UNIT 5

URBAN AND RURAL CANADA: BUILDING SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

Topic 1 Urban and Rural Where Canadians Live

Pages 196 to 207

• Look at the photographs on p. 196
• What do you see in each?

​

​

• In which of the above cities would you prefer to visit? Why?

Where Do Canadians live?

• The majority of Canadians live in cities
• WHY?
• Cities…
• Provide services for people
• Large enough to support universities, sports teams, and other major cultural activities
• Source of most technological innovation
• Engines of economic growth for their province/territory or even the country

​

URBAN VS RURAL COMMUNITIES

• There are a wide variety of communities in Canada…
• Hamlet -> Fewer than 200 people (Swift Current)
• Village -> 200-800 people (Rushoon)
• Town ->1,000-10,000 people (Carbonear)
• City -> Greater than 10,000 people (St. John’s)
• Census Metropolitan Area (CMA)-> Greater than 100,000 people
• All of these communities exist throughout Canada

URBAN VS RURAL COMMUNITIES

• Urban -> an area where lots of people live at a high density
• Rural -> People are spread out at a low density
• Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) contain both urban and rural areas
• 2011 census, Statistics Canada created the term population centre to more specifically define urban areas
• An area with at least 1,000 people and a density of at least 400 people per square kilometre
• Where do you live????

URBAN VS RURAL COMMUNITIES

• Population Centres are divided into THREE categories
• Small Population Centre
• Between 1,000 and 29,999 people
• Medium Population Centre
• Between 30,000 and 99,999 people
• Large Population Centre
• 100,000 people or more

���������URBAN VS RURAL COMMUNITIES�

• OK, now back to CMAs
• A CMA is made up of one or more neighbouring municipalities located around the urban core
• Example…St. John’s
• Closely surrounded by which municipalities?

​

• A CMA must have at least 100,000 people total and at least 50,000 in its core
• Does St. John’s and surrounding areas qualify as a CMA???

URBAN VS RURAL COMMUNITIES

• Canadians continue to move to CMAs
• 10 fastest growing CMAs in Canada
• Calgary, Alberta
• Edmonton, Alberta
• Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
• Kelowna, BC
• Moncton, NB
• Vancouver, BC
• Toronto, ON
• Ottawa-Gatineau, ON
• St. John’s NL
• Brantford, ON

City Wise

• Canada is one of the largest countries in terms of land area
• However, it has a small population for its size
• Why???
• Difficult to build cities in many areas
• Northern Canada
• Swamplands surrounding Hudson Bay
• Some places are better suited for resource development than city building

City Wise

• Some people choose to live in rural areas
• Most decide to live in urban areas
• 81% of Canadians live in large population centres
• The three largest are:
• Toronto
• Montreal
• Vancouver

​

​

​

• 35% of all Canadians live in these three population centres!!!!

City Wise

• As mentioned earlier…
• 81% live in population centres
• See Figure 5.2 on page 200
• Over 80% of Canadians live in _______% of the country

​

• Therefore Urbanization is occurring in Canada
• Growing trend of increasing numbers of people choosing to live in cities
• Therefore, Canada is urbanized

CANADA’S HEARTLAND

• The Golden Horseshoe region in Southern Ontario and the Montreal region are very popular for settlement

​

• Europeans were drawn

here for its climate and

rich soil

​

• Today it is known as

Canada’s Heartland

• Hub of Canada’s economic

and industrial activity

Western Canada

• Natural Systems contributed to western Canada’s development
• Southern BC saw many ports developed
• WHY?
• Close to Pacific Ocean (Made trade easy)
• Trade with Who????

