Urban geography (4)

Cards (28)

  • Sumer, an ancient country in what today is Iraq, the city of Ur was settled

    Around 4500 B.C.
  • Ur grew to be home to as many as 34,000 people
  • Archaeologists believe that Ur was one of the first cities in the world
  • Within the city walls of Ur, a broad avenue led up to an immense temple with a roof that loomed 80 feet above the ground
  • Surrounding the temple in Ur were private homes and large open markets with shops on streets resembling those in cities of Southwest Asia today
  • Some people in Ur lived in two-story houses with balconies and even had clay-lined drains for waste disposal
  • A canal ran through the city of Ur from the river to a harbor built on its northern edge
  • Ur was not an overgrown village, but a real city
  • Urban geography
    The study of how people use space in cities
  • Cities
    • Areas with large populations
    • Centers of business and culture
    • Birthplace of innovation and change in a society
  • Urban area
    • Develops around a main city called the central city
    • Includes suburbs, which are political units touching the borders of the central city or touching other suburbs that touch the city
    • Includes smaller cities or towns with open land between them and the central city, called exurbs
    • The city, its suburbs, and exurbs link together economically to form a functional area called a metropolitan area
    • Several metropolitan areas growing together form a megalopolis
  • Nearly half the world's population lives in urban areas
  • Cities fulfill economic, residential, and cultural functions in different ways
  • Urbanization
    The dramatic rise in the number of cities and the changes in lifestyle that result
  • The trend to live in cities increased rapidly over the last two centuries as more and more people moved into cities to find work
  • Today, some cities are enormous in physical area and have populations exceeding 10 million residents
  • Cities are found on all continents except Antarctica
  • Locations of cities
    • Many cities are found in places that allow good transportation, such as on a river, lake, or coast
    • Others are found in places with easy access to natural resources
    • Cities serve as economic bases, attracting businesses and people to work in those businesses
    • Cities are often places where goods are shifted from one form of transportation to another
    • Cities may specialize in certain economic activities because of their location
  • Central business district (CBD)

    The core of a city, almost always based on commercial activity
  • Land use patterns in cities
    • Residential, including single-family housing and apartment buildings
    • Industrial, areas reserved for manufacturing of goods
    • Commercial, used for private business and the buying and selling of retail products
  • The value of the land in the CBD is very high, often leading to the construction of skyscrapers
  • As you move away from the CBD, other functions become more important, such as residential housing, which begins to dominate land use
  • Generally, the farther you get from the CBD, the lower the value of the land, which may lead to less expensive housing
  • Industrial activities and retail areas, such as shopping centers, markets, or bazaars, are often tucked into the less expensive areas away from the CBD
  • Patterns for urban activities vary by culture and geography
  • Functions of cities
    • Shopping, entertainment, and government services are often located in the CBD
    • Educational and cultural activities such as libraries or museums may be located in the CBD
    • Manufacturing, wholesaling, residential, recreation, and a variety of religious and social services may be located in other parts of the city
    • Cities need a great deal of space to accomplish these functions, which makes good transportation absolutely essential
  • Major cities may have several forms of mass transit, such as bus systems, subways, or commuter trains, to move thousands of people to and from the areas of the city where the various functions take place
  • Freeway systems may link people in the suburbs to the activities in the city