Urban Environments

Question 1

Key ideas 1 and 2

Answer 1

A growing percentage of the world’s population lives in urban areas.
Cities face a range of environmental challenges resulting from rapid growth and resource demands.

Question 2

Define sustainable

Answer 2

A term used to describe actions that minimise negative impacts on the environment, promote human well-being and don’t compromise the needs of future generations while meeting the needs of today’s population.

Question 3

What are the characteristics of rural areas? (Categorise them, too)

Answer 3

Low pollution rates (environmental)
Low population (social)
Less densely populated (social)
Large open spaces (environmental)
Primary industries (economic)
Less and lower-rise buildings (social and environmental)
More vegetation (environmental)
Less dense infrastructure (environmental)
Calm (social)
Farming industry (environmental and economic)

Question 4

What are the characteristics of urban areas? (Categorise them too)

Answer 4

Many high rise buildings to save as much space as possible but still have working/living space (environmental and social)
Higher pollution rates (environmental)
More densely populated (social)
Busy (social)
Dense infrastructure (environmental)
High accessibility due to much transport to allow people to commute in and out (social and economic (if commuting for work))
Industrial work (economic)
Secondary and tertiary industries (economic)
High population (social)

Question 5

Define urbanisation

Answer 5

Urbanisation is an increasing number of people of a country’s population living in an urban area.

Question 6

Why does urbanisation occur? (Factors affecting urbanisation)

Answer 6

More/better education
More/better services (hospitals, schools, shops)
More people —> higher sociability and more people to interact with within the community
Entertainment (more to do and activities)
More/better job opportunities (bigger tourist industry, higher wages, more job types and variation which ranges from high to low skill. Also, mechanisation in rural areas displaces rural jobs)
Higher Quality of Living
Higher accessibility (better transport connectivity, connecting cities to other cities)
More access to culture (different cultures living in such close proximity also decreases prejudice, xenophobia etc in urban areas)
More/better housing (MODERN)- connections to amenities (such as gas, electricity and water. However, it may make the city overcrowded)
Natural increase (childbirth due to reproduction with8n the urban environment)

Question 7

What are the factors affecting urbanisation called?

Answer 7

These are known as push and pull factors, and lead to the migration of people from rural to urban areas. It is expected that by 2080, 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas.

Question 8

What are the factors which affect the growth and development of megacities?

Answer 8

Economic development: the economic growth that drives urbanisation. When the speed of growth in secondary and tertiary sectors is fast, so is urbanisation.

Population growth: economic growth needs an increasing supply of labour. The labour can be made by:

• A natural increase in urban population
• Rural-Urban migration.

Multiplier effect:
when a large city is prospering, it gathers a momentum which leads to more wealth. There are more jobs, so more people move into the city, so more people need goods and services. This creates more jobs and the cycle continues.

Economies of scale:
The more buildings that are crammed together, the easier it is to get from place to place with cheaper transport costs.

Question 9

What are the urban processes?

Answer 9

Time Increasing level of development
————————————————————————>
Agglomeration, Suburbanisation, Commuting, Urban regeneration, Counter-urbanisation, Urban re-imaging, Urbanisation of suburbs

Question 10

What is agglomeration?

Answer 10

The starting point: people moving to areas for their favourability and resources.

Question 11

What is suburbanisation?

Answer 11

People moving to the suburbs as the city has become too busy, and expands outwards.

Question 12

What is commuting?

Answer 12

People moving to quieter, more rural areas but still travelling to work and getting resources in the city.

Question 13

What is urban regeneration?

Answer 13

Re-using areas in old, abandoned parts of cities.

Question 14

What is counter-urbanisation?

Answer 14

People moving to rural areas instead of urban ones.

Question 15

What is the urbanisation of suburbs?

Answer 15

Suburbs becoming more developed and built up to accommodate more people and become urban areas.

Question 16

What are the issues associated with the rapid development of megacities?

Answer 16

• Megacities can grow at the expense of other smaller urban areas, creating a CORE and a PERIPHERY. They tend to ‘absorb’ all of the governmental undated of the country, as there is more investment in the CORE (megacity).
• Overcrowding.
• Lack of housing.
• Pressure/stress on resources eg. Water.
• Lack of services eg. Hospitals, schools etc.
• Increase in conflict (religious, political etc).
• Increase in crime rates.
• More pollution.
• Large numbers of unemployed- too few jobs to support whole population.
• Disease can spread faster.
• More traffic congestion, especially in the CBD.

