World Cities

Definitions: 

Millionare city: a city with 1 million people

Mega city: a city with more than 10 million people

World city: a city wich has golbal infulence due to econmoic, political and social powers.

Urbanisation: an increase in the proportion of a population living in cities (urban areas).

Suburbanisation: they movement of people from inner city area to the outer edges usually due to the higher proportion of car ownership and better transport links.

Counter- urbanisation: the movement of people from large urban areas to smaller urban areas or rural areas.

Re-urbanisation: the movement of people and economic activities back into city centres.

Characteristics: More clustered living spaces e.g. more flats, more businesses, increase in land vaule, better developed transport links, strain on resources.

Causes: Natural population growth , younger population of fertile age, migration, more jobs with higher pay, better social provisions in city. Push factors: limitted education and employment, high level of disease etc.

Effects: crowed areas, more congestion, higher proportion of skilled workers nationally, 

Characteristics: more detached and semi-detached housing, out of town shopping centres, higher car ownership, more green spaces and nature.

Causes: urbanisation, more houses needed so built on outer edges. Inner city decline, and easy transport links to the inner city.

Effects: ribbon development- transport, high urban sprawl, green belts now needed.

Suburbs in countries of different economic development: in MEDCs suburbs tend to be the wealther people who live there as they can have large houses and gardens, in LEDCs the suburbs can often be the people with less in come living in Slums.

Slums are located in outer city and are heavily populated area which have houses in squalor.

Characteristics: land is not suitable for building on, it is a derelict site and on the edge od the city. Positives: it provides affordable housing, areas of multiculturalism.

Negatives: lack of basic services, high vermin, disease, overcrowding, poor conditions, high crime, finacial insecurity.

Characteristics: more derelict sites, higher crime rates, decline in the inner city, increase in rural population.

Causes: de-industrialisation, cause urban unemployment rates to rise as workers were not skilled of had education, crime increased, people idealised better quality of life as had heavy pollution etc so people moved out of the centres. Lead to the growth of villages.

Effects: Caused sprial decline and decrease in economic activity, unskilled left in inner city, wealth moves out of the city and so continues to decline and so no investments are made and it continues to decline. 

Also can disrupt wildlife as people are moving out new houses need o be built, increase in pollution as more cars and transport is needed.

Characteristics: where parts of city which were derelict and run down have now been improved.  due to property led regeneration schemes or public private partnerships or gentrification.

Causes: housing shortages, rising land values better access in city to jobs, education, services. more retail and leisure opportunities, shorter commutes.

Effects: housing stock improvements, lose character/gain character, new services.

Property lead regeneration schemes: are schemes where land is made avaliable, and prot=peties are done up to generate more investments in the area. 

UDCs- urban development corporations:  one type of property lead regeneration, set up in 80s where local governments give planning approval and public money to a corporation so that they can do up a derelict site, they hope that by doing it up it will bring in 5 times the amount of money from private investors than the public money put in. Critisisms: the new employment in very small, UDCs lost lots of money and purchases of land value fell, and the local communities have no say.

Gentrification: the process of housing improvements carried out by individuals or groups of individuals rehabilitating their own houses which lead to regeneration in the area e.g. Notting Hill.

Partnership Schemes: where local, national gorvernments and the private sector combine. 

City Challenge partnerships: where local government and form a partnership with private sector to regeberate an area. it works as the local governments have to come up with creative projects and there is competitive bidding- projects are aimed at environmental, social and economic factors.

1950's - 1970's The Bronx decay: Historically was place for white working class, lower icome, then after wwII increasing number of migrants moved into city looking for work, middle class and skilled white people moved out for suburbs- this was called 'white flight'. Consequently they house prices dropped, less money in taxes so less money to give to schools and other services, other investments left leaving low house prices and as the landlords were unable to sell their houses dereliction  was everywhere. In 1970's some landlord's burnt down their buildings as they could get the insurance money, there was high levels of crime including murder, ****, robbery. 

Re-urbanisation: in 1980's a 10 year housing plan was established: with the aim to create affordable housing by rebuilding social and economic structure and encouraging movement. Multi-family homes were built, apartments and retail stores relocated back into the area, this caused the house prices to slowly rise. 2009 the building of the New York Yankees stadium brought shopes and resaturants and a new railway station, plus other developments such as a tennis court. 

Success?: the population has increased and the crime rates have reduced, however the area is still situated in poorest district of the country, 50% living below poverty line. Some crime is still present such as gangs and drugs. Not all the locals liked the stadium as it took the local park and increased pollution and congestion, and not much economic activity.

Urbanisation: mainly occured when the railway arrived: 1840. which lead o a rapid growth. 

