Key definitions
Urbanisation — the increase in the proportion of people living in towns and cities.
- Urban sprawl — the uncontrolled spread of an urban area into the countryside.
- CBD (central business district) — the area of a city with the most business and commercial usage.
- Counter-urbanisation — the movement of people from urban to rural areas, creating commuter settlements where people commute to work.
- Suburbanisation — the movement of people from city centres to city outskirts (the rural–urban fringe area).
- Urban decay — when parts of a city become rundown and undesirable to live in.
Land use in a city
- CBD
- Industrial areas
- Residential areas
- Rural–urban fringe areas (areas where city meets town: mixed land use)
Land use models
- Burgess model
- Hoyt model
Changes in land use
- Most towns and cities develop from a historical core.
- Wasteland gets quickly redeveloped, as land is expensive and valuable.
- Residential land takes up the most space.
- Brownfield land — land that has been built on before.
- Greenfield land — land that has never been built on before.
- Green belt land — land that is strictly protected and reserved.
Effects of urban growth
- Pollution (air, noise, water, visual)
- Rises in inequality (race, income, education)
- Congestion
- Lack of housing
Case study: Urban sprawl in Atlanta
Impacts of urban sprawl
- Increased expenses
- Increased air pollution
- Traffic congestion
- Lack of affordable housing
- Lack of resources
- Easier spread of disease
- Larger inequalities between rich and poor
- Increased crime rate
- Loss of greenery and habitat
- Heat build-up due to deforestation
Causes and effects
| Causes | Effects |
|---|---|
| Migration | Traffic congestion — 68 hours worth of traffic delays are built up annually |
| Natural population growth | Water pollution — the Chattahoochee river, a domestic water source, becomes polluted |
| Loss of biodiversity — within the years 1982–2002, 38% of green space in Atlanta has been lost |
Solution: the Atlanta BeltLine project
22 miles of redevelopment for Atlanta's unused railway.
- $20 billion in economic development
- 30,000 new permanent jobs
- 5,600 new workforce housing units
- 50,000 new housing units
- 45 neighbourhoods gain new, greater connectivity
- Better accessibility
- 527 new hectares of green space
- 8% of the city's land mass
- 25% of the residential population