unit 2 organization of urban habitat

7/31/2019 Unit 2 Organization of Urban Habitat

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GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

UNIT 2: Societies and cities

Cristbal Marn

I.E.S. FERNANDO III EL SANTO / PROYECTO BILINGE A.N.L.: GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY 26


UNIT 2: ORGANIZATION OF URBAN HABITAT

1 THE URBANIZATION (urbanisation or urban drift) PROCESS

The urbanization phenomenon has been caused by the growth of cities: the increase in number of theirinhabitants; the rise of their economic activities. Urban morphology is the result of a constant transformationthroughout history. We have established three different phases:

- Pre-industrial city, in turn it is divided into the ancient city (Greek and Roman cities); cities in MiddleAges; and cities in the Early Modern Period.

- Industrial city which arose with the emergence of the Industrial Revolution.- Post-industrial city which exist in current developed countries.In many countries the urbanization process is regulated by Urbanism: the whole administrative, economicand social rules and technical regulations in relation to buildings and urban spaces, which, considering theneeds of the population, regulates the development of an urban area.

Activity:- Look at these photos and write, in the boxes below them, their corresponding classification according totheir historical phase.


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2 GLOBALIZATION AND URBAN HABITAT

Global Cities

Economic globalization has transformed the urban space since the late 20th Century. Global cities havearisen as a new type of city thanks to such globalization.

The global cities are privileged places forseveral reasons:

- They hold the principal headquarters ofbanks, of multinational companies (firms)and stock markets.

- They are production centers of the mostinnovative activities and advanced serviceson a worldwide scale.

- They control international trade: capital,information, cultural experiences,technology

New York, London and Tokyo are the main global cities. Other important cities that offer financial andbusiness services are: Hong Kong, Beijing, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Milan, etc. Mexico

City, Sao Paulo, Bangkok and Istanbul offer the same services as the global cities on a minor scale indeveloping countries.

Transformation of great cities

The great cities have undergone important economicand social transformations to adapt to globalization.They receive substantial investments from publicadministrations (states and city councils) and privatesources (businesses and private individuals). Theresults of these investments are new transport

infrastructures (new airport terminals, motorways andhigh-speed rails), better and fastertelecommunication networks, advanced skyscrapers,modern business office blocks, luxury hotels andmalls, cultural centers and convention centers. As aresult of this increase in construction, the great citieshave undergone a greater increase in the prices ofbuilding property and buildings.

Urban networks

Cities arent isolated in their territory but instead they are in connected by all types of exchanges: peopletraveling, vehicles transporting goods, information transmitted by telecommunication networks.


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All these exchanges or flows

link the cities making up urbannetworks. All urban networksare interconnected making upa global network where thecities are nodes or connectionpoints, because they havebecome privileged places.

A city has an influence on theterritory that surrounds it, but

sometimes its influence isgreater on other cities of theglobal network than on its ownarea. According to field ofinfluence, an urban networkcan be worldwide, national orregional.

Activities:- Look at these photos and write, in the boxes below them, the corresponding reasons which haveconverted these global cities into privileged places.

-Look for information about the terms home automation and building automation and write theirmeanings.

-Classify these cities according to their sphere of influence

-Madrid: -New York: -Brussels: -Melbourne:

-San Francisco -Sao Paulo: -Chicago: -London:

-Beijing: -Seville: -Hong Kong -Buenos Aires:

Madrid

Sydney

San Francisco

Frankfurt

Brussels

Miami

Milan

Los Angeles

Chicago

Toronto

Tokyo

Amsterdam

Sao Paulo

Bangkok

Melbourne

Beijing

Jakarta

Stockholm

Buenos Aires

Mexico City

Zurich

Taipei

Washington

Singapore

Paris

Londres

New York

Hong Kong


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3 TERRITORIAL AND SOCIAL INEQUALITIES

Globalization brings advantages to these cities, but it accentuates the poverty and social disadvantages too.This phenomenon favors some cities over others, and, inside the cities, some residential zones over others.This reason has worsened territorial and social inequalities.

Privileged zones

People with high incomes look for zones with luxurious and comfortable houses, exclusive recreation andleisure activities zones. For this reason private urbanization with green zones, luxury shopping centers andgolf courses have arisen. In these private developments there is restricted access, only for their residents.

