Paper 2 section A – Urban Issues and Challenges:
The Global Pattern of Urban Change
What is urbanisation?
How are rates of urbanisation affected by migration and natural increase?
How are cities in HICs and LICs changing?
Fastest in NEEs and LICs.
Largest population growth by 2050 will take place in NEEs (E.g. India)
Slowest in HICs, but it happened here first so most people already live in cities.
Urbanisation is the increasing proportion of people living in cities. LICS and NEEs are seeing the highest increase.
Megacity: a city of more than 10 million inhabitants
NAMED EXAMPLE: Mumbai, India, a named example of a major city in a NEE
You need to know the so/ec/en opportunities and challenges and how the area is being redeveloped/improved
Mumbai is a city found on India’s west coast next to the Arabian Sea. It is located within the Maharashtra State in India.
Why is Mumbai an important city?
Mumbai Opportunities | ||
Social The university offers great opportunities as many of the English speaking graduate immediately find work in the city at one of the major TNC headquarters or call centres. | Economic The informal sector in India is estimated to include 90% of all employment (E.g. taxi drivers, street vendors, rag pickers) | Environmental Mumbai boasts of recycling 80% of its plastic waste however the slum Dharavi is almost entirely responsible for that. (Mumbai produces 7000 tonnes per day) |
Mumbai Challenges | ||
Social Access to vital services is difficult in Dharavi because it is an informal settlement. It isn’t serviced by the government with electricity or water, so people ‘tap’ into water pipes and power cables, running the supply to their homes. | Economic The rise of informal jobs with low pay and no tax contributions. There is high employment in slums like Dharavi | Environmental Slums like Dharavi are established around the city, typically on previous marshland. Waste is openly dumped into waterways or burned. |
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Dharavi Slum Redevelopment as part of ‘Vision Mumbai’
Government and companies plan to invest US$40billion on property development and infrastructure improvement
Dharavi would be demolished, with slum dwellers moved to high-rise blocks next to shopping malls, health centres and schools. Great for improving peoples standard of living and quality of life. Positive multiplier effect for the area.
Residents are upset at the plans for demolition. New apartment blocks have split communities
Rents are expensive. The local poor people are being pushed out of the area and India are losing their hub for recycling.
The Mumbai Skywalk project:
50 raised walkways for the 7 million daily railway passengers to avoid traffic accidents. One walkway goes straight over Dharavi so people can avoid it. Great for commuters but what about the people and businesses in Dharavi.
Bus stations and shopping areas are linked-up, increasing business
It should disperse commuters to avoid congestion. (Spread everyone out)
With redevelopment/Changing Economic world and resource management, you will need to consider how sustainable changes made are. Do the positive social, economic and environmental positives outweigh the negatives and will it last ? you are expected to use these key terms in your responses.
Mumbai is a megacity
You will need to know why rural –urban migration is taking place
You will need to know Push and Pull factors for different groups of people
Slums and squatter settlements [favelas in Brazil] form on the outskirts of cities and transport routes. They are illegal settlements made up of informal industries. .
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Overview of UK population
Densely populated areas include the south, Midlands and parts of northern England; but in particular the south east of the UK – this is because the landscape is flatter so easier to build on, access to trade through rivers and people have been pulled to London by more skilled jobs [urban]
Wales and much of Scotland (except the central belt) are sparsely populated. Most of these areas are highland/hilly and rural making them challenging to build on and provide few skilled job opportunities in comparison.
South East of the UK is where London is located. This would have a higher population as there are more opportunities such as jobs, better healthcare and education. Also transport infrastructure such as global hub airports (Heathrow/Gatwick) and HS1 (Eurotunnel to France and Belgium) = trade/economic/political power
UK Urban change:
NAMED EXAMPLE: Sheffield a named example of a major city in a HIC
You need to know the so/ec/en opportunities and challenges and how the area is being redeveloped/improved
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire in the North of England. The population of the city is 575,000, making it the fifth largest in the UK. The city grew during the industrial revolution.
Sheffield’s Importance:
Industry: Raw materials like coal and limestone initially encouraged growth of the metalwork industry. Today, Sheffield is part of the rapidly growing ‘Northern Powerhouse’ economies.
Transport: Sheffield is near the centre of the country, close to large motorways like the M1. Sheffield has five airports within 90 minutes drive and is soon to be a part of the HS2 high speed rail connection
Education: 60,000 students are educated at the 2 Universities and the world-class AMRC attracts national and international migrants.
How has migration affected the character of the city?
National- within the same country
International- from different countries
Students from around the country move to Sheffield for education in some of the countries top universities.
This encourages new apartments to be built in the CBD – bringing in a young population but pushing prices of property as demand increases.
Education also encourages international migration.
Different religious and cultural buildings open due to migrants arriving from different countries
Cultures and traditions are shared
Food!
