Urban Unit

Question 1

State the names of each ring of the Concentric Ring Model. ( Burgess Model)

Answer 1

1 - CBD or Central Business District
2 & 3 - Inner City - (Factories and Workers Housing)
4 & 5 - Suburbs
6 - Rural/Urban Fringe

Question 2

What is the CBD?

Answer 2

The Central Business District is found in the centre of town. This is where shops, offices,banks,public buildings and entertainment may be found. The CBD is the route centre meaning major roads meet there. It is very crowded and busy. There is very little spare land so this means land here is expensive as it is in demand.

Question 3

How do you Identify the CBD on an Ordnance Survey Map?

Answer 3

• Bus Station
• Train Station
• Tourist Information/Museums
• Art Galleries
• Many old buildings (i.e Churches,Cathedrals)
• Narrow Unplanned Roads
• Many main roads meet here ( Spider-Web)

Question 4

What is the Inner City?

Answer 4

The Inner City is close to the town centre. It is where most of the Old industrial buildings and factories are found.

Question 5

How do you Identify the Inner City on an Ordnance Survey Map?

Answer 5

• Large, Irregularly Shaped buildings
• Canals with locks
• Railways
• Works,Factories, warehouses,breweries
• Near CBD
• Little open space
• Football Stadiums
• Churches
• Straight streets
• Grid Iron Street patterns
• Main roads

Question 6

What are the Suburbs?

Answer 6

The Suburbs are nearly all housing. There is more open space with many houses having gardens and parks nearby. Land is cheap. New Shopping centres and small industrial estates appear here.

Question 7

How do you Identify the Suburbs on an Ordnance Survey map?

Answer 7

• Cul-De-Sacs and crescents
• Spaced out housing
• Gardens
• Main roads on edge of Area

Question 8

How do you Identify the Suburbs Industrial Area?

Answer 8

• Located beside Main Roads
• Planned Layout
• Plenty of Parking Spaces and wide roads
• It is landscaped with grass and trees
• It is built on cheap land with room to expand

Question 9

How do you Identify the Suburbs Business District?

Answer 9

• High order shops such as Furniture stores
• Restaurants and Entertainments
• It is located beside main roads
• It has plenty of parking spaces and wide roads
• It is landscaped with grass and trees
• It is built on cheap land with room to expand

Question 10

Describe some recent developments in the CBD to stop Urban Decay, (Shopping Changes)?

Answer 10

Undercover Shopping Centres - such as Buchanan Galleries and ST Enoch Centre were built to encourage people into the city centre to increase revenue through ‘all weather retail opportunities’
Pedestrianised Shopping Streets - such as Buchanan Street provide a safer and less polluted shopping
environment. On the other hand, cars are restricted to other areas and congest neighbouring streets
Shop Closures - eg Borders bookshop on Buchanan Street shut down due to increased competition
from internet shopping, out of town shopping centres and 24 hour supermarkets
Discount Stores - eg Poundland are popping up throughout the CBD to cater for the less affluent
shopper.
Large chain stores have opened up - e.g. NEXT, BOOTS. These chain stores locate here as they can
afford the high rents of the city centre
Specialist high order shopping - areas have also been opened such as Princes Square and the Italian
Centre, where expensive designer boutiques including Armani and Versace are found.

Question 11

Describe the recent developments in the CBD. (Transport Changes)?

Answer 11

Pedestrianised Streets - reduce the number of vehicles and so helps reduce congestion and pollution
Multi-storey car parks - reduce the number of cars parked on streets blocking roads
Car parking charges - have increased to discourage people from bringing their cars to the CBD
Bus lanes - allow buses to run more quickly, encouraging more people to travel via bus
One-way streets - like those around George Square allow traffic to flow more easily and cut
congestion
Extensions to roads - like the M74 have been built to take traffic away from CBD
Fast link - Bus Rapid Tranist (BRT) links the CBD to the new Southern General Hospital taking more cars
off the road
Minimising the Impact of Private Cars - 64 electric charging points have been installed in the CBD
allowing free parking and charging for electric cars and City Car Club offers short term vehicle hire.

