Changing Urban Environments Flashcards
The land use of a CBD.
Shops, banks, offices, entertainments.
Features of a CBD.
High rise buildings, high number of shops and services, DIURNAL population density, high land prices so the land use is not residential
Problems in a CBD.
Land price is high, tourism can cause conflicts with residents, lots of noise and air pollution.
Map evidence for a CBD.
COL (schools), main roads, churches, hotels, museums.
Map evidence for the inner city.
Light Manufacturing: Often found along a river, railway or canal. Near terraced housing. Large buildings.
Old/Low Class Residential: Straight rows of small houses. Streets close together. Little to no green space. Often close to a factory, railways or canal.
Problems of an inner city.
Factories cause visual pollution. Cramped housing, crime, unemployment.
Land use of an inner city
Light Manufacturing: Large factories, railways, disposing of waste, partially residential.
Old/Low Class Residential: Residential, Canals, corner shops, social meeting place.
Appearance of an inner city
Light Manufacturing: Large buildings and factories (ugly), open space. No gardens or terraced housing.
Old/Low Class Residential: Smaller, compact, terraced housing. Factories and no gardens.
Map evidence of suburbs.
Middle-Class Housing: Schools and parks nearby, streets usually straight.
High-Class Housing: Semi detached houses
Appearance of the suburbs
Middle-Class Housing: Open space, houses with gardens.
High-Class Housing: Family areas, detached housing
Map evidence for the RUF.
Open space, golf courses, parks, fields, detached houses.
Problems with the suburbs.
High land and housing price, services are far away.
Land use of suburbs
Middle-Class Housing: Mainly residential, some shops, schools.
High-Class Housing: Residential, educational, commercial.
Appearance of the RUF
Private estates or outer city council housing. Low population and building density. High quality housing. Built in the 1960s. Large gardens.
Land use of the RUF
Golf courses, business parks, airports, theme parks.
What do you need to do when using map skills?
Only use information from the map, that you can see on the map. Unless the question asks you to, do not use local knowledge for map skills questions - ALWAYS use map evidence.
What is urban decline?
The process whereby previously functioning city falls into disrepair. Economy shrinks, unemployment increases and public places become derelict and run down. Crime, fragmented families and an inhospitable city landscape result.
Causes of urbanisation in LEDCs
Overpopulation puts pressure on the land - food shortages, famine.
Lack of services for example difficult to access healthcare.
High rates of natural increase among youthful population has fuelled this urban growth.
Wider range of jobs, from drug dealing and prostitution to selling items.
People can always access food in the city, where as in rural areas if you can’t grow it you can’t.
Government schemes encouraging urbanisation.
Why is there housing crisis in the UK?
Population has increased by 7% since 1971 and is expected to increase.
More people living alone - higher divorce rates, young people moving out.
There are over 1 million empty properties because people cannot afford to modernise them.
Rising demand for second homes.
Name some causes of urbanisation in MEDCs
Mechanisation of agriculture in the 19th century lead to unemployment amongst workers.
Movement of young people to attend tertiary education.
Access to better health care.
Redevelopment.
Bright light syndrome.
Lack of services for example living far away from a local high school.
What is City Challenge?
A big initiative of the 1990s, where local authorities, private companies and the local community worked together to improve housing, environment and services.
Urban zones have different land uses. Due to what issues to they develop these land uses?
Space available Age of area Accessibility Land values Wealth Planning policies
What is multiculturalism?
The act of celebrating cultural diversity, ethnic and racial diversity and teaching tolerance.
Changes that have happened in the CBD
Major changes in C20th:
Reducing traffic congestion and pollution.
Creating more pleasant and safer environment (CCTV, street furniture, lighting)
Segregating shoppers and traffic.
Revitalising CBDs as some shops have left e.g. Birmingham CBD
Go through the vicious cycle of poverty.
High unemployment leads to people having less money to spend on goods and services.
Less tax and business rates all paid to the local council.
The local council invests less in housing, roads, and education.
Young people leave school with pew a qualification which leads back to high unemployment which also leads to petty crime.
Problems and decline in the CBD
Pollution (light, air and sound) - impacts quality of life and health
Overcrowding in CBDs - cause delays and traffic jams which are inconvenient and anger people.
Crime - impacts shops and other people
Decline due to shops moving to out of town shopping centres and online shopping
Conflict between ethnic groups and elderly people and youths and tourists
Key features of LEDC cities
Rapid growth is sustained by a combination of rural-urban migration and natural increase within populations.
Urban population growth outstrips economic growth rates.
Wide disparities in wealth and quality of life are evident.
Government has inconsistent policy approaches to control urban growth.
Describe the burgess model for MEDCs.
The middle is the CBD (large shops and office blocks).
Then a zone of manufacturing (inner city).
Then old poor quality housing mixed with industry.
Then medium cost housing.
Then new and expensive housing.
Describe the Hoyt model in LEDCs
In the middle large shops and offices.
The line Vertically through it is new and expensive housing.
On the left of this is suburban luxury housing.
The line horizontally on the right is modern factories.
The small circle around this is improve shanties.
The bigger circles are shanty towns.
Schemes to improve squatter settlements
Self-help Schemes - local authorities help those living in squatter settlements to improve their homes by offering loans and often installing clean water supply, sanitation and safe waste disposal
Site and Service Schemes - land is divided into individual plots and water, sanitation, electricity and basic road layouts are supplied, before any building begins
Local Authority Schemes - these are funded by the local government and are about improving the temporary accommodation built by residents
Advantages of congestion charge:
Helps the environment as people would rather take public transport.
Electric cars go for free.
Disadvantages of congestion charge:
Buses give off nitrous oxide emissions, it’s quite expensive.
Park and ride advantages:
Quicker way to get into the city.
Disadvantages of park and ride scheme:
The machines to buy tickets are complex and buses leave with customers still queuing for tickets. It’s also quite expensive.
Want to solutions to the housing problems in LEDCs need to appreciate?
Slums naturally improve over time.
They are called building sites rather than wastelands.
Appropriate government intervention will accelerate improvement.
Public transport advantages:
Children go free on bus. 20 hours a day. Air conditioned. Rather frequent. New buses and bus lanes.
Disadvantages of Boris bikes:
Can only be taken out for 30 minutes at a time without being additionally charged. They don’t provide helmets. Anyone can hire them at any level of cycling. Can be quite dangerous especially in central London.
Disadvantages of public transport:
Congested.
Tube/bus strikes.
Aesthetically unpleasing.
Boris bike advantages:
Cheap, easy, efficient and healthy mode of transport. Reduces travel and there are a lot of them.
Why did the London docklands go into decline and why was it in need of regeneration?
In the 1970s, ships grew in size and needed deeper water so could not navigate the Thames through its meanders
Container ships and computerisation replaced the need for many dockworkers
By 1980s, the docks had closed, over half the land was derelict, there were very few jobs, transport was poorly developed, housing was in need of urgent repair, lack of basic services and leisure amenities
Why does urbanisation in LEDCs lead to slums?
Cities cannot support the population increase, not enough services.
Rural migrants have little skills so they can’t be employed. They make temporary shelters.
These temporary shelters become squared settlements that tend to be found on marginal land.
They usually work in the informal sector.
