Urban Settlements and Urbanisation
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Urban land use zones
Cities can be divided into zones based on how the land is used.
The Burgess model shows these zones as concentric rings, though real cities are more complex.
Urban land use zones — Key Knowledge
- CBD Central Business District — city centre
- Inner city older residential and industrial area surrounding CBD
- Suburbs newer residential areas further out
- Rural-urban fringe transition zone at city edge — mix of urban and rural land uses
CBD characteristics
The Central Business District is the commercial heart of a city.
The CBD is the most accessible part of the city — where most transport routes meet.
CBD characteristics — Key Knowledge
- Highest land values most accessible location
- Shops and offices retail, financial services
- Tall buildings high land cost means building upwards
- Good transport links roads and public transport converge
- Few permanent residents too expensive
- Busy during the day quieter at night
Inner city
The zone surrounding the CBD, often with older housing and former industrial sites.
Inner cities in many developed countries have undergone significant change through regeneration.
Inner city — Key Knowledge
- Older terraced housing high density, small plots
- Former factories and warehouses some now converted or derelict
- Often areas of deprivation lower incomes, poorer services
- Regeneration projects redevelopment of run-down areas
Suburbs and rural-urban fringe
The outer zones of a city with newer housing and a transition to countryside.
Urban sprawl pushes development further into the rural-urban fringe.
Suburbs and rural-urban fringe — Key Knowledge
- Suburbs lower-density housing, semi-detached/detached, gardens, newer estates
- Rural-urban fringe edge of the city — mix of housing, farmland, retail parks, motorway junctions, green belt land
Urban sprawl
The uncontrolled outward spread of a city into surrounding countryside.
Urban sprawl creates conflict between developers who want to build and those who want to protect the countryside.
Urban sprawl — Key Knowledge
- Causes population growth, demand for larger houses with gardens, car ownership enabling commuting
- Effects loss of farmland, increased commuting and traffic, habitat destruction
- Green belts areas of protected land around cities to prevent sprawl
Urban problems
Large cities face a range of environmental and social problems.
These problems affect both developed and developing cities, though the specific challenges differ.
Urban problems — Key Knowledge
- Air pollution vehicle emissions, industry
- Noise pollution traffic, construction
- Water pollution sewage, industrial waste
- Visual pollution litter, derelict buildings, advertising
- Traffic congestion too many vehicles, inadequate roads
- Housing shortages demand exceeds supply, homelessness
- Inequality wealth gap between rich and poor areas
Urbanisation
The increasing proportion of a country's population living in urban areas.
Not the same as urban growth — urbanisation is about the proportion, not just the total number.
Urbanisation — Key Knowledge
- Urbanisation growth in the percentage of people living in towns and cities
- Fastest in LEDCs rural-urban migration plus natural increase
- Slower in MEDCs already highly urbanised — some experiencing counter-urbanisation
Causes of rapid urbanisation
Cities in developing countries are growing rapidly due to push and pull factors plus natural increase.
Rural-urban migration and natural increase together drive rapid urbanisation in LEDCs.
Causes of rapid urbanisation — Key Knowledge
- Rural push factors lack of jobs, poor services, natural disasters, mechanisation of farming
- Urban pull factors jobs, education, healthcare, entertainment, higher wages
- Natural increase young migrants have children, increasing city population further
Squatter settlements
Informal, unplanned housing areas that develop in and around rapidly growing cities in LEDCs.
Squatter settlements house millions of people — they are a response to rapid urbanisation and poverty, not laziness.
Squatter settlements — Key Knowledge
- Also called shanty towns, favelas, slums — names vary by country
- Characteristics built on land not owned by residents, makeshift building materials, overcrowded, lack clean water and sanitation, no electricity, poor access roads, risk of fire and disease
- Why they develop city grows faster than formal housing; people can't afford legal housing
Improving squatter settlements
Strategies to improve living conditions without simply demolishing homes.
Demolition and relocation displaces communities and rarely solves the underlying problem.
Improving squatter settlements — Key Knowledge
- Self-help schemes government provides materials, residents build/improve their own homes
- Site-and-service schemes government provides a plot with basic services — water, electricity, sewage — residents build the house
- Upgrading adding clean water, sanitation, electricity, paved roads to existing settlements
- Legal land ownership giving residents title to their land — encourages investment in improvements
Case studies required (1.6–1.7)
The spec requires named examples for urban settlements and urbanisation.
Case studies should cover specific causes, effects and management strategies with named places.
Case studies required (1.6–1.7) — Key Knowledge
- An urban area or urban areas for land use and urban problems
- A rapidly growing urban area in a developing country and migration to it
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Urban Settlements and Urbanisation
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