultralism - range of cultural/ethical diversity within a population

Multicultral Society - different ethical groups living alongside the majoriy ethical group.

Ethic segregation - people from a ethical background living in a different groups area

Reasons for ethical segregation

• Specialist facilities
• protection from racial abuse
• sense of belonging

Solution

• rintings in different languages
• interpreturs
• multi faith forum
• adult english classes
• language surport in schools.

They are informal settlements built illegally  in and around the city by people who cant affort proper housing

People who live there are called squatters

Over crowded ** are called shanty towns are slums

Houses are built from waste materials eg plastic and cardboard

Little space between homes

Little infastrusture

No rubish collectors therefore very unclean

High crime rate

Poor sanitation leads to diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid

• Most people have done rural to urban migration
• there is a rapid speed of urbanisation

Push factors

• Lack of clean water
• not many obs
• porr education or healh care

Pull factors

• more opputunities in the city
• better education and health care
• Employment oppotunities

Employment

• Informal sector- illegal as they dont pay tax or have a signed contract
• Cash in hand jobs - low wagee eg. selling goods, traffic lighting and gardening

• Kiberia is in Narobi, Kenya (East africa)
• life expectancy is less than 35
• 1 million people live there
• No clean water or toilets
• High diease rate

Imporving Kiberia

• Local authority scheme - Kenya slum upgrading programme. provides moderm low cost housing. in 2009 they built 17 blocks of 5 storey flats and they were used by 5000 residents
• Site and service schemes - Sanitation: charity and practical action they built 14 toilet blocks they cost 2 kenyan shillings to use and the money goes towards the maintanience of them. also handwashing facilities have been installed in 8 schools reducing chance of disease.Water: The kenya water for health organisation. they installed 3 large water tanks reducing their water collection walk from 1km to 300m Roads and drains:  2.5km of new roads amd drains reduce chance of flooding
• Self-help schemes - Rubbish collection: Trash-is-cash a local youth group scheme to educate kids on recycling, waste and mangment, financial and leadership.residents pay a small fee for collecting locals litter. they collect 2000 tonnes per year. Hygiene Campaigns: Practical Action-they raise awareness on hygiene and sanitation easpecially for others and children. it reached 2500 mothers and has trainned 22 teachers to reach 4000 children.

Site and Service - formal, local authorities who provide basic services that people need eg. water and electricity.

Self-help schemes - informal, inhabitants helping each other to improve their shelters. this is the first step in improving squatter settlements.

Local Authority schemes - Funded by the local goverment/charities in improving settlements by prociding services and offering finace in the form of grants or loans.

Consolidation 1-10 years

• some electricity stolen illegally from overhead power wires
• Tiled roofs
• Some improvements - concrete blocks replacing scrap material

Upgrading 10-20 years

• some houses can now buy electricity
• TVs, water, roads, sewage and gardens to provide crops

Assilimation 20+

• schools are being funded for
• everyone has electricity
• secure homes - less crime

Waste Disposal - Landfill. Money-some cant afford to dispose of waster safely. no infastructure like roads for lorries to to get down to colect the rubbish.it is a large scale issue.

Air pollution effects - acid rain which damages buildings and vegetation, health issues eg. asthma. pollutants can destroy the ozone layer, so we may not be protected from the suns rays.

Water pollution effects - kills fish which distrups the food chain. contamination of water by sewage,

A sustainable city is an urban area where residents have a way of life that will last a long time. The enviroment is not damaged and the reasources are not all used up.

Conservation (of a natural enviroment and the history)

Brownfield

Waste (disposing of waste in a safe way)

Space

Transport (efficient systems)

People

NATURAL ENVIROMENT - Built on a brownfield site and Local organic box produce.

TRANSPORT - residents drive and average of 2,318km per year which is 64% less than national mileage. there are pedestrian and cycle paths. 10 mins away from the train station. not many car parking spaces.

SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY - 25% shared housing  to prevent segregation and creates a stronger commuity.

ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY -  houses were more affordable

BUILDING MATERIALS - better insulation (thicker walls) resulting in lower energy bills. Wind Couls of roof.

ENERGY - solar panels provide 20% of energy.

WATER - each resisent uses 72litres per day which is 58% lower than londons average. Rainwater is collected to power flushing toilets. sustainable drainage system reduced flooding.

POLLUTION - 25% of residents recieve weekly deliverys to reduce airmiles and there are 40 free car charging parks.