Thursday 29 March 2012

World Cities

For us to cover this topic we need to study the follwing sub-topics:
  • The Global Pattern of Urbanisation
  • Contemporary Urbanisation Processes
  • Urban Decline and Regeneration
  • Retailing and Other Services
  • Sustainability Issues in Urban Areas
An overview of the whole topic is as follows:
  • Growth of millionaire cities and megacities
  • Urbanisation
  • Suburbanisation
  • Couter-Urbanisation
  • Re-Urbanisation
  • Characteristics and Causes of Urban Decline
  • Urban Regeneration
  • Changing patterns in the UK
  • Redevelopment of Urban Areas
  • Waste Management
  • Transport and its Management


The global pattern of urbanisation

·         50% of world’s population lives in towns and cities

·         19% live in cities of more than 1 million people

·         The most urbanized continents are Europe, N America, S America and Oceania

·         The least urbanised are Asia and Africa

·         Urbanization is increasing most rapidly in Africa and Asia   

·         The number of urban dwellers is largest in Asia

·         As a consequence of rapid economic development in parts of China, India and SE Asia the level of urbanisation will increase very rapidly. Rates of economic development and rates of urbanisation are rising simultaneously.

·         In Europe, Oceania and N America (MEDC’s) the urbanisation levels peaked in 1970’s but have fallen steadily since.



The growth of millionaire Cities and megacities

World cities – those which have great influence on a global scale, due to financial status and worldwide commercial power

·         Three cities that sit at the top of the global hierarchy:

New York, London and Tokyo – they house headquarters of many transnational corporations


Urbanisation

Natural population growth

·         Urban areas tend to have low age profiles (15-40 years (fertile years)) and have traditionally migrated from rural areas. Rates of natural increase are therefore higher in cities.

Rural-Urban migration

·         Push and pull factors are responsible for rural-urban migration

-       Push factors are largely due to poverty

Table to show push and pull factors:
Elsewhere in world

·         Newcomers in a city in LEDC’s want to rent proper housing, even if they could afford rent, usually isn’t enough houses available, so instead:

-       Move in with friends or relatives

-       People squat (build makeshift housing on unused land)

-       Sleep rough

·         Land people squat on:

-       Land not suitable for building as too steep, marsh polluted

-       Land close to city centre as no one has built on it as nobody know who owns it

-       Land on edge of city that was once farmland but was abandoned as city spread
Despair
  • High Unemployment and underemployment
  • Weak family and friendship structures
  • Poor water supply and sewage
  • Easy spread of Infections and disease
  • Widespread prostitution, crime, drug-dealing due to poverty and lack of policing
Hope
  • Some formal employment but more informal employment
  • Strong family structure
  • Improving water supply
  • Infections under control
  • No widespread crime etc due to strong social structures and cooperation between community and police

 Urban regeneration in Developing World

·         City authorities are aware of problems but rarely have enough resources to help

·         In some cities (e.g. Nigeria) authorities have built high-rise apartments to rehouse people. But in lots of places not enough money

·         In other countries, authorities have helped migrants to the city by allowing them to build houses in site and service schemes. An area of land not too far from work places.

·         Once a house is built they are likely to improve it- so they will not get evicted. For them to make improvements they must be given legal ownership.

The Brown Agenda  

·         It is a mix of social and environmental problems brought about by rapid growth and industrialisation associated with economic development; it has 2 components:

-       Traditional issues associated with the limited availability of land & clean water

-       Problems resulting from rapid industrialisation owing to poor standards health and safety

·         It is the low-income groups that suffer most

·         International bodies have proposed solutions to the brown agenda:

-       A basic urban environmental profile should be undertaken, there should be public consultations over main issues

-       Risk, impacts and purpose of improvements should be assessed. Along with a cost-benefit analysis.

-       Action plans should be put into place

-       Local support groups should be established with training from community leaders.

Suburbanisation

·         Suburbanisation has resulted in outward growth of urban development, engulfing surrounding villages & rural areas,

Facilitated in 20th century by growth of transport systems

Green belt – areas of open space and low-density land use around towns where further development is strictly controlled

New Housing in UK

·         2021  predictions that population would increase by 7% but number of households increase by 18%

Two main reasons for faster growth in households than population:

1.    Increase in adult population. Change in the age structure of population with a fall in proportion of younger age groups and rise in the proportion of those in older age groups.

