URBAN GEOGRAPHY

LEARNING OUTCOME

Understanding of why people live in cities and where cities originated.

REMEMBER…AGRICULTURE?

Agricultural Surplus: Producing more. Growing more than a single person can consume. Resulted from technology, like irrigation.

Social Stratification: Leadership class who controlled the surplus and the technology.

-Leadership class did not work in fields & were able to do other things like write, be religious, and philosophy.

-Created laws, which are a basis for cities. -Group of decision makers and organizers who controlled

the resources, and often the lives, of others.Hinterland: the area surrounding a city from which it obtains food

-Range and fertility of the hinterland determines the size of the city

URBAN HEARTHS

SITE

Site:  Absolute location. The physical elements; defensibility, fertility of soil.

Things you have to take into consideration:-Mountains? -Water? -Plains? -Plateau's? 

SITUATION

Situation:  "The relative location, it's place in its region and the world around it.“This is going to influence the cities Timbuktu was a trade route location, large city, now relatively deserted

Takes into consideration the world around the city and how it interacts.

URBAN GEOGRAPHY

Urban Geography: Focuses on how cities function, their internal systems and structures, and the external influences on them.

Study of Systems of Cities: focuses on where and why a city is located. Looks externally at a city and how they are connected.

Study of Internal Cities: focuses on internal working and structures of cities. Includes patterns of land use, racial and ethnic segregation, transportation and cycles of construction.

SITUATION CAN CHANGE

DEFINING URBANISM:

Urban: (Foulberg 277): the buildup of the central city and the suburban realm-the city and the surrounding envision connected to the city . Non-rural and non-agricultural.

Urbanization: refers to the increase in the percentage of people who live within the cities (Malinowski, p. 284)

City & Town: (Getis, p. 385) “denote nucleated settlements, multifunctional in character, including an established central business district and both residential and nonresidential land uses.”

EXTERNAL SITUATION INFLUENCE CITY: BORCHERT’S EPOCHS OF URBAN TRANSPORTATION Sail-Wagon Period: 1790-1830. Ships were transportation, once goods on land, they were hauled by wagon to destination.

Iron-Horse Period: 1830-1870 the railroad transported goods and people in this period.

The steel-rail period: 1870-1920 steel primary building material, mining and transport provided many jobs

The auto-air-amendity period 1920-1960 automobile angine. Farther commute and live outside central urban area

URBAN HIERARCHY

Hamlet: few dozen people and offer limited services. (Gas station and general store)

URBAN HIERARCHY

Villages: larger than hamlets and offer more services. There maybe stores specializing in the sale of food, clothing, furniture, and so on.

URBAN HIERARCHY CONT.

Towns: 50 to a few thousand people. Considered urban area with a defined boundary, but are smaller than a city in terms of population and area. Surrounding farms are “hinterland”

URBAN HIERARCHY CONT.

Cities: tens of thousands of people.

10,000+

URBAN HIERARCHY CONT.Metropolises: incorporate large areas and are focused around one large city.

50,000+

POPULATIONS CIRCA. 1700 AND TODAYMETRO AREAS: FUNCTION AS AN ECONOMIC UNIT

London 1700: 500,000 2013: 7,800,000

New York 1700: 4,937 2013: 8,336,000Paris 1700: 515,000 2013: 2,200,000Mexico City 1900: 500,000 2013: 8,000,000Tokyo 1700: 1,200,000 2013: 13,000,000

CITY (SMALLER UNITS OF URBAN AREAS)

URBANIZED AREA: CONTINUOUSLY BUILT-UP LANDSCAPE SO CLOSE TOGETHER. (THIS IS HOUSTON)

URBANIZED AREA: CONTINUOUSLY BUILT-UP LANDSCAPE SO CLOSE TOGETHER. (THIS IS HOUSTON)