Urban
Urban Sustainability:
Meeting needs of present without risking ability of future generations to meet their own
needs
A sustainable city is a city organised so local people are able to create minimal damage,
stability of jobs and economy and strong sense of community
Huge populations that live close together = Efficiencies = potentially sustainable
But this requires careful managements of inputs and outputs of city living
Inputs Outputs
Food = huge demand and Waste = landfill sites or
grown far away incinerated
People = migration Sewage = treated then
Investment returned to river
Building Materials e.g. Air pollution = spreads
timber and concrete beyond city and harms
Energy = burning fossil health – large ecological
fuels footprint
Water = taken from below People = migration
ground
Urbanisation:
Urbanisation - Increase in percentage of people living in urban areas
Urban Growth – absolute increase in physical size and total population of urban areas
Megacities:
Megacity = city with population > 10 million people
Situated near large bodies of water for easy trade and transport
Three types of megacities:
o Slow-growing:
SE Asia, Europe, America
Population at 70% urban (heavy density)
No squatter settlements
e.g. Tokyo, Moscow, LA
o Growing
S/SE Asia and Africa
Population at 40-50% urban
Under 20% in squatter settlements
, e.g. Shanghai, Mexico City
o Rapid-growing:
S/SE Asia and Africa
Population under 50% urban
Over 20% in squatter settlements
e.g. Mumbai, Lagos
Causes of urbanisation:
Push factors:
o Lack of jobs
o Low quality housing
o Lack of housing
Pull factors:
o Job opportunities
o High quality housing
o Abundance of housing
Natural increase – population increasing not from migrants
o Birth Rate – num. Babies born per 1000 people
o Death Rate – num. People that die per 1000 years
o High BR:
No access of birth control
Religious expectations
o Low DR:
Improved access to healthcare
Better lifestyle choices
o Low BR:
Women working
Contraception available
o High DR:
Diseases
Poor diet
Rural-urban migration – process in which people move from countryside to towns
Barriers of Migration:
Lack of capital
Illiteracy
Religion
Language
Factors making a successful city:
Culture:
o Both generator and product of success
o Provides exchange of ideas
o Attracts travelers, creating tourism benefits
Innovation:
o Creates specialists including economic specialisms
o Enables cross-fertilisation of ideas
Governance:
, o Boundary disputes and differing objectives becoming difficult to govern as pop.
grows
o Decisions must be made over how to allocate resources to parts of city
o Has necessary power to make, coordinate and fund decisions regarding issues
Most/least successful cities:
Innovation dominates:
o Cities where there is an innovation-oriented economy through tech e.g. London, San
Francisco
o Attracting talent and nurturing diverse workforce
Growing pop. need new infrastructure:
o Cities need to commit bold moves
o Most of 500 significant urban projects are in CMI top 20 cities
Dhaka:
Poor
High pop.
Suffers many environmental issues
Features of sustainable urban living:
Renewable energy
Public transport
Green spaces
Clean water supply
Efficient waste disposal
Impacts of urban change:
Change Area impacted and how
Rapid natural increase Industry
and rural-urban o (+ve)
migration (increased Larger workforce
pop.) Benefits companies, government (tax)
Investment in infrastructure
More jobs
o (-ve)
Maternity leave lowers workforces short term
Increased congestion
Late to work
Housing
o (+ve)
Jobs created in construction
Improved public transport links
o (-ve)
Increased house prices
Developed rural-urban fringe
, Congestion à late to work à
commuting
Damage to wild life (building on
greenfield)
City begins to Job opportunities
deindustrialise, a cycle o (+ve)
of deprivation begins Larger companies leaving brown field sites
and inequality allows for more companies to take their place
increases More job opportunities
o (-ve)
Large companies leaving means there are less
job vacancies
Poverty and homelessness
Pollution
o (+ve)
Company leaving = less congestion
Less standstill traffic = less pollution
o (-ve)
Less money for government to invest due to
cycle of deprivation
Lower quality infrastructure
Increased low level crime = litter
Getting jobs
o (+ve)
Richer people have less competition for work
as less people have skills for job due to cycle of
deprivation
o (-ve)
Cycle of deprivation causes greater inequality
due to less people able to get jobs as they
weren’t educated
Development of Tourism
squatter settlements o (+ve)
(homelessness/forced Creates historical culture
evictions/gentrification) Encourages tourists to go
More money to pay for essentials
o (-ve)
Not very clean
Crime rate increase
Discourages tourism as people may feel
unsafe
Case Studies:
Rio (Newly Emerging Economy [NEE]):
On Brazil’s SE Atlantic coast
Brazil is surrounded by 10 countries in continent
2nd largest city in Brazil
Popular tourist sites are: Sugarloaf Mountain, Copacabana Beach (where Olympic games had
water related sports), Christ the Redeemer statue etc