Marginalized zones

In the cities of developing countries, and in many cities of developed countries, there are marginalizedenclaves or poor settlement zones. These zones are called shantytowns, favelas, slums... and part of thepopulation live badly without the minimal accommodation conditions, and, sometimes, they live illegally.

City Centers

The city centers have suffered important changes too. Sometimes, spaces of the historical center arerecovered through the transformation of old buildings in luxury hotels, restaurants or shopping malls. This

process is called gentrification. This causes a greater increase in the price of building property. For thisreason the old residents with low incomes leave these zones, looking for cheaper zones, and they arereplaced by people with high incomes.

In these zones, neighborhoods are deteriorating nowadays because they dont receive investments for newinfrastructures, and people with low incomes continue to live in these neighborhoods.

Activities:-Look at photos on the left and write nextto their corresponding number what kindzone or phenomenon is shown in each ofthem.

1:

2:

3:

4:

-What is the translation ofgentrification

in Spanish?

1 2

3 4


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4 PRESENT-DAY URBAN HABITATS

The urbanization process has been very intensive in the last few decades. The number of urban inhabitantsis greater than rural inhabitants. This growth has had different effects:- Greater urban concentrations of millions of inhabitants.- Cities have high technological development, but they also have important social inequalities andenvironment problems too.- Cities compete to have a preferential place in the classification of cities on a worldwide scale.- Multicultural cities.

Cities in developed countries are losing population density because people move outside of the city or tomedium-sized cities. As a result metropolitan areas have been growing in a remarkable way. The urbanlandscapes have changed from compact cities to dispersed cities, where all its territory is a continuum of

buildings, mall areas, roads and it is very difficult to distinguish where the city ends and where the

countryside starts.

Cities in developing countries have huge population densities because rural inhabitants move to urbanzones, confident that they will find a job. For this reason spontaneous and random urbanization,characterized by the building of poor shacks, is arising in these cities. Among the most populated cities inthe world there are some megacities or megalopolis in developing countries. They are cities with ten millioninhabitants and they coincide with the capital cities of those countries. They belong to great conurbation,which are part of anenormous urban region, and have great influence throughout the country.


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Activities:- Write the differences between the cities in developed countries and the cities in developing countries.

-Look on the internet for eight English terms (words) similar to shantytown.

5 COMPACT CITIES, DISPERSED CITIES

Metropolitan areas move toward the ruralareas. The limits between both areas arentclear and there exists a new zone where

urban and rural activities are mixed calleddispersed area or peri-urban area.

In that urbanization process we move fromcompact cities to dispersed cities. Compactcities have been the common type of citiesthroughout history. They were characterizedby the development of urban functions andurban activities right inside the city. But, overthe course of time, those traditional functionsand activities spread further outside city limits.

With the growth of the city, needs arise in thedispersed metropolitan areas which cantdevelop easily in the urban cores: residentialurbanization, sports facilities, shoppingcenters, airports, industrial zones

The causes of the growth of dispersed cities are:- The increase in the price of building property.- The development of private transport.- The rise of the road network.

The consequences are:- A super-high consumption of land.- An increase of necessary services(street lighting, water, waste).

- Constant mobility of people who workand study in one zone and live in another,creating lots of movement.

- Development of more individualistic social activity.

This urban model has negative consequences and it doesnt seem to be a sustainable way to use land.


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Activity:- Look at drawings below and write, in their corresponding boxes, whether they belong to the compact city ordispersed city.

7 NEW URBAN HABITATSThe dispersed city has organized a redistribution of its space:- Industry was relocated from the city to peri-urban areas near highways, ports and airports and where thebuilding properties had low prices.- In the peri-urban zone science and technology parks develop, also called research parks, where industrieswere held at the forefront of the technological research, such as microelectronic, computing, biotechnologyor telecommunications companies and industries.- Large shopping centers or mall centers, which need lots of space, arise in these great areas where peoplemix trade and spare time. In the peri-urban zone amusement parks and sports facilities are created as well.- People with high incomes leave the city center and move to residential urbanization zones.

The central cities receive investments because they are seen as decision and image centres, and theirfunctions are specializing in services such as advertising, legal advice, banking, insurance

accessibility

networks

density density

networks

accessibility


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8 ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN CITIES: SUSTAINABLE CITIES, SMART GROWTH

When an urban core is created we alter the natural space forming a humanized habitat. As result, we alterits natural characteristics, which creates some problems.

