Summary AQA Human Geography Revision Notes

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