There are opportunities to this but can also cause temsions/conflict with different ethnic groups.
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Sheffield – Opportunities and challenges created by Urban change.
Opportunities from urban change | ||
Social Moor market regeneration has given people greater access to goods and services. Sheffield has cultural attractions such as museums and venues such as the Crucible Events such as the Peddler marked and Victoria Quays [canal] markets are now becoming regular food markets. | Economic Regeneration has provided jobs both low skill and high skill. Low skilled jobs in the ‘Heart of the City’ close to the winter gardens. High skilled jobs in law firms such as Irwin Mitchell on Victoria Quays The light cinema complex has now been built on the moor bringing in more jobs | Environmental The ‘Grey to Green’ scheme cost £5 million and aims to fill Sheffield city centre with more green spaces. The River Don 5 weirs have been redesigned to allow migrating fish like salmon travel through the CBD increasing biodiversity. |
Challenges from urban change | ||
Social Due to improvement in city centre buildings, rents have increased. This pushes local people who cannot afford them out of the area. (for example, Kehlam Island) | Economic Some new jobs in the city centre are low skill, part time work, such as in the ‘Heart of the City’- cafe’s, restaurants | Environmental Deindustrialisation caused high levels of dereliction in the city. These buildings are now an eyesore. Urban sprawl has caused the development of greenfield sites- commuter settlements now in Eckington, Chesterfield. |
An area of the city which needed regeneration:
Why did it need regeneration?
West ONE plaza (West street) was derelict due to deindustrialisation.
Regeneration saw bars, cafes and restaurants opened. This increased the quality of life of the population as they had more activities to do
This triggers a positive multiplier effect and increases quality of life as people have more access to goods and services. The positive multiplier effect will increase income for locals and the government which can then invest further in the area using taxes.
NAMED EXAMPLE: Kelham Idland
Kelham Island is now one of the most desirable places outside of London to live [just as expensive too]. This area has been redeveloped from dilapidated industrial structures to pop up bars, cafes and restaurants. Including sustainable housing in little Kelham.
Park Hill flats are the famous buildings that make up our skyline [just above the train station]. These were council homes which fell into disrepair.
They have since been purchased by the urban redevelopment company Urban splash who have spent over £500 million redeveloping these into mixed social and privately owned 3 bed apartments,
They are now very expensive to purchase.
Meadowhall was one of the first examples of an out of city shopping centre. It has pulled shops and businesses away from Sheffield and Rotherham’s CBD,
Lots of these places needed redeveloping because of deindustrialisation which happened because LICs/NEEs could make steel cheaper, mechanisation and environmental policy.
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Energy conservation and recycling (ERF) Sheffield’s ERF burns waste for heat [Veola] Making homes more energy efficient - subsidies across Shiregreen and city More recycling means fewer resources are used. Less waste reduces the amount that eventually goes to landfill. Energy generated by the facilty helps to power and heat buildings in the CBD Less waste in landfill meaning less methane [greenhouse gas] produced. Collection of household waste. More local recycling facilities. Greater awareness of the benefits in recycling. Green, Blue, Brown bins. 33% in Sheffield (low) - due to the ERF? | Sustainable Urban Living (Little Kelham) modern eco housing, Timber frame – using less concrete Solar panels, insulation, triple glazing, green roofs all reduce fossil fuels/energy use/air pollution Grey water capture systems to reuse rainwater in facilities like toilets. Close public transport and is pedestrianised to deter cars. restaurants, and bars created on a brownfield site of derelict industrial buildings High cost of housing – unaffordable Jobs created is p/t, low paid | Transport Improvements (Hybrid buses and supertram) Supertram connecting less developed residential areas to the city Helps reduce commuting time, pollution and accidents. It runs on electricity so and produces little pollution Many of the largest residential areas aren’t served by Supertram (e.g. Firth Park) and tramlines also create a hazard for cyclists Hybrid buses take their power from a combination of diesel and electricity. Hybrid buses use 30% less fuel and emit 33% less carbon Hybrid buses can cause accidents as pedestrians are less aware of buses approaching. They are also much more expensive Congestions charge: has been launched in the CBD charging old busses, taxis and lorries to travel through the area. But not cars | Creating Green Spaces (Grey to Green) Urban greening improves environments/well-being in cities. Eg Sheffield’s ‘grey to green’ project Encourages people to relax/exercise. Reduces the risk of flooding from surface runoff. E.g. meadow on Ponds Forge roundabout and narrowed streets for flowers = walking River restoration and making salmon passes in the old industrial weirs has seen salmon and other migrating fish return to the city centre. Along with Otters under Lady’s Bridge [Sheffield’s first bridge], massively increasing biodiversity of the waterways. |
NAMED EXAMPLE: Sheffield – how is it an example of sustainable urban living?
Example Qs:
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