World Cities

World Cities Geography Revision

Global Pattern - General facts

Urban areas - Human settlement with a high population density. 50% of the worlds population live in urban areas. This is constantly increasing and the greatest contributors to urban growth are China and India.

• World City - A city with great global importance; often internationally economically or politically engaged. E.g - New York, London, Tokyo
  • Often house headquarters of Transnational Companies (TNCs)
• Millionaire City - A city with a population over 1 million
• Mega Cities - Cities with populations greater than 10 million - 20 across the world, 75% in developing world

Contemporary Urbanisation Processes

Urbanisation

Definition: Urbanisation is the movement of people into urban areas and towns from rural settlements. Causes:

• Partially caused by natural population growth, especially in developing countries. High fertility rate caused by youthful population, therefore there is rapid growth
• Rural to urban migration - There are many pull factors which encourage people living in rural areas to move to urban areas such as the high availability of jobs in urban areas, better quality schools and medical centres, and a perceived better quality of life.

Effects:

• Positive:
  • Can lead to higher income to the urban area as there are more workers
  • Brings in external talent from rural areas
• Negative:
  • Can lead to more unemployment
  • Possibly leads to social tensions between existing population and those moving in
  • Can put greater strain on social provisions of urban area
  • Increases demand for housing which can increase house prices

Case studies:

• São Paulo, Brazil
  • Highest population city of over 12 million - 8000 people/km^2^
  • Growth from 32000 in 1880 - 2 million increase since 2010
  • 11th largest city in world by GDP
  • Divide in development as main city consists of apartments and typical urban buildings but 11% is now favelas as they are cheaper and quicker to build
    • Estimated 60% of housing is substandard
    • 10% of houses do not have sewerage.
    • Only 1% of waste recycled
  • Authorities are attempting to improve housing by funding community groups to help families build better homes. Additionally there are self-help schemes where the city provides plots of land with infrastructure and supplies, and allowing residents to build houses independently.
• Other attempts to cope with this growth:
  • City authorities building highrise housing (Lagos, Nigeria, Caracas Venezuela)
    • Often too expensive to fund this type of housing
  • Services and land provided to new inhabitants as long as they follow guidelines when constructing their homes

Suburbanisation

Definition: The movement of people from the inner city to urban outskirts

Causes:

• Higher car ownership to over 50% of population in late 1960s (now over 70%) allowed more people to commute to work and shops from suburban fringe.
  • Also helped by improved rail, bus and road networks which reduce need to live in city centre
• People seeking better quality of life than that in the city centre
• Often seen in families who wish to find better education, lower crime rates, cheaper housing, yet still want to be able to easily reach CBD

Effects:

• Positive:
  • Eases effects of urban growth by providing space for construction around towns
  • Allows expansion of commercial areas
• Negative:
  • Leads to urban sprawl, threatening green belts which would otherwise be protected but the greater demand for housing requires them to be built on
  • Can cause more traffic and congestion as more people use roads to travel

Case Studies:

• Beardwood, Blackburn
  • More private transport since 1970s
  • Much larger houses available for lower prices
    • £450,000 4 bedroom house in Beardwood compared to £600,000 similar house in Blackburn
  • Quieter roads, more open space, easy access to Blackburn golf club
  • Access to town centre in under 10 minutes by car using A677

Counter-urbanisation

Definition: The movement of people from urban areas to smaller rural settlements Causes:

• Caused by similar reasons to suburbanisation
• Elderly people wanting to move away to quieter locations in countryside
• Rising demand for second homes
• People seeking more open space, lower crime rate, different lifestyle
• Growth of telecommuting for work, meaning people don’t need to travel to and from an office or central work location
• Improvement of road and train networks and ownership of cars allows more people to commute further.
• Delivery of shopping reduces need to visit shops frequently

Effects:

• More sparse population distribution than growth in urban or suburban settlements
• Higher usage of commuter train stations
• Increasing house prices and more construction of large houses on large plots
• “Rural turnaround”
  • Decline in elderly population and increase in youthful affluent population.
  • Less use of rural land for farming, more focus on housing
  • Overall increase in wealthiness of the settlement

Case Studies:

