URBAN GEOGRAPHY. Migration to the Cities Occurs VERY quickly Already predominant urban atmosphere Uneven distribution “City” is a recent phenomena.

URBAN GEOGRAPHY

Migration to the Cities

• Occurs VERY quickly

• Already predominant urban atmosphere

• Uneven distribution

• “City” is a recent phenomena

Ancient Cities and Early Civilizations

• Egalitarian societies

• In Southwest Asia things began to change about 6000 BCE

• Cities and states– Growing villages political systems state– Anthropologists Wright & Johnson– Formative era

Function and Location of Ancient Cities and Early Civilizations

• Importance of geographic location

• Urban elite: group of decision makers and organizers

• Mesopotamian cities

• Theocratic centers

• Urbanization not simultaneous

• By modern standards early cities were not large

Theocratic Centers of Mesoamerica

Establishment of Cultural Hearths

Diffusion to Greece

• Urbanization spread from Mesopotamia in several directions– During the third millennium BCE Greece

became one of the most highly urbanized areas on Earth

– Development in Greece had a global impact• Urban traditions passed on to the Roman Empire

The Roman Urban System

• The largest developed on Earth at that time– A transport network– Greek city grid pattern

• Post-Roman decline– Many causes of empire's failure

• Urban growth elsewhere– Xian, China = “Rome of East Asia”– Southern margin of the Sahara– Mayan urbanization– City of Teotihuacán may have had more than 100,000

people

Post-Roman, Pre-industrial Europe

• Medieval Europe– Muslim invasion & Crusades

• Urban environments– Better weapons = easier invasions– Need STRONG cities– ~17th century, mostly icky– Left for “New World” ASAP

Post-Roman, Pre-industrial Europe

• Sjoberg Model of urban places– Cities are products of their societies– Divided into four categories:

• Folk-preliterate• Feudal• Preindustrial• Urban-industrial

– Recognized primate cities– Generalizations; not all cities behave the

same

• The global spread of urbanization– Silk route; Chinese architecture; “urban

banana”– European maritime exploration– The mercantile city– Emergence of the manufacturing city– City planning improvements– Today’s transition:

• Transportation innovations modernization of the American manufacturing city

– Modern city NOT stabilized

Post-Roman, Pre-industrial Europe

Urban Geography: Location, Pattern, and Structures of Cities

• Relationships can be measured and mapped– Every city and town has an adjacent region

within which its influence in dominant– Hinterland—German word meaning the land

“behind” the city– Large cities tend to lie farther apart than

smaller ones– Evolution of cities

Ranking Urban Centers

• Urban hierarchy and functions of clustered settlements– A hamlet < than 100 people; may or may not

have an urban function– A village offers many services– A town = higher level of specialization and

hinterland– The city– Megalopolises (megalopoli?)

• Bosnywash

Place&

Location

• Growth of Shenzhen, China

Place & Location

• Urban site– The actual

physical qualities of the place a city occupies

• Paris, France– The original site

of Paris was an island

Paris today

Place/Location

• Urban site– Site problems of Mexico City & Bangkok

*The role of a city's site can change over time

The Changing City

• Different atmospheres– John Borchert’s four-stages of the American

metropolis• Sail-wagon epoch (1790-1830)• Iron-horse epoch (1830-1870)• Steel-rail epoch (1870-1920)• Auto-air-amenity epoch (1920-1970)

• Today Borchert would add a fifth:– High-Technology Epoch (1970 to present)

Models of Urban Structure

• Cities exhibit functional structure– Central business district (CBD)– Central city– Suburb

• North American cities?– 3 models

Modeling the North American City

Modeling the North American City

Modeling the North American City

Modeling the North American City

• Urban realms

• Early post-war period, reduced interaction between the central city and suburban cities

• Outer cities became more self-sufficient

Models of Urban Structure

• Modeling the North American city– “Urban

realm”– Los Angeles

Models of Urban Structure

• Outer city growth since 1960s

• By 1973, American suburbs surpassed central cities in total employment

• Outer cities = “edge cities”– Equal partners in city shaping processes

Socio-cultural Influences on Cities

• Neighborhood spatial differences

• Help explain the internal ethnic geography

• Ethnic neighborhoods– Redlining– Blockbusting– Racial steering

• Perceived dangers of urban life led to gated communities

Patterns of Cities

• Rank size rule– The population of a city or town will be inversely

proportional to its rank in the hierarchy

• Urban functions– Every city and town has an economic base

• Basic sector• Non-basic sector

• Functional specialization– Employment structure– All cities have multiple functions

Patterns of Cities

Chauncy Harris maps, 1943

Central Place Theory

• Central places

• CPT developed by Walter Christaller– Began with a simple set of assumptions

• Surface of ideal region would be flat and have no physical barriers

• Soil fertility would be the same everywhere• Also assumed an even distribution of population

and purchasing power, and uniform transportation network

• Assumed a constant maximum distance for sale of any good or service produced in a town would prevail in all directions from urban center

An example of CPTA logical extension of CPT

Central Place Theory

• The real world– Physical barriers, resource distributions, etc.

create modification of the spatial pattern– Christaller stimulated urban and economic

geography in general and location theory in particular

GLOBAL URBANIZATION

Europe in the Vanguard

• Western Europe– Population around

1800 was very rural– Two-hundred years

later it was about 80 percent urban

– Rapid urbanization was the beginning of a worldwide process

– Cities founded as colonial headquarters in Asia and Africa

Europe in the Vanguard

• Western Europe– Define an “urban resident”…– Role of a city’s relative location during the

Industrial Revolution• Cities grew by agglomeration: the spatial process

of clustering by commercial enterprises for mutual advantage and benefit

• Industrial cities went through a phase of specialization

– Changes in where the world’s largest cities are located

World Urbanization

Cities > 1 Million People

North America Urbanization

Modeling the ModernLatin American City

Modeling the ModernSoutheast Asian City

Modeling the ModernSubsaharan African City

Reading & Resource

• Reading: Walter Christaller & CPT– A quick look at Christaller’s contribution

• Resource:– Video: Nuewirth, Shadow&SquatterCities

• A .zip file from the http://www.ted.org site