Question 17

Define Shanty Town

Answer 17

A shanty town, or squatter settlement, is an informal, unplanned settlement of improvised housing which is generally poorly built of materials such as corrugated iron sheets (or other metal sheets) and sheets of plastic, materials that are easily found.
They are a feature of rapidly growing urban areas all around the world, but especially in emerging and less developed countries.

Question 18

What are the main characteristics of shanty towns?

Answer 18

• Overcrowding, densely populated - diseases spread very quickly.
• Poor quality buildings built themselves.
• Poverty.
• Dirty, no green spaces.
• Few services (limited clean water, no electricity etc).
• Air and water pollution.
• Free-roaming animals and livestock.
• Dangerous.

Question 19

Where and why are shanty towns found?

Answer 19

Shanty towns are usually found on the periphery (edge) of large urban areas, mostly in developing or emerging countries. They are often found on marginal land (land that has no other purpose or is dangerous eg. Near railway tracks, marshy areas or dump sites).

Question 20

Give an example of a shanty town

Answer 20

Agbogbloshie in Ghana.
One of the world’s most polluted countries and toxic shanty towns.
Built next to an extremely toxic waste dump as most technology is dumped there, therefore people living in the shanty go there to pick up valuable metals and other materials to use and recycle.

Question 21

What are the names of shanty towns around the world?

Answer 21

Favelas in Brazil.
Bustees in the Indian Subcontinent.
Barriadas in Latin America.
Bidonvilles in North Africa.
(Townships in the country of South Africa, created by the apartheid (division of black and white people with the white being prioritised)).

Question 22

What is the informal sector?

Answer 22

This comprises types of work that are not officially recognised; informal work is done by people working for themselves on the streets of cities, mainly in developing countries (in their shanty towns).

Question 23

Give an example of the informal sector and it’s advantages and disadvantages.

Answer 23

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Advantages and benefits of the informal sector:

• Provides a wide range of services and cheap cheap goods which would otherwise be unattainable.
• Provides a means of survival for the poor.
• Decreases crime rates (people don’t have to steal to survive).

Disadvantages and costs of the informal sector:

• On the long term, because the pay for these informal activities is so low, it does nothing to help people break out of their cycle of poverty.
• There are no healthcare or unemployment benefits.
• It creates a much higher risk of work-related health problems.
• It is illegal.
• It may cause discrimination from outside the shanty town and within the shanty’s hierarchy of employment.
• Forces children to work and therefore not having the education that they deserve and need to break out of the ‘cycle of poverty’.
• Causes a much higher death rate, and people die at a much younger average age.
• There is more pollution (especially water and air) - environmental issues.

Question 24

Why is there rapid urbanisation in LICs?

Answer 24

Rural-urban migration for more jobs with higher pay and varying levels of skill.
Technological advancements in rural areas take over jobs.
Education is better and more accessible.
Higher birth rates: natural increase.

Question 25

Why are there slower urbanisation rates in HICs?

Answer 25

People living in the country mainly live in the suburbs, causing little to no growth of the city.
They can commute into the city for work thanks to good transport.
They don’t need to live in the city for the technology it offers.
People can work from home.

Question 26

What is the trend and the stages of population percentage living in urban areas with time?

Answer 26

Stage one: early urbanisation. LICs. Line slowly rising
Stage two: accelerating urbanisation. MICs. Line rising faster
Stage three: mature urbanisation. HICs. Line reaching a plateau
Stage forum counter-urbanisation. HICs. Line falling gradually

Trend:
Over time and with increasing levels of development, the urban population also increases.

Question 27

What are the transport issues that Singapore is facing?

Answer 27

Causes of challenge:

• high population density = high demand
• Lack of transport to support high population density

Impacts of causes:

• Increase in transport not always very sustainable, could cause air/noise pollution, and increase congestion rates (increase in stress of locals)
• if infrastructure is built up, there won’t be enough space for accommodation

Management solutions:

• Area Licensing System (ALS). This is an urban traffic congestion pricing system. Taxing car ownership by making people pay for a license to pass one of the 34 gantries around the CBD, decreasing congestion in the CBD, pollution and discouraging car ownership.
• ALS replaced by simpler Electronic Road Pricing System (ERP).
• Congestion pricing introduced in urban segments of 3 major expressways. Again discourages car ownership.
• Diverse public transport system.
• Taxis available 24/7, affordable. Decreases need for everyone to have a car.
• Park-and-ride scheme to control traffic flow in CBD.
• Trolley buses for travelling short distances. Sustainable.
• Self-driving cars and shuttles in the future. Will increase sociability when travelling, as no one needs to concentrate on diving.
• need to make sure that everything is sustainable and efficient, eco-friendly. Produce jobs to replace this that will be taken away be the driverless transport modes.

