Urban

Question 1

Problems with housing in shanty towns (need for management of housing)

Answer 1

With reference to Mumbai :
- there is a lack of clean water and sanitation with approx 1 toilet per 500 people, means water isn’t clean and often isn’t desperate from sewage so supplies can become contaminated as sewerage often runs downs streets. Communal toilets shared by many people so disease eg cholera can spread quickly
- housing is overcrowded with extended families living in housing of several stories with ground size of 9m2. Housing built for materials such as wood, scrap metal and corrugated iron so is often a risk of houses collapsing and a risk of fires. Overcrowding I’m houses means disease spreads rapidly
- there is no rubbish collection so waste build up and rate can breed here. Again this can cause disease to spread and just general unhygienic living conditions
- with standpipes in Dharavi only being on for around 2 hours a day, people must collect water or will often tap into cities water pipes causing it to become contaminated. Water that people collect often sits around in containers all day and bacteria can bread causing water to become unsafe to drink
- people don’t have proper jobs and often rely on low paid work, informal work and are underemployed. This means that they have little money for food so can become ill and they are unable to afford to improve their homes or buy better ones so must stay in shanty town conditions
- lack of education means that people don’t know about contraception, hygiene and diet so can’t limit family size and don’t know how to take basic steps to prevent illness and disease
- people may tap into cities main electricity supple which can cause extreme dangers and fire hazards

Question 2

Name different solutions to problems in shanty towns

Answer 2

Slum rehabilitation
Tarring roads
Encouraging to form cooperatives
Dharavi redevelopment project
Self help schemes
Slum clearance
Development of Navi Mumbai

Question 3

Solution and effectiveness of slum rehabilitation (Mumbai)

Answer 3

• provides better water supply pipes, sanitation, sewage systems etc to reduce disease and improve health and living conditions
• however new shanty towns are building up all the time and authorities can’t keep up with the new growth.
• around 1000 migrants per day are moving to Mumbai with the majority ending up in slums
• within 12 years only 15% of Dharavi was redeveloped

Question 4

Solution and effectiveness of putting in tarred roads and pathways (Mumbai)

Answer 4

• putting in tarred pathways and roads means that open sewers can be covered and rubbish trucks can get in more easily to clear rubbish
• can be successful in improving hygiene and disease is less likely to spread as rapidly due to sewer open sewers
• however, many streets in dharavi are too narrow for rubbish trucks to get down so often still a problem

Question 5

Solution and effectiveness of encouraging residents to form cooperatives

Answer 5

• encouraging residents to form cooperatives and work together to help improve the area
• such groups can also collectively negotiate with banks for small loans and with city authorities for services such as sewerage and toilets
• worked well as people now have a real sense of community and are happy to work with others for the common good

Question 6

Solution and effectiveness of the Dharavi redevelopment project (Mumbai)

Answer 6

• this is where high rise apartments will be built with water, sewage and electricity
• there will also be shopping malls and office complexes and will allow around 57,000 families to be rehoused
• it will be paid for my private companies
• families often don’t want to move here as the high rise flats cause them to feel isolated and the sense of community is lost
• only families who have lived in dharavi since before 2000 are eligible so others will be moves to other parts of the city which, again, splits up communities
• since many fa ivies live above where they work, if they get moved they will have to travel to work and they also can’t easily add extra living spaces to their flats like they could before

Question 7

Solution and effectiveness of self-help schemes (Mumbai)

Answer 7

• provide basic foundations for housing as well as building materials, such as concrete and bricks, and giving tenants tenures to the land
• can use the skills of local people to make houses safer or possibly add extra floors to homes, reducing over crowding
• one group helping with this is the SPARC (society for the promotion of area resources centre) which is a non governmental organisation
• successful as residents can still have variety in housing style and make it their own
• by giving residents rights to the land it means they are more likely to improve the area as less fear of eviction
• sense of community and many jobs within the slums will be preserved and people with a wide range of skills can work for each others benefits

Question 8

Solution and effectiveness of slum clearance (Mumbai)

Answer 8

• when suns are bulldozed to remove them
• this isn’t very successful as people tend to just move to another area of the city and start again
• problem isn’t fixed it’s just moved

Question 9

Solution and effectiveness of the development of Navi Mumbai (Mumbai)

