L1i - Global City Regions

• Global city-regions


  New urban forms emerging under conditions of contemporary globalisation, spread out over a large area, containing a number of cities within commuting distance, and one or more international airports that link the region with other parts of the world
• Global city-regions


  • They have multiple urban centres - this is termed a polycentric structure
  • They are a new form: a series of anything between 10 and 50 cities, physically separate but functionally networked, clustered around one or more larger central cities, and drawing enormous strength from a new functional division of labour
• Global city-regions


  • Pearl River (inc. Hong Kong) & Yangtze River Delta (inc. Shanghai) Areas, China
  • The Tokaido (Tokyo-Osaka) corridor, Japan
  • Greater Jakarta, Indonesia
• Global cities


  Defined in terms of their external information exchanges
• Polycentric global mega-city regions


  Should be defined in terms of both their internal and external linkages
• Technology and transportation networks

  • Crucial for global city-regions
  • Systems for electronic exchange allow business people to operate effectively up to about 2 hours' travel time from metropolitan cores (or major airports), conducting many exchanges electronically, but travelling to face-to-face meetings in these cores (and others)
• Business activities


  • May no longer need to be located in traditional CBDs (central business districts)
  • Some meeting places are clustered around transport nodes like airports
• City-regions


  • Characterised by concentrated deconcentration - business activities disperse over the scale of the wide city region, but simultaneously reconcentrate at particular nodes within it
  • Highly networked through its multiple nodes and links – but there is a recognisable urban hierarchy
• City-regions in China


  • Chuanyu mega-region (105.5 million) encompasses Chongqing, Chengdu, and 13 cities from Sichuan province
  • The Capital Economic Zone (70.6 million) encompasses Beijing and Tianjin
  • The Pearl River Delta region (50.2 million) includes Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong
  • Yangtze River Delta region (76.7 million) centred around Shanghai
• City-regions in North-West Europe

  • South-East England; centred on London
  • The Randstad, Holland; Amsterdam, Rotterdam
  • Central Belgium; Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent
  • Rhine-Ruhr, Germany; inc. Dortmund, Cologne
  • Rhine-Main, Germany; centred on Frankfurt
  • Northern Switzerland; centred on Zurich
  • Paris region, France; centred on Paris
  • Greater Dublin, Ireland; centred on Dublin

  
• South-East England city-region


  • The largest of the European city-regions, extending into the South West and into the East and West Midlands regions
  • There are important functionally polycentric relationships operating in the region, stemming from the strength of London's global linkages
  • Analysis of commuting flows shows that the region consists of no less than 51 functional urban regions
  • Of the total 2001 employment in the city-region of just over 9 million, London accounts for 48%
• Polycentric geographical structure


  • Traditional downtown centre
  • Newer business centre
  • Internal edge city
  • External edge city
  • Outermost edge city complexes
  • Specialised sub-centres
• Traditional downtown centre


  Based on walking distances and served by a radial public transportation centre, serving the oldest informational services (banking, insurance, government)
• Newer business centre


  Often developing in an old prestige residential quarter, as the location of newer services (advertising, media, design)
• Internal edge city


  Resulting from pressure of space in traditional centres and speculative development on old industrial land
• External edge city


  Often located on the axis of the main airport
• Outermost edge city complexes

  For back offices and R&D, at major stations
• Specialised sub-centres


  May take a variety of forms, e.g. education & high technology
• Polycentric geographical structure applied to London


  • Traditional downtown centre: City of London
  • Newer business centre: The West End
  • Internal edge city: London Docklands
  • External edge city: Airports
  • Outermost edge city complexes: Reading, Croydon
  • Specialised sub-centres: Oxbridge, Silicon Fen, M4 corridor
• Randstad, Holland


  • Commonly portrayed as one of Europe's most pronounced polycentric mega-city regions
  • Combines a political capital, a financial capital, a cultural capital, first class international gateway functions, and a highly-skilled cosmopolitan workforce, distributed over a number of historically distinct cities
• Randstad, Holland


  • Contains 12 cities > 100,000 inhabitants – the most populous being Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht
  • The region's economic powerhouse, home to some 3.2 million jobs, most in various services
  • Global connections facilitated through the port of Rotterdam, Schiphol airport, and the Amsterdam Internet Exchange
  • A dense network of roads and railways connect the cities of the Randstad together as part of planned polycentricism
• Specialisation within the Randstad

  • Amsterdam has the largest concentration of financial services, law firms and advertising firms
  • Utrecht is characterised by a strong presence of management consultancy firms
  • The Hague attracts business services (accountants and law firms) but does not have many financial services
  • Rotterdam relies heavily on its port and a large concentration of advanced logistic services
• While in terms of population and employment distribution the Randstad appears an un-differentiated polycentric conurbation, there is actually a complex pattern of specialisation
• Planning in the Randstad

  • Much planning has gone in to ensuring efficient transport interconnections, yet such measures meet with varying levels of success
• Forms and connections of global city-regions

  • Each region has a particular form and differing levels of internal & external connectivity
  • There are varying degrees of polycentricity and hierarchy between the urban centres
  • Some have a very dominant centre, e.g. London
  • Some have a less obvious hierarchy, e.g. The Randstad
  • Global City-Regions are very complex entities