- Shortage of vegetation: deforestation and very few green zones.- The availability of water: shortage of drinkable water, excessive exploitation of aquifers, pollution of water.- High pollution: air pollution (carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide), noise pollution, light pollution.- Consumer society: It gives rise to vast quantities of solid wastes and consumes huge quantities of non-renewable energy.

We have an obligation to future generations to preserve andimprove the environment by recycling, reusing products,

using of recycled products, moderating our water andenergy consumption, respecting different habitats thesmall gestures count.

We need to transform our cities into sustainable places,considering a balance between reasonable social-economicdevelopment and environmental preservation, conservation,and improvement, minimizing the impact of ourdevelopment.

To attain sustainable cities we have to develop the

concept of smart growth, an urban planning andtransportation theory that concentrates growth incompact, walkable urban centers to avoid sprawland advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable,bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhoodschools, complete streets, and mixed-usedevelopment with a range of housing choices. Thecity of Vancouver (Canada) is an exemplary modelof smart growth because it is considered thegreenest city in the world.

Activities:- Look at the three photos on page 32 and name the phenomena that belong to each of them.

- Write five measures that you use to preserve the environment.

- How can we transform our cities into sustainable places?

- What is smart growth?

- Look for information about the measures that have been used in Vancouver. Which have made Vancouverthe greenest city?

9 - VOCABULARY


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English Pronunciation SpanishA

According toprep. De acuerdo con, segn, conforme a (con)

to Advocate veb. Apoyar

Amusement parks adj. y sust. Parques temticos (de atracciones)

Availability sust. Disponibilidad, accesibilidad

to Avoid verb. Evitar, eludir, evadirBBalance sust. Equilibrio

Business sust. NegocioCConsumption sust. Consumo

Choice sust. Eleccin

Compact city adj. y sust. Ciudad compacta

DDispersed city adj. y sust. Ciudad difusa, ciudad dispersa

Drinkable adj. Potable, bebibleEEnvironmental adj. /n'varnmntal/ Medio ambiental

to Establish verb. EstablecerFto Favorverb. FavorecerGGentrification sust. Elitizacin

Gesture sust. GestoH

Headquarters sust. SedeHigh-speed rails adj., sust. y sust. Trenes de alta velocidad

to Hold verb. ReunirIImprovement sust. Mejora, adelanto, mejoramientoOver the course of time rep., art., sust. prep. ysust.

En (con) el transcurso (paso) del tiempo

Income sust. Ingreso

Insurance sust. Seguro

Investments sust. Inversiones

Isolated adj. / ntrdpendns / Aislado

to Increase verb. /'nkri:s/ Aumentar, incrementarL

Legal advice adj. y sust. Asesora legalLight pollution adj. y sust. Contaminacin lumnica

M

Mall sust. Centro commercial

to Make up verb. Formar, constituir

to Mix veb. Mezclar

N

Needs sust. Bienes, necesidades

Neighborhood sust. Barrio

Noise pollution adj. y sust. Contaminacin acstica

O


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to Offerverb. Ofrecer

Own adj. PropioPPhenomenon sust. Fenmeno

Q

Random adj. Aleatorio, fortutito

Range sust. Gama, mplitud

Reasonable adj. Razonable

Relocated adj. Recolocado

Renewable, Non-Renewable adjt. Renovable, no removable

Research sust. Investigacin

Rubbish sust. Basura, desperdiciosSSettlements adj. /'setmnts/ Poblaciones, asentamientos

Shortage sust. Escasez

Smart growth adj. y sust. Crecimiento inteligente

Sprawl sust. Crecimiento desmedido, expansion descontrolada

Stock markets sust.y sust. La Bolsa, mercado de acciones

Street lighting adj. y sust. Alumbrado pblico (de calles)

Substantial adj. Sustancial, considerable

Sustainable adj. Sostenible

Sustainability sust. SostenabilidadTThe Greenest adj. superl. El (la) ms verde

Toward Hacia, a, en direccin a

to Turn into verb. Convertirse en

UUrban core adj. y sust. Ncleo urbano

Undergo verb. Experimentar, padecer, sufrirWWalkable adj. Peatonal

Worldwide scale or sphere adj. y sust. Escala o esfera mundial

unit 2 organization of urban habitat

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