• St. Ives, Cambridgeshire
  • Wealthy people moved to rural locations and commuter towns
  • Population increased by 1000 from 2001 to 2015, now at 17,000
  • St Ives outdoor leisure complex (One Leisure) - tennis courts, netball, football pitches, athletics arena
  • ~2 hour train journey to London from Huntingdon
  • 2 hour car journey to London using A14 and M11
  • 30 minute car or bus ride to Cambridge town centre
• Whalley, Blackburn
  • 20 minute drive from Blackburn (A666) or 15 minute hourly train service
  • 1 hour train to Manchester or 50 minute drive on M66

Urban Decline

Definition: Deterioration of an urban area through lack of investment and falling quality of life. Characteristics:

• Less wealthy residents marginalised and there is a social divide
• High crime rates
• Reduced education
• Heavy reliance on state benefits
• Lack of care for property (Unkept grass, grafitti, littering, damaged property, smashed windows, etc.)
• High levels of pollution

Causes:

• Often caused by a lack of jobs in an area, reducing the wealth of residence, making people less happy
• As more people become less wealthy, drug use increases and benefit reliance increases

Effects

• Can lead to abandonment of houses, damaged property, run-down open spaces, lack of care

Case studies:

• Park Hill, Sheffield
  • Built in 1960s to replace slums from 1800s with little to no facilities.
  • Construction allowed for indoor facilities such as toilets and hot water
  • Had very low ownership rates, 17% were council owned
  • 25% unqualified population
  • Urban decline began after steelworks left Sheffield, causing many people to become unemployed and lots to move away from the estate
  • Currently being regenerated with a £14.6 million investment

Re-urbanisation

Definition: The movement of people into city centres as part of urban regeneration

Gentrification

Housing improvements made by residents, often individuals or groups, encouraging further improvements as the areas population becomes more affluent. More wealthy inhabitants rehabilitate older, often run-down houses to make them more attractive or valuable. This can massively increase house prices in the area as it can become a very desirable location to live in.

Case Studies:

• Notting Hill, London
  • Victorian working-class town, eventually declining into slums and poverty in the 1950s-1960s
  • Since 1970, gentrification has caused house prices in Notting Hill to triple on average, with terraced housing selling for £450,000 now being worth upwards of £2 million
  • Trendy cafes and restaurants opening in 2000s and 2010s have further increased desirability of the town
    • Lazy Daisy cafe
    • Veronica’s restaurant
  • Attracts tourism through a carnival on the August bank holiday

Property-led Regeneration

Large scale investment programmes aiming to improve economic and social conditions in an area done by improving the image of an area to encourage investment from businesses and new residents. Most investment and redevelopment is organised by Urban Development Corporations who aim to increase reuse of derelict land in city centres.

These schemes are typically criticised as they are carried out in a top-down manner, often making existing communities feel excluded by the new developments. (eg in London Docklands)

Case Studies:

• Thames Gateway
  • Tilbury
    • London Gateway port construction providing over 16000 new jobs
  • London Docklands (Canary Wharf)
    • Creation of a large financial and trading centre with easy access by train and, internationally, by air from London City Airport
    • Housing and flats allowing fast commutes to the financial areas
  • Improvements in Kent and Thurrock, Southend-on-Sea
• Central Manchester Development Corporation (CMDC)
  • Disused industrial sites such as warehouses were refurbished to crease over 1000 houses
  • Improvements made to the canals such as lighting and benches
  • Now seen as a large entertainment centre for young people and has attracted tourism and the construction of Manchester Museum of Science and Technology and the GMEX convention centre.

Local and National Government Partnerships

City challenges organised to help improve conditions in many deteriorating cities. Very popular technique in early 1990s . Over 30 successful city challenges. Partnership formed between local and national governments allowing local governments to suggest ideas for funding from national government. By 1997, more than 40,000 houses were improved and over 3000 businesses were created. City Challenge created over 53,000 jobs across the country

Case Studies:*

• Hulme City Challenge Partnership
  • 1992 plan to improve Hulme area in Manchester.
  • Originally 98% council owned housing
  • 600 new homes built, 400 improved homes
  • Crime rate decreased dramatically
  • ASDA Supermarket constructed in the district

Retailing Patterns

Retailing patterns have changed significantly in recent years from corner shop focussed shopping in the 1970s to the availability of Supermarkets and Out-of-Town retailing parks. Causes:

• Car ownership has increased allowing further travel and greater mobility.
  • Caused a shift away from town centres with heavy congestion and greater use of centres found near motorway junctions
  • Allows people to transport more goods in one trip than if they were carrying them
• People shop less regularly
  • Partly caused by availability of freezers
  • More preservatives used in foods so they last longer and people don’t have to purchase as regularly
  • Greater use of shopping deliveries (Tesco 2006)
• Shopping has become a family activity
  • Families make use of retailing centres and can make a day out of going to the shops to look for new clothes and products where previously they would visit high street stores
  • Inside shops are a more attractive prospect than outdoor shops
  • Food and entertainment options are available at shopping centres

Effects:

• Reduces need to travel to city centres
• Creates many part time jobs
• Can cause pollution for travel to/from shopping centres and transport of goods by delivery vehicles

Case Studies:

• Lakeside Shopping Centre, Thurrock
  • Built in October 1990 on abandoned gravel pit, cheap brownfield site
  • Led to growth of Chafford Hundred
  • 12,500 parking spaces
  • 500,000 weekly visitors
  • 4000 jobs
  • Food court and entertainment such as Vue cinema
  • Ikea built in 1996
  • £30 million investment in refurbishment
  • 245 shops including large stores such as Marks and Spencer and Debenhams
  • Retail park with 35 Big box stores
  • Footbridge to Chafford Hundred train station with trains to Southend-on-Sea and London (c2c line) 2 trains per hour
  • Bus station with 13 bus bays serving many nearby towns (Chelmsford, Grays, Upminster)
  • Competes with Lakeside, Chelmsford, Bluewater shopping centres

Redevelopment of Urban Centres

• St Stephen’s Development, Kingston-upon-Hull
  • 17ha site previously neglected until sponsorship from Kingston-upon-Hull City Council and Yorkshire Forward
  • Redevelopment to provide a location for retail outlets and various city centre activities, and entertainment and restaurants
  • Home for Hull Truck Theatre Company
  • Transport Interchange serving approximately 30 buses per hour and 4 different train lines
  • £10 million investment provided gateway to city and gave a safe location for family activities. Crime rate reduced significantly since construction.

Sustainability Issues in Urban Areas

Waste Management

Methods of Waste Management

• Recycling
  • Aiming to reprocess raw materials from disposed goods such as paper, glass and metal
    • Rochford 66% recycling rate in 2016 increased from under 20% in 2008
• Reduction
  • 5p plastic bag charge
    • 85% drop in usage since introduction from 7 billion per year beforehand
    • Aims to tackle threat to marine life and clogging of landfill
• Re-use
  • Re-use of old goods so less is wasted
  • Peterborough electronics and computer recycling centre where 75% of electrical waste in the city ends up instead of at landfill
• Energy Recovery
  • Waste incinerated to generate electricity or provide heating for small neighbourhoods
  • Reduces waste going to landfill but can contribute to global warming
  • 17 energy recovery plants in operation in the UK
• Disposal
  • Least desirable waste management technique as lots of waste is sent to landfill and cause methane gas to be produced and emitted.

Waste Management in Nairobi, Kenya

• Recycling seen as a community activity where wasted materials are scavenged for reusable materials
• Glass bottles are collected and washed so they can be reused
• Food waste is fed to animals so it isnt left to decay
• Cans and oil drums are used for cooking and as buckets

Transport Management

Case Studies:

• Manchester Metrolink
  • Opened in 1992 and serves 18 stations
  • 52000 daily journies
  • Saves 3.5 million car journeys saved per year
  • Every 5 minuts at peak times
  • Encourages many commuters to use mass transit instead of private cars
• A638 Quality Bus Corridor, Doncaster
  • Dedicated bus lanes and upgraded bus stops to give more seating and lighting for passengers.
  • Two park and ride sites with 400 spaces built at each end of the corridor.
  • New buses with low emission engines
• Curitiba, Brazil
  • Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System built instead of a rail network
  • Uses biarticulated buses on 8 lines to serve different areas of towns
  • Buses use Biofuels or hybrid engines to improve sustainability
  • Dedicated bus lanes and Raised stations allow faster on/offloading times so less fuel wasted from being idle.
  • Stations within 400m of all houses
  • 80% of travellers in the city use the buses
  • 2 million passengers per day
  • Competition between bus lines allows very low fares and fast journey times