Western Canada

• Area also has a moderate climate and plenty of fish stocks
• Many forests further inland
• These reasons have lead to the growth of Vancouver and Victoria and they remain very popular

​

Resource-based Communities

• 20% of Canadians live in scattered rural communities
• Most of these communities have grown around a primary industry
• Fishing, forestry,

mining

• These communities

face both major

opportunities or

major challenges…

Business Cycle

• Often provides excellent employment
• Leads to opportunities for businesses in that community
• However, much profit from selling this resource doesn’t come back to the community
• Back to shareholders of company
• There is little Accumulation of Capital in resource-based communities
• Also, resource could run out or demand for it could drop
• Lead to serious economic challenges
• This is the Business Cycle of resource-based communities

Example…Cod Moritorium

• Many of these small communities struggle during these times
• Struggle to retain infrastructure like schools and hospitals
• Example…
• Cod Moritorium (1992)
• Federal Government placed a moritorium (ban) on cod fishing
• Many fish plants and

employees without work

(moved to larger urban

centres)

Example…Labrador City

• Experiencing significant economic growth
• Demand for iron ore (used to make steel) has soared
• Especially from China and India
• Although this growth is great for the community, there are still challenges
• Competitive housing (very expensive now)

​

Questions

• Define Rural
• Define urban
• What percentage of Canadians live in Urban centers? Why, what do cities offer?
• Define population centre and how population centre’s classified based on size?
• Define CMA and identify three CMA’s in Canada that are growing rapidly.

​

Questions

• Explain what Canada’s Heartland is and why it is called this?
• What makes the CMA’s of Vancouver and Victoria in BC so attractive?
• What percentage of Canadian’s live in rural communities?
• What type of industry or economic activity is found in rural Canada? What are the pros and cons of this type of economic development in rural Canada?...Offer a specific example to support this...

​

Topic 2 Urban Land Use

Pages 208 to 215

​

URBAN LAND USE

• Land Use is a term that geographers and planners use to identify the different areas where we live, shop, work, play, and go to school
• There are six main types of land use in Canada:
• Residential Land Use
• Transportation Land Use
• Commercial Land Use
• Industrial Land Use
• Institutional Land Use
• Open Space and Recreational Land Use

Residential Land Use

• Refers to land be used for living space
• Examples
• Single-family houses
• Apartment buildings,
• Townhouses

​

• (attached houses, usually take up little room, but have several floors)

​

Transportation Land Use

• Land used to move people from one place to another

​

• Examples:
• Roads, Subways, Trains, Airports, etc.

Commercial Land Use

• Land being used for business activities, or buying and selling of goods and services
• Examples…
• Shopping Mall
• Stavanger Drive
• Kelsey Drive
• Water Street

​

Industrial Land Use

• Land used for secondary industries (Manufacturing)
• Examples…
• Factories
• Warehouses
• Usually located near major routes or highways so goods can be transported easily

Institutional Land Use

• Land used for schools, hospitals, places of worship and government offices

Open Space and Recreational Land Use

• Open Space
• Land that has been left in its natural state
• Examples…
• Forests
• Recreational
• Land used for recreation activities
• Examples…
• Playgrounds
• Parks
• Golf courses
• Fields

Land Use Planning

• Challenges to balance Land Use
• Providing housing for a growing population and maintain prosperous urban economy
• Also satisfy the need for green open space and protect wildlife habitats around urban places

​

• These decisions are made by urban and transportation planners, politicians, developers and citizens
• There may be many issues in making these decisions

Land Use Planning

• Page 212-213
• Land Use In Mount Pearl GeoLab Challenge

Canada’s Booming Urban Centres

• Growth of New Canadian towns followed the railway
• After World War II, the Baby Boom occurred and young families needed homes and a place to live

​

Canada’s Booming Urban Centres

• Automobiles became more common allowing families to live further away from the city center

​

​

Canada’s Booming Urban Centres

• This marked the birth of the suburbs
• A residential area on the outskirts of a city

​

• Many banks, restaurants, hospitals, etc. moved to the suburbs with the people
• Canadians no longer had to commute for all their needs
• But they did commute to work

Canada’s Booming Urban Centres

• This marked the birth of the suburbs
• A residential area on the outskirts of a city

​

Page 215 Media Watch

• Joni Mitchel Big Yellow taxi
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94bdMSCdw20

​

Discuss questions page 215 about song and urban growth

​

Geolab Challenge

Bar Graph the 1851 to 2011 total populations, Number of Urban residents, and Number of Rural residents