2.    Changes to ways people live – more divorces and later marriages

·         Suggestions:

-       Increasing the number of people living in homes that already exist – take up lodgers or share homes

-       Building of housing on brownfield sites

-       Allowing building in rural areas and small towns on land that has not been previously developed

·         Difference between brownfield and greenfield sites:

Brownfield sites

Greenfield sites
Derelict sites in urban areas
New sites, usually on agricultural land in green belts around urban areas
The land is available, but can be costly to reclaim it if it has been polluted by industrial use; this information may not be readily available
Land is not available unless planning permission has been obtained; there is usually public enquiry and a delay of several years, adding to the cost
Housing is likely to be built at a high density to reflect the cost of the land; there is less demand for such housing as it is in less fashionable areas
Housing will be relatively low density; there is great demand for such housing as it is fashionable areas
Infrastructure is normally present, though existing facilities can become overloaded
Infrastructure costs are high as new sewage, water, gas and electricity supplies have to be considered; new schools and health facilities may be needed too
Sites tend to be small patches of land
Sites tend to be larger
The environment is generally improved
The environment is changed from rural to urban use


Video showing difference in brownfield sites and greenfield sites:


Video showing greenfield sites:


Counter-urbanisation

·         Migration of people from major urban areas to small urban settlements/ rural areas

·         Leads to growth in rural areas behind main city. Differences between rural and urban areas are then reduced.

·         Causes:

-       Problems associated with urban areas – air pollution, crime and dirt

-       Cheaper housing prices for better living conditions

-       Jobs moved to rural areas + commuting to work increased

-       Second homes + early retirement to rural areas

-       Agricultural economic difficulties

·         Effects:

-       Affects the layout of rural settlement

-       Services shut down

·         Evidence of counter –urbanisation:

-       Increased use of commuter railway stations

-       Increased housing prices

-       Construction of excusive housing

-       Conversions of old buildings 

·         Counter-urbanisation contributes to social and demographic change in rural area = rural turnaround

Changes include:

-       Out-migration of young village born adults

-       Decline of elderly village born adults

-       In-migration of young to middle aged families – young children

-       In-migration of younger, more affluent  people – increasing housing prices



Land-use patterns of suburbanised villages

·         New detached and semi-detached housing and bungalows

·         Model bellow summarises the types of change that have occurred in suburbanised villages:

  
Re-Urbanisation

 Re-urbanisation is the movement of people into the city centre as part of urban regeneration. Three main processes:
  1. In-movement  by individuals or groups of individuals into older housing (housing that was in a state of disrepair and the improvement of the housing)
  2. In-movement by people as part of large scale investment programmes aimed at urban regeneration
  3. Move towards sustainable communities, allowing those who live in city centres to have access to homes, jobs abd reliable income
Gentrification

The process of housing improvement, associated with change in a neighbourhood composition. Regeneration of inner cities can take place by gentrification. It involves the rehabilitation of old houses and streets on an individual basis.

After gentrification the social mix of the area becomes more affluent, the purchasing power of the residents is greater and an increase in the number of bars, restaurants etc along with the employment.

There are disadvantages of gentrification: locals on low incomes find it difficult to purchase housingas the prices increase, frictiony arise between the 'newcomers' and the original settlers.

Urban Decline and Regeneration
Urban Deprivation

Reasons for social segregation:
  1. Housing - builders, developers etc tend to built houses on land with a particular market in mind.
  2. Changing environments - Neighbourhoods change over time. Poor areas are being gentrified but many large houses are being converted for people on low incomes
  3. Ethnic Dimension - ethnic groups originally come to the country as new immigrants, at first they often suffer discrimination and can only afford cheap housing they therefore often cluster in poor areas.
Measuring Inequalities

Social
  • Fear of crime
  • Incidence of crime
  • % on state benefit
  • Standards of education
  • Standars and accessibility of health
  • % on free school meals
Physical
  • Quality of housing
  • Level of pollution
  • Incidence of litter
  • Graffitt
  • Vandalism
Economic
  • Access to leisure services
  • Access to employment
  • Level of income
  • % of lone parent families
  • % of lone pensioners
Political
  • Opportunities to participate in community life and influence decisions
The Inner City
Characteristics:
  1. High population out-migration figures
  2. Many boarded up shops
  3. Many empty and derelict properties
  4. Closing of schools
  5. High levels of unemployment
  6. High incidence of crime
  7. Low levels of participation in local democracy
Urban Regeneration
Property-Led Regeneration

Urban Development Corporations (UCDs) were set up to take responsibility for the regeneration of inner city areas with large amounts of derelict and vacant land. They were encouraged to spend public money on land, buildings etc to attract private investment.

The UCDs are mostly made of people from local businesses who could provide incentives to attract private investors. By 1993 UDCs accounted for nearly 40% of all regeneration policy expenditure.

Some people argued that this amount of new employment was inadequate, UDCs were too dependent on property speculation, they also had more powers than local authorities. Locals complained that they had no involvement in the developments.

