Urban GeographyLAND USES IN DEVELOPED WORLD CITIES

Learning Intentions

By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

Understand why cities grow,List the main land uses in a developed

city,Understand one land use model of a

developed city.

Introduction

The 7 Billion people who live on this planet are not evenly spread out. We prefer to live in some areas more than others.

Increasingly we prefer to live in towns and cities.

One hundred years ago, fewer than 200 million people lived in towns and cities; now the urban population is 3.5 billion.

Why do people live in cities?

Jobs.

People move to cities because there are more job opportunities. There may be jobs in factories, offices, shops and services.

Each town or city used to have a specific function and would offer jobs in this area of work, for example,

Industrial centres – factory jobs making things.

Ports – jobs loading/ unloading goods on and off ships and jobs in the warehouse and distribution trade.

Tourist resort, such as Blackpool – jobs in hotels and restaurants catering for tourists.

From Village to city

Nearly all the buildings in a village are houses.

As it starts to grow, it develops other land use zones. It will have an industrial area as well as new housing

zones and the old village will be taken over by shops and businesses.

This will become known as the town centre or the Central Business District. (CBD)

Village to city

A typical town grows out from its original village in all directions and its different land use zones can be shown as concentric zones.

CBD

Inner City

Suburbs

Characteristics of the CBD

Oldest part of town. Where most roads meet. Bus and train stations. High order shops. Lots of Churches. Offices. Tallest buildings. Most densely packed buildings. Hotels, pubs and restaurants. Entertainment facilities.

Characteristics of the inner city

Built in the 19th century. High density of buildings. Old factories. Low order shops and services. Stone tenement houses. Brick terraced houses. Few gardens or small gardens.

Characteristics of the city edge

Dates from 20th century onwards.Planned shopping centres.Business and office parks.Some detached housing.Low density of buildings.Beside main roads.

Characteristics of the Suburbs

Built in the 20th and 21st century.Low density of buildings.Mainly detached and semi detached

houses.Many houses with large gardens and

garages.Lots of open space and parks.

Changes to Zones

These zones are consistently changing.

Old buildings are knocked down, new ones are constructed and others change their use.

For example.

Housing to offices. Old factory buildings to stylish flats close to the city

centre.

Changes in the CBD

More indoor shopping centres, for example Buchanan Galleries.

Changes to road systems to ease congestions and increase pedestrian safety. For example, bus and taxi lanes, pedestrianized streets such as Buchanan Street .