Urban Sustainability:
Meeting needs of present without risking ability of future generations to meet their own
needs
A sustainable city is a city organised so local people are able to create minimal damage,
stability of jobs and economy and strong sense of community
Huge populations that live close together = Efficiencies = potentially sustainable
But this requires careful managements of inputs and outputs of city living
Inputs Outputs
Food = huge demand and Waste = landfill sites or
grown far away incinerated
People = migration Sewage = treated then
Investment returned to river
Building Materials e.g. Air pollution = spreads
timber and concrete beyond city and harms
Energy = burning fossil health – large ecological
fuels footprint
Water = taken from below People = migration
ground
Urbanisation:
Urbanisation - Increase in percentage of people living in urban areas
Urban Growth – absolute increase in physical size and total population of urban areas
Megacities:
Megacity = city with population > 10 million people
Situated near large bodies of water for easy trade and transport
Three types of megacities:
o Slow-growing:
SE Asia, Europe, America
Population at 70% urban (heavy density)
No squatter settlements
e.g. Tokyo, Moscow, LA
o Growing
S/SE Asia and Africa
Population at 40-50% urban
Under 20% in squatter settlements
, e.g. Shanghai, Mexico City
o Rapid-growing:
S/SE Asia and Africa
Population under 50% urban
Over 20% in squatter settlements
e.g. Mumbai, Lagos
Causes of urbanisation:
Push factors:
o Lack of jobs
o Low quality housing
o Lack of housing
Pull factors:
o Job opportunities
o High quality housing
o Abundance of housing
Natural increase – population increasing not from migrants
o Birth Rate – num. Babies born per 1000 people
o Death Rate – num. People that die per 1000 years
o High BR:
No access of birth control
Religious expectations
o Low DR:
Improved access to healthcare
Better lifestyle choices
o Low BR:
Women working
Contraception available
o High DR:
Diseases
Poor diet
Rural-urban migration – process in which people move from countryside to towns
Barriers of Migration:
Lack of capital
Illiteracy
Religion
Language
Factors making a successful city:
Culture:
o Both generator and product of success
o Provides exchange of ideas
o Attracts travelers, creating tourism benefits
Innovation:
o Creates specialists including economic specialisms
o Enables cross-fertilisation of ideas
Governance:
, o Boundary disputes and differing objectives becoming difficult to govern as pop.
grows
o Decisions must be made over how to allocate resources to parts of city
o Has necessary power to make, coordinate and fund decisions regarding issues
Most/least successful cities:
Innovation dominates:
o Cities where there is an innovation-oriented economy through tech e.g. London, San
Francisco
o Attracting talent and nurturing diverse workforce
Growing pop. need new infrastructure:
o Cities need to commit bold moves
o Most of 500 significant urban projects are in CMI top 20 cities
Dhaka:
Poor
High pop.
Suffers many environmental issues
Features of sustainable urban living:
Renewable energy
Public transport
Green spaces
Clean water supply
Efficient waste disposal
Impacts of urban change:
Change Area impacted and how
Rapid natural increase Industry
and rural-urban o (+ve)
migration (increased Larger workforce
pop.) Benefits companies, government (tax)
Investment in infrastructure
More jobs
o (-ve)
Maternity leave lowers workforces short term
Increased congestion
Late to work
Housing
o (+ve)
Jobs created in construction
Improved public transport links
o (-ve)
Increased house prices
Developed rural-urban fringe
, Congestion à late to work à
commuting
Damage to wild life (building on
greenfield)
City begins to Job opportunities
deindustrialise, a cycle o (+ve)
of deprivation begins Larger companies leaving brown field sites
and inequality allows for more companies to take their place
increases More job opportunities
o (-ve)
Large companies leaving means there are less
job vacancies
Poverty and homelessness
Pollution
o (+ve)
Company leaving = less congestion
Less standstill traffic = less pollution
o (-ve)
Less money for government to invest due to
cycle of deprivation
Lower quality infrastructure
Increased low level crime = litter
Getting jobs
o (+ve)
Richer people have less competition for work
as less people have skills for job due to cycle of
deprivation
o (-ve)
Cycle of deprivation causes greater inequality
due to less people able to get jobs as they
weren’t educated
Development of Tourism
squatter settlements o (+ve)
(homelessness/forced Creates historical culture
evictions/gentrification) Encourages tourists to go
More money to pay for essentials
o (-ve)
Not very clean
Crime rate increase
Discourages tourism as people may feel
unsafe
Case Studies:
Rio (Newly Emerging Economy [NEE]):
On Brazil’s SE Atlantic coast
Brazil is surrounded by 10 countries in continent
2nd largest city in Brazil
Popular tourist sites are: Sugarloaf Mountain, Copacabana Beach (where Olympic games had
water related sports), Christ the Redeemer statue etc
