12.3. Degradation of Urban Environments Flashcards
Urban Degradation
a general reduction in the quality of the environment in urban areas. This can happen in HIC, MIC and LIC cities
Urban Decay
the process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. This is more likely to occur in HIC cities
- It may feature deindustrialisation, depopulation or changing population, restructuring, abandoned buildings and infrastructure, high local unemployment, fragmented families, political disenfranchisement, crime and desolate cityscape
Factors causing degradation of urban environments in MIC and NIC cities
1) Urbanisation
2) Industrial Development
3) Inadequate waste management
Urbanisation causing degradation of urban environment in MIC and NIC cities
- The process of population shift from rural to urban areas
- Very rapid in both MICs and NICs
- Many of developments unplanned and quite haphazard → shanty towns → pollution → crime rate increase
Industrial Development causing degradation of urban environments in MIC and NIC cities
- People move to the cities to get jobs
- Jobs are provided by the new factories that develop in the MIC cities, which contribute to economic growth
- Environmental laws being not very strict attract TNCs to build factories
- So air and water pollution are often a problem, degrading the urban environment around the factories
Inadequate waste management causing degradation of urban environments in MIC and NIC cities
- As MIC cities experienced rapid growth, waste disposal systems have struggled to keep up with the growth in the built-up area
- No proper disposal system or rubbish collection in shanty towns - the area quickly becomes very polluted and unhygienic
- Rubbish and raw sewage gets into rivers causing water pollution, because shanty towns are often built on marshy floodplain areas
Solutions to degradation of urban environments in MIC and NIC cities
Main issue is the lack of money. As economic development proceeds, more money becomes available and the urban environment will be improved. However, the worst conditions in the shantytowns need to be dealt with as a matter of urgency.
1) City administrations have set up ‘self-help’ schemes where they provided the local people with the materials to improve their built environment themselves
2) City administrations have also installed clean water supplies, electricity and sanitation infrastructure in some shanty town areas, or in new areas where shanty town dwellers are encouraged (or compelled) to move
3) By improving public transport, city administrations can reduce congestion and air pollution
Factors causing degradation of urban environments in HIC cities
1) Ageing and derelict buildings
2) Inadequate infrastructure
3) Deindustrialisation
4) Social segregation
5) Waste management
Ageing and derelict buildings causing degradation of urban environments in HIC cities
- HIC cities experienced rapid growth when the country industrialised
- Expanding of cities outwards and the buildings in the inner-city zone have degenerated
- Inner-city zone is the home to the poorest people so their landlords do not have much financial incentive to fix the properties
- As buildings get older, its structure starts to crumble. Walls crack and flake and roofs begin to leak
Inadequate infrastructure causing degradation of urban environments in HIC cities
- Doughnut effect (movement of urban activities from the central areas of the city to the edge of the city where new ring roads provide excellent accessibility
- Shops, offices and other urban functions have migrated to the edge
- This movement was due to the fact that road transport infrastructure in the central area of the city was becoming inadequate
- Traffic congestion resulted in air pollution
- Also, property developers were not interested in spending money revitalising the derelict and congested inner city areas where the urban environment was in a downward spiral
Deindustrialisation causing degradation of urban environments in HIC cities
- Globalisation caused manufacturing jobs to move from HICs to MICs/NICs
- Factories in HIC cities began to close down, which led to dereliction and unemployment, further adding to the degradation of these old urban environments
Social Segregation causing degradation of urban environments in HIC cities
- Richer people moved out of the old inner-city zones into the modern suburbs on the urban fringe
- Only poorest members of society were left in the inner city who had no money to improve their homes and paid very little tax so the local authorities had no funding to make improvements
Waste Management causing degradation of urban environments in HIC cities
- As people become richer they produce more rubbish
Waste is buried in landfilll sites, often on the edge of the city - These sites were smelly and unsightly and degraded the environment of the area around them
- The trucks carrying the waste contributed to air pollution and traffic congestion in the city
- Once full, the land fill sites leached chemicals into the groundwater, potentially polluting the city’s water supply
Solutions to the degradation of urban environments in HIC cities
1) Cooperation between government and the private sector
2) Sustainable communities
3) Improved waste management
Cooperation between government and the private sector as a solution to the degradation of urban environments in HIC cities
- Government may relax planning laws and acquire land, clean it and put in new infrastructure
- Maybe encourage private investors to build high profit buildings, such as office blocks and upmarket accommodation