Urban Geography

• Characteristics used to classify settlements


  • Size
  • Location
  • Function
  • Structure
• Settlement hierarchy


  An area that has more small settlements than large settlements, with villages providing low order goods to a small threshold of people and influencing a small sphere of influence, small urban areas providing a wider range of high and low order goods to a larger population, and larger urban areas at the top with more demand and a very large number of people drawn from a wide area
• Spheres of influence may change and vary in space and time


  When the demand for things change in a location
• Sphere of influence


  The area from which a settlement draws its customers or workers
• In villages, the threshold is small


  The sphere of influence is small because there aren't many people in the location
• In the center of a megacity


  The sphere of influence will come from a wider range of an area, be more diverse, and dictate change in the location and the demand will be much different
• Industrial functions of a city

  Production of raw materials and production of manufactured goods
• Bid rent


  The value of the land varies for different purposes, whether it is used for commercial, residential, or manufacturing purposes
• Factors that determine the location of the commercial zone in the city


  • Usually in the heart of the city
  • Wide access to public transport
  • Highest land values
• Commercial zone


  Includes central shopping areas or high streets, not far from residential areas but its own area
• Site


  Exact location of a place
• Situation


  The relationship the site has to the surrounding area
• Confluence


  Where rivers meet
• KAMLOOPS


  • Semi-arid, a confluence, steep, climate and seasons are very defined
• Factors in choosing a site


  • Transport nodes (rivers, oceans)
  • Dry point site
  • Fertile land
  • Wet point site (Fresh water)
  • Defense (mountains, being on an island)
  • Climate
  • Access to resources
  • Bridging point
• Urban growth


  Increase in number of people in an urban area
• Urbanization


  (relative term) Everything to do with the range of services based on the threshold population, greater threshold means greater sphere of influence
• Primate city


  The only opportunity for services in a region
• Greater Vancouver


  • Burnaby
  • Surrey
  • Richmond
  • etc.
• Proper Vancouver: Vancouver
• 85% of Canadians live 100km from the American border
• Rural to Urban Hierarchy


  • Isolated settlement
  • Hamlet
  • Village
  • Town
  • Small city
  • City
  • Conurbation
  • Millionaire city
  • Megacity
  • Megalopolis
• Threshold population


  Minimum amount of people to keep a service going
• Low-order goods


  Convenience goods
• High-order goods


  Comparison goods: cars, motorcycles, computers, houses, more expensive things in general
• Types of functions


  • Primary: resource extraction
  • Secondary: refinement of resources
  • Tertiary: services
  • Quaternary: High tech
  • Quinary: Highest levels of government
• International comparisons of urbanisation is hard to make because it refers to the increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas (Movement to urban spaces). Can't be compared because it's not a specific measurement, it's more of the process of urbanisation. Each country has different services, sites and situations, which lead to urbanisation to be different in each country.
• Pre-requisites for a city to develop are an area for farmers to produce an agricultural surplus to feed the people, fertile soils, sufficient rainfall, and warm temperature. Population growth is essential and defense. Religion allows power to be more concentrated.
• Towns and cities first develop in order to meet the needs of rural people. This is why cities sprang up in Egypt, the north china plains, central andes, and Mexico.
• The Industrial Revolution affected the development of urban centres because cities were no longer relying on the farmers' supply of food, and populations in Rome and London reached one million. Due to the fact that large factories were created to mass produce goods, and other raw materials such as cotton and rubber were brought to cities with warmer climates.
• Push factors


  • War/conflict
  • Climate change, natural disasters
  • Poor education
  • Poverty
  • Lack of resources
  • Economic scarcity
  • Disease
  • Lack of equality
  • Corruption
  • Lack of opportunities
  • No healthcare
  • Lack of jobs and capital
• Pull factors


  • "Bright lights" of the cities - excitement
  • Job opportunities
  • More capital
  • Prior relations/proximity
  • Convenience
  • More leisure opportunities
  • Education opportunity
• Push and pull factors are not always physical, but are mostly perceived.
• Effects of the Industrial Revolution


  • Crowded
  • Smelled bad (coal)
  • Air pollution
  • Child labour
  • Lots of disease
  • Factories (lack of sanitation)
  • No running water
  • Homelessness
  • Conflict and manifestations for labour laws
  • Unions
  • Fighting
  • Riots
  • Theft
  • Gangs
  • Violence
  • Lots of crime in general
  • Depression
  • Economic Growth (but not development)
  • Uprising of communism
  • Other revolutions (French, Russian, etc.)
• Before the industrial revolution, there was no separation of lands and everyone lived together (the commons) under feudalism.
• Urban sprawl


  When an area expands horizontally
• Rural to urban migration

  The movement of people from rural areas into urban areas
• Rural to urban migration in LICs is important today because the majority of a big city's growth comes from this, and this is prevalent from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh growing by 80% due to urban migration rather than the rest from natural increase.
• Factors influencing migration


  • Push factors
  • Pull factors
  • Restraining factors
• Chain migration


  Done in a one step manner from farmland to a small village, to a town, and then to a city