Question 12

Describe the main improvements to the Gorbals?

Answer 12

Improved Employment- A new industrial estate was built in the site of the old steelworks. A new hotel, college and other services all provide jobs in the area.
Improved Housing - New 2 storey brick tenements have been built. Some new houses for sale (not just renting) attracting a wider social mix to the Gorbals. Some of the high rise flats have been pulled down.
Improved Environment - Houses now have their own private gardens and communal areas have been landscaped
Improved Services - A new library, health centre and leisure have been built
2014 Commonwealth Games - The ‘Athletes Village’ was built to accommodate athletes at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. This has transformed the area close to Celtic Park and provided, among other things, 1000 private houses to buy, 300 council houses and an elderly care home.

River Clyde Old Docks
The dockland area of Glasgow has been regenerated through:
-New industry eg TV Studios and Newspaper Headquarters setting up on the cheaper land
-Expensive housing with waterfront views have been built
-Gentrification has occurred making a poor area of Glasgow into a richer one which attracts a higher social class of people.
-Hotels and restaurants have been built along the waterfront where there is more space
-Cyclepaths and walkways were built along the River Clyde to help with the problems associated with traffic congestion

Question 13

Describe Recent developments in the Rural to Urban Fringe regarding New Housing estates

Answer 13

New Housing Estates

• The suburbs are very attractive to large house builders:
• It offers large amounts of unpolluted land to build on (green field sites)
• As this is further from the CBD, land is cheaper
• It is cost effective for developers to build outwards and there is room to build garages and gardens
• New housing developments continue to add to the problem of urban sprawl as people desire to live in a quiet, out of town location.
• Small villages, eg Clarkston, have been eaten up by the Glasgow City boundary. The result is an ever expanding city boundary, loss of identity for smaller settlements and increasing house prices for local first time buyers

Question 14

Describe changes to Mumbai’s CBD

Answer 14

Transport Facilities
- Building transport facilities has become more and more difficult because of the cities site and situation;
- It was originally on several islands so bridges have had to be built.
- Bombay Island itself is narrow, so there is little space for roads and railways.
- The CBD is at the southern tip of the island so can only be accessed from the North
- As a result, very few roads and railways reach the centre although 8 million commuters manage to head there everyday. This means the roads are congested and buses and trains are over crowded with people hanging to their sides and roofs. This problem is only getting worse.
Transport Solutions in Mumbai
- Mumbai Local Authority got financial support from The World Bank in order to help with transport problems. The local police monitor the traffic situation using CCTV cameras and change the traffic lights from green to red or vice versa in order to increase the traffic flow.
- This has been successful because it reduces traffic congestion however it has not completely solved the problem.

Question 15

Describe Squatter Camps in Mumbai

Answer 15

Squatter areas are places where people settle on land which they do not own or rent. This is the
poorest accommodation in Mumbai. No one owns or rents them. They are makeshift shelter with no
amenities and no services; this means there is a high level of disease. There are lots of immigrants
and it is very unsafe.

Question 16

Describe Shanty Towns in Mumbai

Answer 16

Shanty towns are large squatter camps with slightly better living conditions. The house structure and
material is better (sometimes brick walls and tin roofs), they also have water supplies and sometime
the local authority provides basic community toilets. The houses are still very small and very
overcrowded. There is also no organised rubbish collection so refuse is dumped anywhere.

Question 17

Describe Low Cost Housing in Mumbai

Answer 17

Half the people in Mumbai live in shanty towns and a lot of the others live in low cost housing. These
are single room tenement blacks with electricity but only for a few hours a day. They also have
running water but also for only a few hours a day. The problem with these housing areas is parts
have become ghettoes lived in by single religion groups for security reasons.

Question 18

Describe High Cost Housing in Mumbai

Answer 18

Luxury accommodation is in high rise apartment blocks found in CBD and suburbs. Land is really
expensive and gated to prevent crime. Many of the complexes have there own swimming pools,
tennis courts, gyms, even shopping centres, schools and health centres.