​

Circle graph % of Urban versus Rual population for each year

​

Topic Three: Urban Sprawl

Page 218 to 225

Urban planning and Autromobiles

• Automobiles allowed people to Move to the Suburbs from City Centers
• Suburb living, automobiles and commuting to work resulted in…
• Need for parking lots
• Shopping malls emerged
• Automobiles have …
• Economic cost
• Environmental cost
• Urban planning impacts
• Distances commuted
• Amount of pollution
• Traffic congestion

Urban planning and Autromobiles

• Page 219 Chart Ost and benefits of Automobiles

Urban Sprawl

• Urban Sprawl -Outward expansion of urban centres to nearby bordering areas
• As cities grow, many issues arise…
• Traffic congestion
• Overburdened services
• Air Pollution
• Planning for efficient mass transit
• Managing wastes
• Containing urban sprawl
• As communities grow,

many natural and human

systems are put at risk

​

Urban Sprawl

Return to page 220...Case Study

​

Have students read case study and study map of

Urban Sprawl

​

Answer questions…

• Explain two ways that Urban Sprawl affects agricultural land?
• Explain what has been done in Ontario to protect against urban sprawl?

​

​

Smog

• Smog -> Combination of pollutants (gases, particles) that form a haze over a city
• According to Environment Canada, 95% of smog is caused by burning fuels in vehicles
• Urban areas need to be able to grow while remaining sustainable

​

HOV

• One way cities have attempted to decrease smog is the availability of High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV)lanes
• Lanes solely used by buses and vehicles with at least two people
• Designed to help move more people through busy areas

quickly

• Help ease congestion

in regular lanes

• HOV lanes currently

exist in the Greater

Toronto area

Waste Management

• As populations in urban areas increase, so does the amount of waste produced
• Many communities have a recycling and composting program in place to combat this
• “Curb It St. John’s”
• Although these programs exist, recycling is still an issue
• How can we fix this???
• Other areas are also transporting their waste to other areas
• Great Pacific Garbage Patch Article
• The real solution is to reduce

​

• Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Chinese Smog...BBC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S27ycsxUtRM

​

Bogota City for People not Cars

http://www.readingt.readingcities.com/index.php/toronto/bogota_shows_how_we_can_reinvent_toronto_we_only_have_to_want_to/b

​

TED Talks Penalosa...Bogota

https://www.ted.com/talks/enrique_penalosa_why_buses_represent_democracy_in_action#t-5516

​

Bogota Ciclovia

http://www.streetfilms.org/ciclovia/

​

​

​

• Questions page 223...need to be modified
• According to Joni Mitchell are Suburbs a positive thing yes or no?
• Suburbs have resulted in what two types of infrastructure being built?
• What are the two major forms of cost associated with automobiles, and give at least three examples of each?
• What are some of the positive or beneficial aspects of automobiles that makes humanity willing to justify some of their cost?

​

• What impact can good urban planning have on the cost associated with automobiles?
• Identify the issues associated with urban sprawl.
• How has ontario attempted to protect its province from urban sprawl and why?
• What is smog and what considered to be it main cause?
• What can individuals living in cities do to try and lessen the production and impact or smog and traffic congestion?

​

• Describe the smog situation in some of China’s major cities.
• What does the former mayor Penalosa of Bogota think about cities? What has be done to try and improve quality of life in Bogota, explain.

​

Future Cities

Page 224 to 233

The Future of Cities

• Canada’s cities are constantly changing
• New Suburbs are designed to be more like small villages
• More pedestrian friendly
• Homes and retail stores are close together and easier to access
• The idea is to reduce our reliance on cars
• Pedestrian walkways encourage people to walk rather than dealing with traffic
• Front porches allow people to be more in contact with their neighbours and neighbourhood
• ​

​

​

The Future of Cities

• So new suburbs have a bigger focus on pedestrian walkways in cities today…
• Remember Bogota’s Bike Lanes and Buses
• WHY??? Fitness, Environmentally friendly

• Remember Mayor Penalosa and his idea that cities should be built for people not cars
• democratically equal ability to commute so a bus with 100 should have 100 times more access to roads than a single driver in a single car

​

Smart Growth Solutions

• New designs for urban planning is called Smart Growth
• Focuses on plans for urban expansion while also preserving the natural environment
• Smart Growth focuses on placing more people in smaller areas
• Houses that take up less land area
• Apartment buildings
• Retail, schools, entertainment located very close by

