1.6 Urban settlements

Question 1

Describe and give reasons for the characteristics of, and changes in, land use in urban areas

Answer 1

MEDC: as you move out the house quality gets better
LEC: as you move out house quality gets worse

CBD:

• Big shops, business, entertainment train stations, historical centre, expensive land value, build upwards
• Shops are moving out to big malls on edge of city

Transition zone/Inner city:

• Low class housing and factories
• Being knocked down for high class housing or entertainment, factories going to edge of city

Suburb:

• Housing towards edge of city, larger, higher quality, big gardens
• More building, more houses, urban sprawl

Out of town states:
- Residential housing outside main city - cheap land. Often lower quality housing

Rural-urban fringe:

• Edge of city with countryside. Traditionally rural with farms, open space, small villages
• Now under pressure from developments such as shopping centres, business parks.

Conflicts with people who live there and environmentalists because it moves people out and destroys habitat

Greenfield:
- Nothing was built before
Brownfield:
- Knocking something down and rebuilding (transition zone)

Commuter/dormitory villages: people work in the city only sleep there

Question 2

Explain the problems of urban areas, their causes, and possible solutions

Answer 2

Problems:

• Air/noise/water/visual pollution
• Traffic congestion
• Waster disposal
• Overcrowding
• Poor living conditions
• Social problems (crime, unemployment, alienation, drugs)

Causes:

• Car ownership
• Population growth
• Urbanisation
• Rush hour
• Old roads not designed for cars

Solutions:
Traffic
- Improve public transport (buses, underground systems, tram)
- Encourage cycling (cycle tracks), Walking (pedestrian zones)
- Reduce number of cars (expensive cars, gasoline, license, taxes)
- Underground parking
- Road improvement and planning
Waste
- Recycle, separate, re-use, reduce, avoid land fill
Education
Improve countryside

Question 3

case study

an urban area

Answer 3

Ulm

Population 170,000

1) Traffic congestion
- Air/noise pollution
- Stress, delays (businesses don’t work well)
- City being less popular so businesses/shops move out

• Public transport, cheap tickets (ding card), buses, trams, trains
• Cycle paths all over city (Donauradweg)
• Pedestrian areas in Munster platz, Hirschstrasse
• Park and ride schemes on the road from Erbach
• Car to go (electric + electric buses)
• Umwelt Plakett to reduce pollution
• New under pass of the motorway through the town A7

2) Waste
- Large quantities
- Pollution in the rivers, lakes, and water supply
- Smell from untreated waste
- Pest such as rats in waste
- Waste of resources because of over consumption

• Separate waste at household
• Laws about amount that can go into land fill, 0%
• Charging for the size of the waster container (reduces consumption)
• Charging for plastic bottles -pfand
• Fines for littering and failing to recycle well

3) Urban sprawl
- Loss of valuable farmland
- Loss of natural areas such as the Swabian Alps
- Small villages stalled up by the city, loses rural feel
- Increasing distances to travel into work for commuters
- Conflict between land users on rural urban fringe

• Strict planning rules and laws on edge of city
• More higher rise buildings in the city
• Protected areas so no building can take place there, e.g. Danube floodplain