Contemporary Urban Environments

• Outline the 3 aspects of place and provide an example for each.

  Location – where a place is on a map, its latitude and longitude

  Locale – the place where something happens or is set, or that has particular events associated with it.

  Sense of place (place-meaning) – the subjective (personal) and emotional attachment to a place, its meaning. People develop a sense of place through experience and knowledge of a particular area.
• Define media place and experienced place.

  An experienced place is a place that someone has spent time in. When a person visits or lives in a place their experiences, such as the things they see and the people they meet, shape their sense of place.

  A media place is a place that someone has not been to, but have created a sense of place through their depiction in the media (e.g. books, art and film).
• Give a detailed example of a media place.

  An example of a media place is Maya Bay in Thailand where The Beach was filmed. On the film the area is shown as a secluded paradise, but in reality it is overcrowded with tourist and they have polluted and damaged the beach by travelling there in large numbers. When you visit, you sense of place does not match the sense of place created by the media.
• What are endogenous factors? Give some examples in your answer.

  The internal factors that shape a place’s character.

  These could be physical, e.g. its location, topography and physical geography, or they could be human e.g. the land use, built environment, infrastructure and demographic and economic characteristics.
• Use an example to explain how endogenous factors can influence the character of a place.

  Relief - Harrogate on a hill which gives us High and Low Harrogate, Resources - Harrogate is a Spa town

  Demographic characteristics – ageing population

  Economic characteristics – service / tourist economy

  Built environment – Georgian architecture, urban landscape.
• Deindustrialisation


  1. Loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector

  2. Occurred in the UK in the second half of the 20th Century
• NEEs (Newly Emerging Economies) emerged e.g. Singapore, Taiwan


  1960s
• NEEs


  • Produced goods at cheaper prices with lower labour costs
• Developed world struggling to compete

  Industries declined e.g. textiles in Leeds
• Decline of industries


  • Led to lots of derelict areas and deprivation within the inner city
• Regeneration of derelict land

  1. Part of the South Bank regeneration project

  2. Create 35,000 jobs

  3. Create 8,000 new homes
• Service economy


  • Tertiary activities (e.g. financial services, retailing, leisure, transport, education, health)
  • Quaternary activities (where knowledge or ideas are the main output, e.g. advertising, computer programming, software design)
• Financial services


  Needed to support manufacturing industries, which are still important in many cities
• Technological sophistication of societies

  Leads to a larger range of specialised services needed to keep them running
• Societies becoming wealthier


  Leads to more demand for leisure and retail services
• Urban change can also be seen in greater offices within UK cities and headquarters of TNCs
• Explain what the bid rent model shows.

  A graph to show land values and how these fall with increasing distance from the Peak Land Value Intersection (PLVI), resulting in different land use zones. Land is higher in the CBD and only shops and offices can often afford these high land values. As distance from the PLVI increases industry cannot afford the highest land values and so these are found further away, and then housing pays the lower land values so are further out from the CBD.

  
• What are the reasons for social and ethnic segregation?

  These could be the result of self segregation whereby migrants seek support and security of living near friends within an ethnic community. There may be specialist provision of facilities such as places of worship and food, or protection against racial abuse and attacks from the majority population.
• What are the external factors for social and ethnic segregation?

  There are external factors such as traditionally migrants have been a source of cheap labour, forcing them into areas of cheap housing, and they have been discriminated against in securing mortgage loans. There may also be movement of the majority population out of the area into which minorities have moved- white flight.
• Explain how urban pollution reduction policies can be implemented.

  These could include; Legislation, Alternative fuels, Zoning of Industry, Reducing Traffic.

  In order to reduce pollution some cities such as London have adopted congestion charges where vehicles are charged to enter areas of a city discouraging people from using their vehicles. The money generated can then be invested in improving public transport.
• What is Zoning of industry?

  Zoning of industry is where industry is located downwind in cities if at all possible, and planning legislation has forced companies to build higher factory chimneys to emit pollutants above inversion layer.
• Explain the environmental impacts of incineration in the context of waste management and disposal.

  Incineration reduces the amount of waste going to landfill but emits greenhouse gases and causes air pollution. Waste that is burnt can be used to generate electricity which is called energy recovery. This reduces the amount of waste by up to 90%. This reduces the use of fossil fuels, but burning some waste can release toxic chemicals into the air or water. It also requires far less land than landfill sites.
• Explain a strategies Leeds has implemented to overcome economic inequality and social segregation.

  Leeds has introduced the ‘Leeds Best Council Plan’ which is focusing on reducing inequalities and ensure Leeds prospers. One example is Hammerson a company who invested £114,000 around Leeds to offer grants to directly tackle poverty. Asda in Middleton also committed to a Local Employment Partners which guaranteed that 375 new full and part time jobs went to local workers to target the long term unemployed and give interview skills and advice.
• Explain a strategy Rio have implemented to overcome economic inequality and social segregation.

  In Rio the Favelo Bairro Project has improved the life of many favelas through providing them with basic sanitation, plumbing, electricity, health care and education facilities. They secured the hillsides to prevent landslides and paved and formally named roads. The cable car system to allow residents to get to the other end of the favela in 16 minutes, rather than an hour walk, to increase job opportunities.