​

​

Smart Growth Solutions

• New designs for urban planning is called Smart Growth

​

• Remember Penalosa and his proposed idea for future cities with every second road being designed for bikes, pedestrians and green space

​

7 Smart Growth Principles

• Develop in existing communities, making them more compact and dense, rather than suburbs that spread into rural areas
• Mix land uses: put homes, offices, stores and services in the same neighborhoods within walking distance
• Create a range of housing opportunities that will bring together people of different ages, household types, incomes, ethnicities

​

7 Smart Growth Principles

• Provide a variety of transportation choices, including public transit
• Create places and routes for safe walking and biking
• Protect green space, farmland, and ecologically sensitive land, such as wetlands
• Protect wildlife habitat by creating natural corridors through urban areas, so wildlife can roam freely

Rural Renewal

• Town of Fogo Island
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwGphuZtozU&t=362s
• Revitalizing fogo Part 1
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UjSOwbDSls
• Revitalizing Fogoa part 2
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxkBiaAjqzo
• Rick Mercer Fogo Island Part 1
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbgEKSC2qto
• Rick Mercer Fogo island part 2
• ​

Rural Renewal

• Town of Fogo Island
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e99fdDBX39M
• Fogo Architecture part 1
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcVwuyMlU7Y
• Fogo Architecture part

Green Technologies

• Environmentally friendly ways of constructing buildings ia becoming very popular
• Can you think of examples from videos
• Alternate forms of energy are being looked at for widespread urban use
• Examples?...think about Fogo Art Studieos off grid
• ​

Green Technologies

• Sustainability also exists in building homes
• Old tires to create rubber roofing tiles
• Green roofs (Gardens on rooftops) are becoming more popular (Schools)
• Help soak up runoff that would carry pollutants to water supply

Telecommuting

• The process of commuting electronically to work
• Many people now use technology to connect with the workplace from home or on the road
• Avoids traffic
• “1 million telecommuters working from home for one day a week saves
• 250 million kg of Carbon Dioxide
• $40 million in fuel
• Over 800 fewer km of mileage

Telecommunting

• Many environmental benefits
• Most important…
• Commuting is eliminated
• Congestion and pollution levels drop
• Smart phones, tablets and laptops make it much easier to connect with others
• Online conferences can replace face to face meetings

​

​

​

How Big Is Your Ecological Footprint?

• Ecological footprint – the amount of Earth’s resources it takes to support your lifestyle
• Measured in hectares
• World average footprint – 2.2 hectares
• Canadian average – 7.0 hectares

Ecological Footprint

• Your footprint is made up of many factors
• Water use
• Transportation use
• Space used for work or play
• How much money you spend
• How far food you eat is shipped
• How much living space you have
• How much garbage you create

​

Ecological Footprint

• http://www.earthday.org/take-action/footprint-calculator/
• Calculate your Ecological footprint from earth day . org
• http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/
• Calculate your ecological footprint World Wifelife Fund
• http://www.footprintnetwork.org/resources/footprint-calculator/
• Calculate your ecological footoprint World Ecological footprint Network

​

Questions

• Explain how new suburbs are trying to be designed to be more like a village? Why?
• Define what you think Former Bogota Mayor Penalosa meant when he was talking about democracy and equality for city residents and commuters?
• Explain how the former mayor of Bogota, Penalosa, has tried to make his city more pedestrian friendly? Identify the benefits of this.

​

Questions

• Define “smart growth” as it relates to urban development in the future?
• Describe or give an example of what smart growth would look like in a new city? Be creative here if you like and describe how you would design a new city.
• In your own words identify the seven principles of smart growth. Which principle do you think is most important and why?

​

Questions

• Describe or explain how Fogo Island has attempted to rurally revive based on the concept of place and social capital.
• Explain how green technology has influenced the construction of buildings, suburbs, and future cities? Describe an example from the videos if you can.
• Define Ecological foot print and explain how telemarketing can enable peopel to reduce their ecological footprint?

​

Questions

• Define Ecological Foot Print and attempt to highlight your day to day or week to week activities and use of resources to get an understanding if you are leaving a large or samll ecological footprint?

​