City Challenge Partnerships

Partnerships between the public and private sectors, to gain funding a local authority had to come up with an imaginative project to. form a partnership with the private sector and local communities. By 1933 over 30 partnerships were established!

The initiative was designed to address some of the weaknesses of the earlier regeneration schemes. They gave equal importance to buildings, people and values. The cooperation between local authorities and public and private sectors were prioritised!
All the City Challenge areas suffered from high long-term and youth unemployment, levels of educational attainment, increasing areas of derelict land, high levels of crime etc.

Overall they were seen to be successful, making improvements but by others it was criticised n the grounds that large sums of money should have been allocated according to need not competitive advantage.

In 1997 the Conservative government was able to publish stastistics pointing to the success of City Challenge:
  • Over 40,000 houses had been improved
  • 53,000 jobs successfully created
  • 2,000 ha of derelict land reclaimed
  • Over 3,000 new businesses established
Schemes and Strategies of the 21st Century

Prestige project developments
Sustainable communities

Retailing and other services
Changing patterns in the UK
·         Traditional pattern of retailing based on 2 key factors:
-          Easy, local access to goods such as bread and milk, which are purchased on a regular basis
-          Willingness to travel to a shopping centre for goods with a higher value which are purchased less often
·         Traditionally = two-tier structure of retailing (local needs met by corner shops and higher-value goods purchased in CBD)
·         Last 30 years = technology had major influence on the patterns of retailing

Factors influencing retail change
Increased mobility
·         Changes have been mainly down to the ownership and use of the private car. Car parking is now expensive and even petrol stations don’t just sell fuel.
The changing nature of shopping habits
·         People now buy in bulk and not as often due to the creation of the freezer. Also people buy ready meal (freezable) so the need for fresh food every day is less.
Changing expectations of shipping habits
·         Shopping now seen as a family social activity leading to shopping centres having leisure/social facilities as well as retail facilities.
The changing nature of retailing
·         Competitiveness of supermarkets/hypermarkets have lead them to seek to build in cheaper out-of-town locations and increase their economy of scales = reduce pricing and provide large car-parking areas
Out-of-town retailing areas
·         Large areas have been devoted to major retail parks and this has involved the following:
-          Redevelopment and/or clearance of cheap farmland or brownfield site
-          Creation of extensive car parks
-          Construction of a link to a motorway interchange or outer ring road
-          Development of other transport interchange facilities
-          Construction of linked entertainment facilities e.g. fast-food outlets
Attitudes to the development of out-of-town retailing
Positives 
Negatives
Greater opportunities to shop without the need to travel into city centres
Increased traffic in area à safety, pollution, noise and parking in residential areas
Creation of jobs for locals – especially part time
24 hour shopping = constant movement of cars and deliveries = noise

Videos of the Trafford Centre
Video showing out-of-town shopping:
Redevelopment of urban centres
·         CBD contains the principle commercial areas and major public buildings and is the centre for business and commercial activities.
·         Accessible from all parts of the urban area and has the highest land values in a city – occur at the peak land value intersection (PLVI)
·         Not static; grow outwards in some directions (zones of assimilation) and retreat in others (zone of discard) 
·         In some CBDs, retailing declining because of competition from out-of-town developments = greater emphasis on offices and services
·         Tends to segregation of different types of business = distinct quarters (shown in image below:)

CBDs in decline:
·         3 main reasons for CBDs declining:
-          Loss of the retailing function to out-of-town shopping centre
-          Loss of offices to suburban or peripheral locations in prestige science parks
-          Increasing costs of upkeep and development of CBDs.
·         Decision makers worried about CBDs because they become dangerous (especially at night) and they are putting off investment