Question 28

What are the waste disposal issues that Singapore is facing?

Answer 28

Causes:

• Food needs to be imported, often too much is imported leaving to much food waste.
• Lack of space to conserve the waste.
• Very dense population produces huge quantities of waste.

Impacts:

• Lack of space —> waste needs to be incinerated —> huge amounts of air pollution.
• resultant waste is put on a landfill site on a small island next to Singapore called Semakau island, destroying the ecosystem of the island. Waste build underground leads to methane pockets being built up by organic matter underground. When released, as it is a greenhouse gas, it contributes to global warming.

Management solutions:

• recycling waste disposal to reduce it. Now, 60% of waste is recycled. Promoted by rewarding people who actively recycle. Recycled waste is processed into various objects such as toys, clothes and even water (see next point).
• Food waste is being processed into grey water. Then separated into non-consumable water (used for cleaning, toilets etc.) and pulp, which can be used as a fertiliser.
• reprocessing the main portion of Singapore’s non-consumable waste (stabilised industrial sludge, used copper slag, residues and ashes).
• turning waste into energy. 4 waste-to-energy refuse incineration plants, which reduce waste volume by 90%. Energy produced is cycled back to power the plants to incinerate more waste. Heat energy from combustion is used to boil water, the steam turning turbines, generating generators to convert the kinetic energy into electricity, most of which is, again, used to power the plants, but the remainder is used to power the city (some houses etc.).
• Semakau receives the remaining 10% of non-combustible waste, however, to make it as sustainable and eco-friendly as possible, it has a lining of an impermeable membrane. Any leaching (draining away from soil) chemicals are treated and there are conservation efforts to help preserve the ecosystem of the island.
• reduce importation rates and quantities in the future. Controlling air pollution and space on landfill sites.

Question 29

What are the water issues that Singapore is facing?

Answer 29

Causes:
Dense population- high demand for water.
Lack of space to store and treat (purify) water.

Impacts:
Water has become very expensive and not every resident can afford it.

Management solutions:
- Food waste is being processed into grey water. Then separated into non-consumable water (used for cleaning, toilets etc.) and pulp, which can be used as a fertiliser.
- diversifying water sources instead of just importing from neighbouring countries (especially Malaysia):
- local catchments to collect rainwater.
- NEWater (advanced technology used to treat high-grade used water to be drinkable)
- desalinated water.
Together (four above points), these form the Singapore ‘Four National Taps’ water policy.
- need to become even less reliant on importation, which, in itself causes air pollution. This would also increase sustainability.

Question 30

What are the food issues that Singapore is facing?

Answer 30

Causes:

• Reliant on other countries for food
• Very dense population, low supply
• Lack of space and rural areas for agriculture
• Food has to be imported

Impacts:
- Starvation or poor diet

Management solutions:

• encouraging urban farming (if there is not enough space, on roofs, walls ‘green walls’ etc).
• they need to find more sustainable and effective ways of producing their own food, such as forming a liaison with another nearby country to be able to grow crops on their land or having more fish farms and clearing land for allotments.

Question 31

What are the housing issues that Singapore is facing?

Answer 31

Causes:

• not enough housing and accommodation to support very dense population.
• not enough space to build more housing.
• housing is therefore very expensive.

Impacts:

• More prejudice and wealth gap between rich and poor: not enough interaction between them.
• People can’t afford good, safe housing.
• some people are left homeless.

Management solutions:

• Creation of Housing and Development Board (HDB) in 1960s and project to build 51,031 new housing units within the first five years of establishing the project.
• building buildings much higher to accommodate many more facilities and housing units per building (multi-storey blocks of apartment houses, restaurants, leisure centres etc). Saves space and money.
• Allowing those who lived in public housing and squatter settlements to tap into their government funds to buy their own residences. This was allowed by the HBD.
• Enforcing an ethnic quota in public housing estates to abolish prejudice and xenophobia within them.
• need to Continue mass-building projects and increasing building height while still protecting the buildings against natural hazards.

Question 32

What are the energy issues that Singapore is facing?

Answer 32

Causes:

• few fossil fuels available, and fossil fuels are expensive to import.
• dense population needs much energy to power the whole city.

Impacts:

• not enough energy to power the whole city.
• energy is very expensive, so isn’t available to everyone.
• much pollution, as most energy is generated from fossil fuels( especially natural gas).
• Singapore is reliant on other countries to import crude oil and natural gas. This means that they can’t control any disruptions in the flow of supply.
• much money and energy is spent on importation of fossil fuels. This could be spent on something else.

