Download Urbanization and Sustainable Cities: Population Growth and Challenges in Urban Areas - Pro and more Study notes Environmental Science in PDF only on Docsity! BESC 201, Introduction to Bioenvironmental Science (Lecture 18, 7 Nov 2008) Chapter 22: Urbanization & Sustainable Cities “Cities have been centers of education, religion, commerce, politics, and culture. … [T]hey have also been sources of pollution, crowding, disease, and misery.” —Cunninghamt et al. Historically a vast majority of humanity has lived in rural areas where natural resource-based occupations provided support Since beginning of Industrial Revolution cites have grown rapidly in size and power Urbanization – Increasing population in cites and transformation of land use and society to metropolitan patterns of organization. Nearly half the world population now lives in urban areas. What is a city? US Census Bureau considers any incorporated community a city, and any city with more than 2,500 residents as urban – In rural areas, most residents depend on natural resources for their livelihood – In urban areas, most people are not directly dependent on natural resource-based occupations A village is a collection of rural households linked by culture, customs, family ties, and association with the land. (note that a village is a cultural entity, whereas cities often have no defining individual character) entertainment social mobility and power specialization of professions Note the inherent one-way directionality—easy for a farmer to move into the city and assume unskilled labor position—impossible for urban person to move out into rural setting and create a viable farming life. – Government policies often favor urban over rural areas in push and pull factors o Developing countries often spend majority of budgets on improving urban areas o Major cities gain a monopoly on new jobs, education and general opportunities Developing World – Uncontrollable growth – Traffic and congestion – Air pollution – Sewer systems and water pollution – 65% of urban residents in developing world have unsatisfactory sanitation and unsafe drinking water – Millions live in slums of central cities and in shantytowns in the outskirts of cities. Meanwhile in the Developed World… – Growth of cities has slowed and changed in nature – Urban Sprawl o In most American metropolitan areas, the bulk of new housing is in large, tract developments that leapfrog beyond city edges in search of inexpensive land What’s wrong with urban sprawl? Suburbanites LOVe-EAVs – Many Americans live far from work and consider a private automobile essential—drive to work alone in EAV Average US driver spends 443 hours per year behind a steering wheel Infrastructure of the Met – In many metropolitan areas, 1/3 of the land is devoted to automobile infrastructure Traffic congestion costs US $78 billion annually in wasted fuel and time (note: hybrid cars don’t idle) Reduced tax base for city and fewer civic leaders living or working in downtown areas, the city is unable to maintain its infrastructure Racially / economically exclusionary Low density development of suburbs is divisive because it provides no affordable housing and makes a viable public transit system impractical Making a housing development Traditional suburban development typically divides land into a checkerboard layout of nearly identical 1-5 ha parcels with no designated open space, clearcuts and levels the landscape for building. Conservation Development – Preserves at least half of a subdivision as natural areas, farmland, or other forms of open space. How do you make a sustainable community? Save the floodplain from development Preserve urban trees