Question 19

Describe the solutions to the Housing problems in Mumbai

Answer 19

• The people have been evicted and houses bulldozed - This failed because the people just build elsewhere in the city
• People have been relocated to safer areas with basic amenities supplied - People often resist this move because they will be too far from their work
• The authorities can improve the housing, by providing toilets, standpipes, schools, reinforcing the walls and giving the people legal rights to the land - Some areas, however, are so overcrowded that it is difficult to improve them.
• The residents form co-operative groups and organise improvements themselves - Locals take ownership therefore they work well

Question 20

Describe the benefits of the Self-Help schemes in Mumbai

Answer 20

• Sustainable – doesn’t rely on continuous outside investment
• Costs less money as residents do much of the work themselves
• Uses basic equipment which is easy to use and maintain
• Provides work for local residents
• Helps bring communities together to discuss and agree on improvements
• Brings improvements that residents want most
• People get to stay in their community and don’t have to move
• Allows local businesses to continue working

Question 21

Describe how Shanty Towns have been Improved in Mumbai

Answer 21

• SPARC - SPARC supports the people from Dharavi to come together and collectively produce solutions to the
  problems they face
• Working together - First, slum dwellers work together to gain ownership of their land. This means the local authority cannot demolish their settlements in the future.
• Once ownership of their land SPARC can then help residents work together to design and carry out
  their own improvements to their settlements
• Building Toilet Blocks - In the past five years, they have renovated or built over 800 community toilets
• Improving housing - Dharavi dwellers have been encouraged to add another floor onto homes to provide families with more space
• Improving water supply - new clean water pipes which make sure that every family has access to clean water for drinking,cooking and washing.
• Widening roads - Roads are widened to allow for rubbish collection to take place

Question 22

Describe the recent developments in the rural to urban fringe regarding Modern Industrial Estates.

Answer 22

Modern Industrial Estates
- Modern Industrial Estates are found on the edge of Glasgow.
- There are many attractive features of these new industrial estates:
- Companies take advantage of cheap land
- Open space allows for building of large buildings and gives room for expansion.
- Good communications (e.g. main roads enable easy access for workers and deliveries)
- Nearby housing estates provide a workforce and potential market for goods.
- However, these developments increase urban sprawl and put pressure on the greenbelt:
- Farmland decreases
- Loss of Greenbelt
- Loss of wildlife
- Destruction of habitats
- The Hillington Industrial Estate is an example of a modern industrial estate found on what used to be
greenbelt land around Glasgow.

Question 23

Describe new developments to the rural to Urban Fringe regarding New Business Districts

Answer 23

• Many shopping centres, retail parks and large supermarkets are located on the rural/urban fringe to take advantage of an out of town location that is away from city centre congestion eg The Glasgow Fort, Braehead and Xscape and Silverburn
• There is space to build large car parks for customers.
• People living in nearby housing estates provide a workforce and customers for their businesses
• Unfortunately, these developments decrease the amount of green space and increase the volume of pollution of pollution in rural areas as more people travel by car to shop.

Question 24

Describe new developments to the Rural To Urban fringe regarding Decentralisation of offices

Answer 24

• Some offices are relocating to business parks on the rural/urban fringe, eg The Glasgow Business Park
• They are moving to take advantage of the cheaper land with room to expand. Nearby main roads provide access for workers and the unpolluted environment in the countryside helps to attract a highly skilled workforce.
• However, this relocation contributes to urban sprawl and land use conflicts with rural land users, e.g.
  farmers

Question 25

Describe New Developments to the Rural to Urban Fringe regarding New bypasses and ring roads

Answer 25

• Bypasses and ring roads have been built to limit the number of cars in town and city centres, eg M74 bypass.
• This helps to reduce congestion and accidents in these busy areas. The suburbs are connected by many main roads and train lines which link to the city centre.
• This allows commuters easy access to work, shopping and entertainments.
• Park and ride schemes have been effective in reducing the number of cars on the roads. These schemes allow people to travel to events such as football matches without taking their cars