The variety of urban environments
● Characteristics of urban places, including site, function, land use, hierarchy of settlement
(including megacities) and growth process (planned or spontaneous)
○ Urban settlement: area of habitation that provides services for payment to the surrounding
countryside
○ Settlement refers to all human habitation
○ Function;
■ Provide accommodation
■ Mining natural resources
■ Transportation
■ Towns and cities with several functions are known as multi-function centres
○ Hierarchy of settlements,
■ The larger the settlement, the greater the distance between them - villages are
found close to each other, but not megacities
■ As the settlement increases in size, the range and functions, number of high order
services, specialisation increases
○ Primate cities - political, economic, cultural, social focus
○ Megacities - world’s largest cities, population of over 10 million
■ Mostly in developing countries - rural to urban migration (spontaneous)
■ Migrants often face harsh reality of not being able to get desired jobs - informal
sectors increase in urban areas
■ Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, são paulo, mexico, cairo, mumbai, beijing
, ● Factors affecting the pattern of urban economic activities (retail, commercial, industrial),
including physical factors, land values, proximity to a central business district (CBD) and
planning
○ Land use: ways that land is used (e.g. economic activities - manufacturing,
non-commercial zones - residential areas)
○ Urban land use in LIC
■ Develop without planning, grows outwards by adding shanty settlements
■ Manufacturing industries are situated along major lines of transportation
■ Often huge gaps in wealth
■ Segregation by ethnic groups
■ Changes rapidly due to the policies encouraging growth in urban areas
● Make the cities popular for foreign investment funds by setting special
tax regulations, labour laws which will be beneficial for foreign
investments
○ Urban land use in HIC
■ Highest land value - location with best accessibility
■ Large retail shops stay in the CBD
■ Commercial enterprises at the edge of the CBD
■ Bid-rent theory: retail establishments wish to maximise their profitability, so they
are much more willing to pay more for land close to the CBD and less for land
further away from this area, inverse rs of rent and distance from CBD
■ Hoyt and Burgess’ concentric model
● Characteristics of urban places, including site, function, land use, hierarchy of settlement
(including megacities) and growth process (planned or spontaneous)
○ Urban settlement: area of habitation that provides services for payment to the surrounding
countryside
○ Settlement refers to all human habitation
○ Function;
■ Provide accommodation
■ Mining natural resources
■ Transportation
■ Towns and cities with several functions are known as multi-function centres
○ Hierarchy of settlements,
■ The larger the settlement, the greater the distance between them - villages are
found close to each other, but not megacities
■ As the settlement increases in size, the range and functions, number of high order
services, specialisation increases
○ Primate cities - political, economic, cultural, social focus
○ Megacities - world’s largest cities, population of over 10 million
■ Mostly in developing countries - rural to urban migration (spontaneous)
■ Migrants often face harsh reality of not being able to get desired jobs - informal
sectors increase in urban areas
■ Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, são paulo, mexico, cairo, mumbai, beijing
, ● Factors affecting the pattern of urban economic activities (retail, commercial, industrial),
including physical factors, land values, proximity to a central business district (CBD) and
planning
○ Land use: ways that land is used (e.g. economic activities - manufacturing,
non-commercial zones - residential areas)
○ Urban land use in LIC
■ Develop without planning, grows outwards by adding shanty settlements
■ Manufacturing industries are situated along major lines of transportation
■ Often huge gaps in wealth
■ Segregation by ethnic groups
■ Changes rapidly due to the policies encouraging growth in urban areas
● Make the cities popular for foreign investment funds by setting special
tax regulations, labour laws which will be beneficial for foreign
investments
○ Urban land use in HIC
■ Highest land value - location with best accessibility
■ Large retail shops stay in the CBD
■ Commercial enterprises at the edge of the CBD
■ Bid-rent theory: retail establishments wish to maximise their profitability, so they
are much more willing to pay more for land close to the CBD and less for land
further away from this area, inverse rs of rent and distance from CBD
■ Hoyt and Burgess’ concentric model