·         Planners see CBD as important social and cultural meeting points à general public rather go to retail parks = companies to move out
·         However, some CBDs are investing à indoor shopping centres and gentrification of CBDs
Reversing the decline:
·         A number of strategies including:
-          Establishment of business and marketing management teams to coordinate overall management of CBDs and run special events
-          More attractive shopping environments with pedestrianisation, new street furniture, floral displays, paving and landscaping
-          Construction of all-weather shopping malls with low parking prices  
-          Encouragement of specialist areas such as attractive open street markets, cultural quarters and arcades
-          Improvement of public transport links
-          Extensive use of CCTV and emergency alarm systems à reducing crime and increasing safety 
-          Organisation of specialist shopping events
-          Conservation schemes such as refurbishment of historic buildings in heritage cities to attract tourists
Making CBD safer for women
·         Some women feel that the CBD is a dangerous environment for them, and therefore are not attracted there.
Below is a list of things that can be done to improve this:
-          Segregated transport for woman
Ø  Separate compartments on trains or night-buses
Ø  Priority taxis after 10pm – “lady cab” service
Ø  Formal licensing of min-cabs in cities so that all private hire vehicles are registered and regulated 
-          CCTV
-          Better maintenance of street lighting
-          Help points at key locations with emergency alarms connected to local police
-          Smoother pavements, few obstacles and better enforcement of on-kerb parking regulations to help women with prams
-          More seating in public places
-          Transparent bus shelters
-          Cutting hedges at top and bottom, to increase light and safety
·         Multi-store car parks are also seen as threatening – improved lighting and the provision of ground-floor woman only sections
Functions other than retailing
·         Many cities encourage the development of functions other than retailing to increase the attractions of a CBD, including:
-          Leisure facilities – café bars, restaurants, cinemas, theatres
-          Promoting street entertainment
-          Development of night life
-          Establishing themed areas
-          Developing flagship attractions
-          Constructing new offices, apartments, hotels and conference centres to raise the status of the CBD for business and to encourage tourist to remain near city centre
-          Residential activities to return to city centre
Case study – The St Stephen’s Development, Kingston-upon-Hull

·         West of Ferensway and comprises 17 ha.
·         Bownfield site originally comprised a mixture of ownership, buildings and vacant lots and a Grade II listed railway station.
·          Previous redevelopment schemes didn’t work
·         Development sponsors are: Kingston-upon-Hull City Council and Yorkshire Forward
·         The Scheme provides:
-          A flagship development that is intended to complement and reinforce city-centre activities by having a mixture of retail outlets – leisure centre, hotel, new home for the Hull Truck Theatre Company
-          New integrated transport interchange 
·         Transport interchange à £10 million
Transformed the old Paragon Rail Station and added a new bus stations to provide a new gateway to the city.
Partnership = Kingston-upon-Hull City Council, Citybuild, Yorkshire Forward, Network Rail, First Transpennine Trains, East Yorkshire Motor Services and Stagecoach Ltd.
Sustainability Issues in Urban Areas
Waste Management

The average person in the UK produces 517kg of household waste every year. This figure is increasing. Waste disposal in the UK is efficient but it has lagged behind many other countries in recycling, reusing and managing household waste!

Recycling and Alternatives

Reduction
·         Best way of managing waste is to prevent it; businesses are being encouraged to reduce the amount of packaging used. Consumers can play a part by refusing to accept plastic bags
Re-Use
·         Some re-use milk containers, bottles and jam jars. ‘Bags for Life’ has been the most successful
Recycling
·         Waste products such as paper, glass, metal, plastics and clothes can be recycled if they can be collected economically.
·         In 2005, only 26% was recycled
Energy Recovery
·         Waste material can be converted into energy, the main method is incineration. In the UK there are 17 licensed municipal incinerators.
Composting
·         Small Scale: organic waste can be used to compost and fertilise gardens/farmland
·         Big Scale: anaerobic digestion is an advanced form of compositing that takes place on an enclosed reactor, gases produced cab be burnt to generate electricity
Landfill
·         Waste is dumped in old quarries which is convenient and cheap but it is unsightly, the decaying matter also produces methane gas which is a strong greenhouse gas
·         We are running out of space for landfill sites therefore it is becoming an increasingly expensive process
Transport and its Management
The spread of houses while jobs remain in central parts of the cities has created surges of morning and evening commuters. No matter how much money is spent on transport infrastructure the problem of congestion seems to get worse!

The first London Undergrund was opened in 1863, they were built to overcome the urban transport problem. Despite the mounting problems, government policies in the UK still favour private road transport
Why is Urban Traffic Increasing?
  •  Car ownership is increasing
  • 30% of households own 2+ cars
Large Urban Working Population
  • High proportion of people work in urban areas but live in urban areas who commute to and fro by road and rail.
  • A car still continues to be more convenient
     
Economic Growth
  • Economic growth has led to more service vehicles on urban roads
     
Growth in Urban Incomes
  • Earnings in urban areas are usually higher than in rural areas, allowing more car ownership and even multiple car ownership
     
Growth in Number of Journeys
  • As the number of cars increases so does the number of journeys that people make in them, therefore there will be a fall in se of public transport
Urban Transport Solutions

Four approaches to dealing with the problems:

1.Road schemes and restricted access

Congestion charge introduced in 2003, creation of bus lanes, road widening

2. Road Traffic Management Schemes

Bypasses and ringroads, expensive car parking, restricted access by car, one-way systems, encouraging use of public transport

3.Streamlining of Public Transport

4.New Mass Transit Systems
Provide low cost public transport from suburbs to the city centre

 
 

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