option g Flashcards
(16 cards)
What is an urban place characterized by? [3]
- Population size
- CBD and residential zones
- Predominant economic activities (e.g. manufacturing)
- An administrative function
What are favourable factors for a settlement? [4]
- Reliable supply of water
- Flat land to build on
- Timber for construction and fuel
- Availability of natural resources
- Transport links
- Fertile soils for agriculture
- Elevated land (freedom from flooding, easier to defend)
How do megacities grow in population? [3]
- Economic growth
- Rural-urban migration
- High rates of natural increase (young migrants yield higher birth rates)
-Urban sprawl
Why is land at the centre of the city most expensive? [2]
- It is (or was) the most accessible land to public transport
- There is only a limited amount of land available
Explain the relationship between land values and distance from the CBD. [3]
- The point with the highest land values is called the PVLI (Peak Land Value Intersection)
- Land prices and building heights decrease with distance from the CBD
- As accessibility declines with distance away from the PLVI, the price that businesses are willing to pay for land also declines
- At the PLVI there are usually department stores, specialist retail stores, high-rise offices and commercial offices (e.g. banks)
- At the outer core, more specialist shops and offices (e.g. insurance solicitors, public administration)
What is an example of positive segregation? [1]
- When an ethnic group chooses to live close together, gaining advantages by locating in one place
- Majority of London’s South Korean population lives in New Malden
- The population is large enough to support Korean restaurants and supermarkets
State two contrasting examples of social urban residential planning. [2]
- Singapore: government housing (HDBs) aims to maintain balanced proportions of ethnic groups and to stop racial enclaves from forming
- Brazil: Barra da Tijuca is an edge city near Rio de Janeiro and is a gated community of wealthy people who have armed security to separate them from the rest of Rio’s population
Where do poorer and wealthier urban populations typically live? [2]
- The poorest people are typically located on expensive inner-city land due to the need to be close to sources of employment
- Wealthier people typically live in the outer areas, in lower-density housing as they can afford to commute to work
- With increasing distance from the city centre, residential density decreases (this reflects the great availability of land in the suburbs)
What is the bid-rent theory? What are the trends associated with the retail, industrial and commercial sectors in relation to the bid-rent theory? [1+2]
- The bid-rent theory is the amount of rent people are willing to pay in relation to distance from the PLVI/CBD
- Accessibility vs ability to pay for rent
- Retailers can afford the highest land prices but they are not prepared to do so if they are not in a highly accessible location. Therefore, the slope of the rent curve for retail shops is very steep
- The rent curve for industrial and commercial enterprises does not rise as high as that for retail shops, but it falls away a little more gently because accessibility is not quite as crucial for them
On what types of land are slums/squatter settlements usually located? [2]
- Steep slopes
- Floodplains
- Close to major industrial complexes
- Away from wealthy residential areas
State two positive and two negative aspects of living in a slum. [2+2]
POSITIVE
- They are points of assimilation for immigrants
- Informal entrepreneurs can work here and have clienteles extending to the rest of the city
- Informal employment available, based at home and avoids commuting
- There is a strong sense of kinship and family support
NEGATIVE
- Security of tenure is often lacking
- Basic services are absent, especially water and sanitation
- Overcrowding is common
- Sites may be hazardous (e.g. prone to mudslides, floods etc.)
- Poor education often leads to continuation of the poverty cycle
State two advantages and two disadvantages of the informal economy. [2+2]
POSITIVE
- Provides jobs for unskilled or semi-skilled workers
- Immediate jobs for migrants
- Easy to enter the informal economy
- Points of assimilation for immigrants
NEGATIVE
- Has been associated with negative activities such as crime, drugs, bribery, smuggling and prostitution –> may threaten image/security of the area, may discourage investors
- Limited access to credit and governmental support due to unregulated nature of the businesses
- Lack of legal protections/employee benefits (e.g. health coverage) for employees
- Potential health & safety risks for employees due to work conditions
What are the causes of urbanisation? [3]
- Rural-urban migration
- High rates of natural increase in urban areas
- Urban sprawl resulting in the reclassification of rural areas as urban areas
Define push and pull factors. [1+1]
- Push factors are the negative features that cause a person to move away from rural areas, e.g. unemployment and low wages
- Pull factors the attractive factors (whether real or imagined) of urban areas, such as better wages, good schools
Select and describe one centrifugal movement in detail. [3]
SUBURBANISATION
- The outward growth of urban areas to engulf surrounding villages and rural areas
- Often occurs due to improvements in transport systems
- Boom in private housebuilding helped by low costs of living and very low interests rates in the early 20th century, expansion of building societies, improved public transport and the willingness of local authorities to provide utilities
COUNTER-URBANISATION
- The movement of population away from larger urban areas to smaller urban areas, new towns, new estates, commuter towns or villages on the edge of or just beyond the rural-urban fringe
- Push factors include high land prices, congestion, pollution, high crime rates, a lack of community and declining services in the urban area
URBAN SPRAWL
- The physical expansion of an urban area into rural area (often linked with suburbanisation)
- Usually associated with unplanned urban growth (especially in LICs)
- The existence of green belts prevent urban sprawl because they provide physical limits to expansion
Distinguish between positive deindustrialisation and negative deindustrialisation. [2]
- Positive deindustrialisation occurs when industries replace workers with machines, making themselves more competitive
- Negative deindustrialisation occurs when the number of workers in an industry decline but there is no compensating rise in productivity or mechanisation
