Change in Cities (Edexcel GCSE Geography: B (1GB0))

• Urban populations change over time

Urban process timeline

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

• 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

Land use pattern

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