Suburbanisation: 1960's 

North Laine: re-urbanisation: in 1970s the area was not popular and was going to be demolished. But gentrification occurred in Pelham sq. gradually indivdual shops ect came and produced a thriving area.

Jubilee Library/street: area was a derelict site and people parked their cars on it, the aim was to create a sustainable building with architectural value. was developed by private sector, now is a hub of restaurants and coffee places with shops and a plaza with events occurring. 

The New England Quater: a development near brighton station, built between 2004-2010, was a derelict site. The scheme proposed a hotel and residentials on one block and original proposal was rejected, now has hotel- the Jurys inn, sainsbury's in the middle and many residential buildings, 335 new homes and 1,000 people 

Causes: increased mobility, a larger number of privately owned cars and people are more willing to travel greater distances to get to big stores, car parking is expensive in towns and city centres are congested.The changing nature of shopping habits: use of freezers allow for a weekly/ monthly shop and buying in bulk, rather than daily. The changing nature of retailing: fewer supermarkets are all in competetion with eachother, so to increase profits are situated on the outskirts where land is cheaper. 

Impacts: decline in the city centre, smaller stores closing down, can lead to decline in house prices and can leave an area feeling undesirable. 

Benefits: cheaper prices of consumer goods, high employment rates, more facilities in one place.

OoTS: are usually redevelopments of a brownfield site and have large car parks and close to motorways and transport. Positives: opportunities and jobs, Negatives: traffic and pollution, noisy.

Bluewater: in Kent, open in 1999, 154,000 sq metres in area, catchment area of 10 million people living 1 hour away, 27 million visits a year: 330 shops. Has an anchor shop in each corner. also leisure village, restaurants, cafes, cinema, nursery and space for 13,000 cars to park. Also a lakes which people can walk/cycle. 

Benefits: employed 7,000 people

Redeveloped in 1960's when the slums were demolished: a hotel/ cinema and the brighton centre was built. etc

Transport Management Problems: 

Congestion is largely due to suburbanisation and movement of people to the outskirts of the city, whilst jobs remain in city centre so that there are surges of morning and evening commuters and mass transportation issues, shopping, entertainment and other services. 

Solutions: radial routes around city centres- thought to relieve traffic problems but doesn't, congestion charges, bus lanes, park and rides.etc

Brighton:

Intergrated transport management at Brighton Station: trains lead to taxi rank and bus interchange with private cars relegated to rear, Pedestrian flow have been improved and cycle parking and supporting services encourage this mode. 20mph zones: improve saftey. Pedestrian re-proirtiation: seven dials has had traffic slowed, reduced and pedestrian flow has improved.

Sustainable cable car system in Rio:

$133 million investment in a cable car to allow people to quickly and efficiently move around the city. A journey which can take 1 hour by foot can now be achived in under 5 minutes. The cable car system increases the security of people moving through the city and provides places to develop community hubs with police, medical facilities located at cable car stations. Properties near stations have rapidly increased with value.

Curtiba is a modern city of 2 million, inland from coast to the south of Rio.

Goals:Encourage the growth along transport routes, to etablish industrial zones, encourage the community to be self sufficient by providing them with education, health care, recreation & parks. 

Traffic management: decided against building an underground transport system however this was too expensive to build and run. Instead they decided to develop the bus routes into 5 arteries with express buses with routes to suburbs from the city centre and ones which avoid the city centre. The buses are easily identified as they are painted different colours. tickets are paid on distance of travel in advance and it is fast and 500 times cheaper than a tube system. 4,000 passengers a day and the average person only spends 10% of income on travel, it is used by 75% and has reduced congestion by 25%.

Waste: problems: amount produced is increasing ans the toxicity of the waste is increasing, landfill sites are not sustainable. Solution to waste: reduce waste products, reuse and recover value. recycle, compost, incineration for energy. Sustainable: offers wide range of recycling services, 2/3 of household waste is recycled, plant employs immigrants and people with disabilities, the books are sent to library. Green Exchange Scheme: encourage poor to recycle, trade for food, transport tickets. Cost same as landfill but many move advantages.

Waste: 80% of its waste is recycled by 3,000 rag pickers who find waste e.g. plastic, they have no set pay and only get aroung $1 a day, they work in bad conditions bare foot. Environmental conditions may be bad but they have cause a large economic benefits for corporations. High pollution 97% live in highly polluted areas. So little social sustainability. 

Mumbai, 7025 tonnes of waste per day, mumbai has the municipal corporation of greater mumbai who are responsible for management of waste in city. 3 main dumping centres: near poor area, cause untreated sewage which affects people and environment.

Schemes to manage waste: slum adoption scheme which attempts to motivate and involve sulm population by incentive.