Change in Cities (Edexcel GCSE Geography B)

Urban Population Change

• Urban populations change over time

Urban process timeline

• Urban settlements first appear as a result of agglomeration:

  • People gather together in one area to sell goods and live

  • Small trading posts and villages begin to develop

• As towns grow, they expand outwards by a process known as suburbanisation:

  • This adds to the built up area, but the building densities are generally lower than in the older parts of the town

  • The new suburbs are made up of mostly houses but also include places of employment and services

• Urban settlements continue to prosper and grow, people move out of the town or city altogether and commute to work:

  • These are called dormitory settlements because many residents only sleep there. 

  • They continue to have links with the town or city they have left

  • They still make use of urban services, shops, education, and healthcare

Counter-urbanisation

• This is the movement of people from an urban area into the surrounding rural region. Causes include:

  • Mobility and accessibility: higher personal car ownership, increase in public transport and road development making easier access to rural areas

  • Increased wealth: making housing and travel more affordable

  • Agricultural decline (mechanisation and merger of farms): more land becomes available for housing and agricultural workers leave the area

  • Green belt: people need to go further out to get the rural life they are looking for

  • Second homes and early retirement: have increased the movement of people from the city to the countryside

Re-urbanisation

• The movement of people back into the cities from the surrounding area

• Movement is the result of a number of factors:

  • Increase in jobs

  • Regeneration of older areas either through rebuilding or redevelopment (factories into spacious apartments)

  • Improvements in air quality 

  • Improvements in safety

Deindustrialisation

• The closure of factories and industries leads to large areas of derelict land and buildings

• This leads in to suburbanisation and counter-urbanisation as lack of jobs and poor quality environment causes people to leave the city

• More recently this has led to re-urbanisation as the areas are cleared or redeveloped to be replaced by luxury apartments

Urban Land Use

• Cities can be segregated into zones

• Zones will have similar land values and locational needs such as access for customers, employees, etc. or space for expansion or privacy

• All towns and cities grow outwards, in a series of rings, from a historic centre or core to an urban fringe

• Each zone grows due to the needs of the city during its development, over time

• As a general rule, all towns and cities, regardless of place or level of development, show the same four features:

  • A central core: the oldest part of a city

    • Home to the central business district (CBD) e.g. banks, retail and commercial offices

    • Was the most accessible part of the city

    • Land is in high demand - increasing the cost and density of buildings

    • Reduced space led to developers building upwards

  • An inner-city ring: also known as the twilight zone

    • Older, terraced 'worker' housing 

    • Older industrial areas now mostly derelict or redeveloped

    • Areas are centred around transport links and access

  • A suburban ring: residential area

    • Semi and detached housing with gardens

    • Tree-lined avenues and cul-de-sacs

    • Smaller retail premises

  • An urban fringe: outer edges of the city 

    • Countryside is eroded through the urban spread

    • Housing is clustered into estates

    • Some industrial land use

    • Now the most accessible area

    • Development of business, retail and science parks

• Other similar characteristics of modern urban settlements include:

  • Age of the built-up area decreases from the core to the fringe

  • Density of building developments decreases from core to fringe

  • Grandeur, function, design and style changes across the zones

  • Industries are no longer dependent on canals and rail but on roads so are located near to main roads

Factors affecting land use

• The land use pattern develops as a result of:

  • Accessibility

  • Planning decisions/regulations - some land is protected from the development 'greenbelt'

  • The land cost/value

  • Topography - the physical geography of an area

Commercial 

• Mostly in the CBD due to accessibility

• Increasingly moving to urban fringe to business, science and retail parks due to:

  • Lower cost/cheaper land

  • More space

  • Better accessibility

  • Nicer environment

Industrial

• Was in the inner city

• More recently on the edge of the city due to:

  • Lower cost/cheaper land

  • More space

  • Better access to main roads

Residential

• Housing increases in size with distance from the CBD due to lower land costs

• Overall housing age decreases with distance from the CBD, though redevelopment of the city means some new apartments are in the CBD and inner city

  • 19th century terraced houses in the inner city ring

  • 20th century semi-detached and detached houses in the suburbs

  • 21st century housing in the urban fringe and apartments in the inner city/CBD

Planning

• Local council planning affects where housing, industry and commerce can be built - may restrict building on greenfield sites around the city