Urban Environments Flashcards
What is urbanisation?
A process where an increasing proportion of people live in towns and cities
What are some factors that may have increased urbanisation?
Natural increase
Rural to urban migration
What are the push factors for rural areas?
- War in sparse areas
- Lack of supplies (famine)
- Lack of jobs (mechanisation)
- High crime rate
- Natural disasters
- less access to education
- Less access to medicine
What are the pull factors to urban areas?
- Access to good education
- More housing in better conditions
- More access to health care
- More jobs
- Access to entertainment
- Police, ambulances, and fire team (safety)
- easy transportation
What happens when the population increases?
As the population increases so does the amount of people living in urban areas.
What is the average 1 bed flat price in the CBD, Inner-city, Inner-suburbs and outer-suburbs?
CBD: £880,000
Inner-city: £620,000
Inner-suburbs: £410,000
Outer-suburbs: £230,000
What ate some of the issues within urban areas?
- Busy streets/ traffic
- Higher crime rates
- Can struggle to find a job
- Housing
- Overcrowding
- Social divide
- Pollution
- Poverty
What are the 5 problems in an MEDC urban area?
1: Housing
2: Old factories in inner-city - no space
3: Traffic
4: Decline of the CBD
5: Multiculturalism
Why is there an increase in demand for housing?
There is an increase in the amount of people living alone
Also an ageing population- make up for 1/5 of the housing
What is a brownfield site?
Land that has been built on before and is to be cleared and reused
What is a greenfield site?
Land that has not been built on before, usually in the country side or on the edge of a built up area.
What is green belt land?
Protected land around larger urban centres, and maintain the designated area for forestry and agriculture as well as to provide habitat for wildlife.
How much green belt land is there in England?
About 13% of the total area in England
List some advantages of brownfield sites
- Land is cheaper
- Good use of waste land
- Plots will be larger
- Roads already exist
- Near facilities and work in central areas
- Utilities already provided
- Easy to get planning permission
What is a disadvantage of Brownfield sites?
More homes in the town or city which results in traffic jams as there are more cars and people
What are the advantages of using greenfield sites?
- Sites do not need cleaning so can be cheaper
- People are attracted to rural idyll
- More space for gardens
What are the disadvantages of using greenfield sites?
- Drive wildlife away
- Less land for farming
- More countryside gets covered in concrete
- Tress get cut down
- More traffic in country roads
- More household rubbish
- Spoil the appearance of the area
Give an example of inner- city redevelopments
London Docklands, The London Docklands Development corporation.
Why did the London Docklands need to be regenerated?
- The docks were too small for modern container ships, so the Docklands were being used less
- Unemployment was high amongst unskilled former dockers
- Housing and flats were of a poor standard
- Derelict land still remains from bomb damage in the war
- The transport system was inadequate
How was the Docklands regenerated?
The London Docklands Development corporation (LDDC) sold on parts of the land to businesses that wanted to build there. Companies who built there received government grants and tax relief for a period of time.
Give another example of inner-city redevelopment
Hulme, Manchester, City challenge
Why were the Hulme crescents built?
They were built to separate people from traffic and to create more green open spaces
What happened to the new housing?
The plan to create a better place to live failed. The crime rate went up,people were scared to go out at night and the flats were treated poorly.
How did they change the problems in Hulme?
They built new housing with greens courtyards, roof gardens, balconies and window boxes.
Buildings were destined to conserve water and enable heating to be kept as low as possible.
Why is traffic increasingly a problem in MEDC cities?
- As young people become older they can drive, resulting in more people on the road.
- Bus lanes reduce the amount of lanes cars can use
- More traffic lights which backs cars up
- Roads are too narrow for cars to travel down
- Less people walking, more driving
What are the consequences of traffic congestion?
- Noise pollution -> house prices go down
- Trouble commuting
- Higher emissions -> air pollution
- Higher risk of accidents
- Emergency services struggle to travel quickly to incidents
- Road rage
- Light pollution
- People use more petrol
Give some solutions to traffic in the city
- Boris bikes -> hire a bike for as little as £2, there are more than 10,000 bikes in London
- Congestion charges -> Stockholm, motorists charge between 06:30 and 18:30 to enter central city on weekdays
- Cycle super highway
- Pedestrianise areas
- Public transport -> exclusive lanes for buses
Why might a CBD go into Decline?
- Crowded streets - harder to move around
- Build up of mass traffic -> people avoid areas
- Smog/ pollution
- Run down building -> no one wants to move in (spiral of decline)
- Prices of buildings go up -> unaffordable
- Businesses are finding cheaper places to rent
What is the zone of discard?
Once part of the CBD but now in decline and characterised by low status shops, warehouses and vacant property.
Give an example of a squatter settlement
Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya
What has been the estimated population of Kibera?
One-two million
How many people live on less than £1.50 a day in Kibera?
3 million people
What is the highest paid job in Kibera?
Prostitution
How many people are there in 1 1/2 miles in the squatter settlement of Nairobi?
1 million people
What percentage of children won’t live until their 5th birthday in Nairobi slums?
20%
What are self-help schemes?
When the government give people tools and training to improve their home. Low-interest loans may be used to help people fund these changes. People may be given legal ownership of land.
What are site and service schemes?
Occurs where land is divided into individual plots and water, sanitation, electricity and basic track layout are supplied before any building by residents begins.
What self-help strategies have been used in Nairobi?
- Government are teaching people to build houses for the future
- People are working to unblock main sewage pipes to place better drainage systems
- planning to build 182 communal toilet blocks
- Giving people jobs
What site and service strategies have been used in Nairobi?
- Tarred roads, mobile clinics and police stations made from shipping containers, working lights and free wifi has all been placed in part of the Nairobi slums.
- Trucks collect rubbish
- KENSUP made multi storied flats for people,from slums to move into, this didn’t work as the flats were unreliable
What is electronic waste?
When electronics are dumped in one area
- poor workers of LEDC’s boil, crush or burn the e-waste. This releases toxic chemicals such as lead which can pose serious health risks.
When was the Bhopal disaster?
1984
What caused the leak in Bhopal?
Methyl isocyanate gas escaped when a valve in the plant’s underground storage tank broke under pressure.
How many people needed medical attention in the Bhopal disaster?
How many people died in the Bhopal disaster?
More than 20,000
Nearly 3,000
Define sustainability
To meet the needs of today without compromising the ability of those in the future to meet theirs.
Give a sustainable settlement example
Brazil - Curitiba
What have they done in Curitiba?
- Created small green spaces and park to help preserve the rivers course
- Curitiba’s bus rapid system (BRT) results in 25% lower carbon emissions per capita.
- ‘Exchanges trash and recyclables for bus tokens, food and cash form those living in flavelas