Answer 9

• due to many problems in Mumbai, primarily overcrowding and congestion, the city authority began to shape plans in the 1970s for Navi Mumbai
• this was to be located on farmland to the east of the city and the idea was that they could grow as separate interconnected areas, with their own jobs, industry, schools, health centres and power supply
• over 10,000 companies are now registered with addresses in Navi Mumbai due to soaring land values and lack of space in the CBD
• over 1.5million residents were estimated to be living in Navi Mumbai in early 2023 which has helped to rescued overcrowding and traffic congestion in Mumbai itself
• however there was a lack of funding for amenities and not every that was planned has actually been built
• many of the jobs were in engineering, pharmaceuticals and IT so were not suitable for the less skilled or less educated workers so unskilled workers didn’t want to move here
• some people simply didn’t want to move away from their families and communities

Question 10

Need for management of traffic in Mumbai

Answer 10

• the port and CBD of Mumbai are at the southerly tip of the island so they can only be accessed from the north. This makes all roads from the north become busy. Also, this is wheee most businesses are located so all commuters are heading here
• all major roads and rail networks converge on the south of the island so all the people and vehicles are heading to the same place making it crowded and congested
• Mumbai is very narrow as it gets towards the south so it gets very crowded as roads converge
• Mumbai is built on several islands which have been joined together by bridges and causeways, this creates bottle necks and queuing traffic at crossing points
• population in Mumbai has grown rapidly in recent years and is now larger than 20 million so there is an increasing number of people on the rapids and using public transport (increases pop. due to higher birth rate and death rate and also due to rural to urban migration at a rate of 500 families per day)
• a growing Indian middle class has lead to greater car ownership which leads to more congestion on the roads
• there are a large variety of different vehicles on the roads eg cars, taxis, buses, bikes and lorries all travelling at different speeds so traffic can get held up

Question 11

Name the different solutions to traffic congestion (Mumbai)

Answer 11

MUTP (Mumbai urban transport project)
Bandra-worli sea link
Skywalks
Monorail
Carpooling eg blabla car
MTHL (Mumbai trans harbour link)

Question 12

Solution and effectiveness of MUTP (Mumbai)

Answer 12

• the Mumbai urban transport project includes improve railways through new tracks and stations and more trains so less overcrowded and people people likely to use it.
• also new road links between highways making traffic flow better
• new traffic cameras monitor traffic which is love fed into computers and police HQ, these can monitor build up of traffic and adjust traffic lights in real time to improve flow and stop jams
• over 20,000 people in local slums had to be relocated to make way for road and rail upgrades, this was expensive and communities were split up
• many slums are close to railway so people often walk on tracks slowing down the efficiency of the rail networks and is dangerous for people
• more people using railways means less cars on roads so less congestion
• trains are still overcrowded with many people dying due to falling off them
• cameras improve traffic flow and allow accidents to be spotted and cleared quickly

Question 13

Solution and effectiveness of the Bandra-Worli sea link (Mumbai)

Answer 13

• this is a bridge connecting bandra and worli to the west of the city address Mahim bay
• it reduces journey times from 25 minutes during around the bay to just 10 minutes
• has reduced congestion on other roads as more are using this one
• you have to pay to sue the bridge however, so some people refuse or can’t afford it so other free roads then become congested again
• daily average traffic on this bridge is smaller than a third of the original estimate
• the capacity of the bridge is restricted due to a bottle neck at the south end of the bridge, where there is only 2 lanes compared to 4 along the rest of it this slows traffic down for the last 1.2km

Question 14

Solution and effectiveness of skywalks (Mumbai)

Answer 14

• these are above ground pedestrian bridges that takes pedestrians off the roads which improves the flow of traffic
• because they are connected to metro stations they also encourage the use of public transport
• successful as used by over 500,000 people per day
• some bridges had to be scrapped or re-routed due to dharavi redevelopment project so not as many areas of the city are covered as was originally planned

Question 15

Solution and effectiveness of the monorail (Mumbai)

Answer 15

• this is an above ground railway encouraging people to use public transport, taking cars off the roads
• it is a non-polluting and also helps to generate electricity when running so is actually good for the environment
• because it is situated above the ground level of the city, less land has had to be cleared so less disruption to communities
• doesn’t currently go right into the CBD so inconvenient as people have to change to another mode of transport

Question 16

Solution and effectiveness of carpooling eg the BlaBla car

Answer 16

• people can use an app to link up with other people going to the same place reducing the number of cars on the roads as well as air pollution
• some people are not keen to travel with strangers so choose not to travel this way
• people often used to share on bikes however this was banned in 2023 due to health and safety concerns which has cut down on the number of people sharing