Management solutions:

• much research is being put into finding more sustainable and renewable energy sources and finding efficient, eco-friendly ways of turning them into energy.
• turning waste into energy. 4 waste-to-energy refuse incineration plants, which reduce waste volume by 90%. Energy produced is cycled back to power the plants to incinerate more waste. Heat energy from combustion is used to boil water, the steam turning turbines, generating generators to convert the kinetic energy into electricity, most of which is, again, used to power the plants, but the remainder is used to power the city (some houses etc.). Ensures no energy is ‘wasted’.
• energy efficiency programmes being put in action by the Energy Efficiency Programme Office and National Environment agency. The programmes include:
  - Singapore’s 2013 conservation act.
  - Energy efficiency national partnership.

Question 33

What is Singapore’s ecological footprint?

Answer 33

It is very deep (the 8th deepest globally), as it’s carbon emissions are colossal. This has a huge negative impact on the global environment, however, thanks to all that Singapore is doing to become a more sustainable country and conserve the environment, the country is becoming increasingly ecologically aware and friendly, reducing their carbon emissions (and other greenhouse gases) and their carbon footprint on the world greatly.

Question 34

Define the rural-urban fringe (RUF).

Answer 34

The RUF, or ‘urban sprawl’, is the land that forms the boundary between an urban area and a rural area (where the urban, built-up area gives way to rural area). This area of land is being expanded into.

Question 35

What causes increasing demand for land in the RUF?

Answer 35

Counter-urbanisation and urban sprawl.
Little development.
Better perceived standard of living.
Quieter, less congested.
More space.
Commutable and easily accessible.
Access to recreational areas: rural activities and urban activities.
Land is less expensive.

Question 36

What are the activities competing for space in the RUF?

Answer 36

Housing
Transport hubs/airports
Universities
Sports stadiums and playing fields. Golf clubs
Business parks/science parks/industrial zones
Allotments
Out-of-town shopping centres

Question 37

What are the characteristics of brownfield sites?

Answer 37

Define:
Land that has been previously used, abandoned and now awaits a new use.

What and where is it?
Disused, derelict land in existing urban areas.

What is the prior use?
It has been built on, developed before.

What is the land like?
Unattractive, derelict buildings. Often old industrial sites.

Question 38

What are the characteristics of greenfield sites?

Answer 38

Define:
Land not used for urban development.

Where is it?
Land in the countryside, including places in ‘green belts’ within cities.

Prior use:
Virgin land, never been developed before. Few services, less infrastructure.

The land:
Green, flowers, meadows, woods, fields. Few buildings.

Cheaper to build on:

• Low land values.
• Less likely to be in need of clearing-up operations.

Question 39

Pick a RUF case study.

Answer 39

Cambridge, UK (HIC)

Question 40

Out of town shopping centres case study

Answer 40

OTSCs are relatively new features of the RUF, however, Cambridge has a distinct lack of these ‘malls’.

Why?
Cambridge is actively trying to contain it’s shopping centres to their traditional location in the CBD. There is some evidence that the opening of an OTSC can lead to the closure of shopping units in the CBD. The ‘negative multiplier effect’ (once one shop closes/leaves, the other shops may also do so, following suit) could leave an empty high street. This is known as the ‘Doughnut Effect’.
Planners in Cambridge are keen to preserve the vitality of the city centre. To encourage this, park and ride services are available, pedestrianisation is being put into action, there is an increase in public transport to reduce congestion. So far, they have only allowed large supermarket superstores to be built in the RUF usually close to new housing.

Question 41

The effects and solutions of rapid urban growth in Rio de Janeiro case study

Answer 41

Housing: 
Attempts to clear favelas and build new, better homes (authorities), however these were not much better than the favelas, and the evicted residents, with nowhere else to go, soon returned. The authorities, now accepting the favelas’ existence, are working with the residents’ associations to improve living conditions. 
Self-help schemes.
Prefabricated housing.
Legal rights being enforced more.
Services provided (including electricity and entertainment).
Rubbish collection.
Water supplies organised.
Improved sanitation.
New towns.

Crime:
High-security apartments.
Movement of well-off residents to safer and cleaner environments such as Barra da Tijuca.
Tourists advised not to wear jewellery or take around valuables.

Traffic:
Eviction and building new towns to relocate people out of the area.
Bus and subway systems introduced.

Pollution:
Rubbish collection.
Better, more enforced laws to control dumping of waste.