Question 17

Solution and effectiveness of the Mumbai trans harbour link (Mumbai)

Answer 17

• the MTHL is a 21.8km sea bridge designed to connect Mumbai to Navi Mumbai, cutting down journey times and fuel costs, benefitting businesses, economy and reducing air pollution
• may also encourage businesses to move to Navi Mumbai cutting down on congestion and overcrowding in Mumbai itself
• rising costs have slowed down the building process with 4 attempts to get the project started and further delays due to the Covid-29 pandemic
• because it links E-W connection roads and the BWSL, it cuts down traffic from other main roads as the journey is more direct

Question 18

Need for management of housing in edinburgh

Answer 18

• old industry disappeared which left few jobs available in the area
• land with old industry was left derelict or was demolished leaving gap sites, this left area unattractive making in an undesirable place to live
• these both lead to high unemployment which often resulted in a downward spiral as well as people having no money to spend
• flats were very poorly build and damp inside
• high unemployment
• social problems eg poverty, crime, drug abuse and teenage pregnancy

Question 19

Strategies employed to manage housing in Edinburgh (solution, effectiveness)

Answer 19

• in leith one management strategy was building new executive housing eg platinum point. This encourages more affluent people into the area which means more money is spent in the area helping to boost economy. Over 17,000 new homes have been build since 2004. Average house price increased so helped with economy however meant many Leith locals couldn’t afford to live here anymore
• more affordable housing. So lower wage earners would afford to live in this area improving sense of community with a better social mix. Over 2400 properties built and 3 sheltered housing complexes
• converting old warehouses into flats. After old industry closed there was lots of derelict building so converting them helped to improve the attractiveness of area. Fewer empty buildings and landscaping around developments helped to improve environment. House prices increased
• improving general area of leith with more hotels, retail and tourist places eg ocean terminal. This brings more people into the area which helps to boost economy. Also provides more job opportunities. Visitor number increased by 12% between 2016 and 2017 and unemployment rates decreased
• in westerhailes the modernisation of existing housing. Done with new cladding, central heating and security systems to make the area more desirable to live. People were seated and happier in their homes are therefore are more likely to look after them as they are nicer. Helped to reduce anti-social behaviours
• extensive landscaping. Helped to make area look for attractive as it looked less run down. Improved look of area and also created a better sense of community
• new facilities such as gyms and shops. Provided leisure facilities for locals which can help to reduce crime rates. Also provides lots of new job opportunities for locals which decreased unemployment rates

Question 20

Need for management of transport in Edinburgh

Answer 20

• the CBD and edge of city are congested

Question 21

Strategies employed to manage transport in Edinburgh (solution, effectiveness)

Answer 21

• encouraging people to use public transport (CBD) Reduces volume of traffic all going into CBD at once which would help to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. Wasn’t very effective as public transport doesn’t always go where people want to go and people often like the convenience of having their own car
• improved rail links eg borders railway (CBD and edge of city). This cuts down on the number of cars driving in and around the city centre. Trains were very regular so we’re well used however often so busy they were overcrowded and there wasn’t enough space for everyone
• parking restrictions (CBD). Done through permit parking and yellow lines. Stops lots of cars parking on the edge of streets which may block roads and slow flow of traffic. Has stopped certain streets being congested however often moves the problem elsewhere
• city bypass (CBD and edge of city). This was built in 1985 to cut down on cars travelling through the CBD if not necessary. This has eased congestion in the city however due to the volume of traffic reliant on the bypass it has now come congested itself
• more multi-storey car parks (CBD). Prevents cars parking on streets and therefore improves the flow of traffic. Now less cars circling around in city looking for a parking space however there is often long queues to get into these car parks adding to congestion
• encouraging use of flexi-time (CBD). This is where people get to decide there own working hours. This means less people are all travelling into the CBD and people can avoid the busiest times and rush hour which reduces congestion.
• park and ride where people park their car on edge of city and then use public transport to get into city centre (CBD and edge of city). Reduces number of cars in the CBD and is often quicker for users as they don’t get stuck in as much traffic getting into the CBD. Effective as much cheaper than parking in the CBD which is a good incentive for users however it is not a convenient way for everyone as it stops at limited places and people prefer their own car