Question 42

Barra de Tijuca case study, and how it has helped improve life in Rio de Janeiro

Answer 42

• Solves housing, crime and traffic problems, as well as pollution.
• Allows the richer community to relocate to a safer, more spacious living area, and out of the city, reducing crime and congestion in the city. Also, the money that the buyers spend is, through tax, brought back to increasing the standard of living of the poorer community members.
• Better and more services: shops, schools, hospitals, offices, entertainment etc.
• Better and safer accommodations reduces crime rates.
• Efficient local bus service for commuters and and people travelling from place to place (linking shops, apartments, leisure amenities), decreasing congestion.
• Wider roads lead to better access for emergency services and waste collection.

Question 43

What is Curitiba?

Answer 43

Curitiba is an eco-city in Brazil. Changed greatly to become eco-city due to Curitiba Master Plan (CMP), devised in 1960s by Jaime Lerner, once mayor, now governor +principal architect of Curitiba. Originally aimed at improving transport system but now branched out to target other features of the city.

Question 44

What is an eco-city?

Answer 44

The term used to define a settlement which provides all the necessities to it’s inhabitants without consuming more resources than it replaces, or producing more waste than it recycles and reuses. These eco-cities, such as Curitiba, help support the planet’s environment and ecosystems.

Question 45

Name four eco-strategies which have made Curitiba more sustainable.

Answer 45

• The transport system. Buses: cheap and quick. Much cheaper yet equally efficient to subway system
  A bus rapid transit system operates. This is cheaper to run than a tube system. Some employers subsidise their employees who use it. 80% of travellers use it.
  Five main arterial road axes which link, making it easy to commute and travel around: some for exclusively buses, express buses etc (watch video for more) linking centre of city to suburbs and other parts of the city, reducing traffic congestion greatly, and noise, air pollution.
  No subway built: too expensive. Therefore, built overground system (bus), which is much cheaper, carries same number of people and is as fast and efficient as subway systems.
  Volvo partnered with the city to create ‘super bus’. Less people use their cars: less noise and air pollution.
• The ‘Solution of the parks’. Many trees planted
  Disused factories made into sports areas and other buildings.
  Developers of skyscrapers allowed more layers to prevent growing outwards and into the green area, or they have to pay a fee. Money used to build schools and plant more trees at the bottom of the skyscraper.
  Creating and retaining parks and green space beside rivers, acting as a floodplain. When the river floods, some areas can be used for entertainment such as boating lakes.
• Housing. Very tall buildings
  COHAB, the public housing programme, is providing 50,000 homes for the urban poor.
• The ‘Green Exchange’. Stimulate people living in low income areas to separate recyclables and exchange them for green belt products (food and bus tickets, for example) which are in excess- food is therefore not wasted, and garbage is recycled.
  ‘The urban poor bring their waste to neighbourhood centres. They can exchange their waste for bus tickets and food. This has many advantages, for example the urban poor areas are kept clean, despite waste trucks not being able to reach them easily’.
• Education. Very old university
  ‘Lighthouse of Learners’- free educational and internet centres.
• Creating space (tall buildings around bus routes only. Urban growth restricted to corridors of growth- along key transport routes).
• Recycling schemes. Garbage divided into organic and inorganic
  Recycles nearly 2/3 of garbage.
  Very cheap, cleaner city, many jobs made

Question 46

What are the three pillars of sustainability?

Answer 46

Social:

• access to clean water
• access to healthcare
• access to housing
• justice system
• right to vote
• (gender) equality and respect for cultures
• freedom of speech
• sanitation
• safety
• health and safety
• access to education and jobs
• low crime rates

Economic:

• health and safety
• access to education and jobs
• low crime rates
• no corruption
• access to finance
• stable government
• reduced unemployment
• job opportunities
• eradication of poverty and debt

Environmental:

• no to little pollution
• no acid rain
• conservation schemes and protection of biodiversity
• efficient waste disposal and recycling
• renewable energy sources used
• preservation of green spaces
• responsible use of natural resources
• reduce CO2 emissions and the carbon footprint’s depth, decreasing the area’s contribution to climate change
• low-emission transport

Question 47

Define stakeholder

Answer 47

A stakeholder, or ‘player’, is a person or group who have a vested interest in the development of an area.

Question 48

Who are some of the key players in the development of urban areas?

Answer 48

Local:
Slum residents
Residents living nearby
Utility suppliers
Representatives in parliament or on city councils
City councils
Landowners and property developers
Employers
Planners

National:
Government
National charities

International:
International charities
Inter-governmental organisations