Site And Situation Site The Site

Site And Situation

Site • The Site of a settlement describes the physical nature of where it is located. • Factors such as water supply, building materials, quality of soil, climate, shelter and defence were all considered when settlements were first established. • For instance the site of Sydney, in Australia, initially took advantage of the excellent natural harbour and surrounding fertile farmland.

Variation 1: SITE FACTORS 1 - Protection / Defence It was especially important to protect settlements from those who wished to attack. A good vantage point to watch for this was a hill, and many castles and forts were built on hills to watch for attackers.

Variation 1: SITE FACTORS 2 – Plenty of Water Washing, drinking and cooking all need water, and it was vital to have an adequate supply especially during the summer. Rivers are also good for transport. Springs, wells and rivers provided supplies.

Variation 1: SITE FACTORS 3 – Not Too Much Water It was important then and is still important to ensure that settlements are not built on areas that will flood, or are marshy (paludoso) (as the settlement will sink). This isn't always possible to see, particularly if the floods only occur every few years, or there isn't a flood whilst building the settlement.

Variation 1: SITE FACTORS 4 – Rivers can be useful supplies of water in themselves, or agents of flooding. But what is important about rivers as a site factor is that they can be crossed, either by bridge or ford (guado). A river that couldn't be crossed would have been a problem for early settlements, if they couldn't escape across a river during an attack. Rivers can now be crossed by building bridges, but these are expensive.

Variation 1: SITE FACTORS 5 – Building Materials Either wood or stone was needed to build early settlements, so a forest, wood or hillside with crags was needed to provide the materials. This is not so important today, as houses are built of brick and slate, which are easily provided.

Variation 1: SITE FACTORS 6 – Supply of Wood Not as important today, but early settlements would need wood for fuel. It was therefore vital that the settlement was near trees.

Variation 1: SITE FACTORS 7 – Flat Land It is extremely difficult to build a settlement on land with a gradient (such as a hillside) and so land should be flat wherever possible. This should not be confused, as it often is, with low-lying land: the top of a high hill or plateau could be flat too. It is possible to build a settlement now on a gradient, but it is much more time consuming and expensive.

Variation 1: SITE FACTORS 8 – Shelter (riparo) It is important the direction that the settlement faces, and this is geographically known as aspect. In early settlements, it was important that agricultural land faced south so that the sun shone directly on the land. Building a settlement in a valley provided a way to keep out of harsh winter winds.

Aspect • Aspect relates to the direction in which the land faces. • In the Northern Hemisphere the best slopes to locate on are those that face south, as they will receive the most sunshine, and therefore be best for agriculture. • This can be seen clearly in many of the valleys of the Alps, where settlements have located on the southfacing slopes.

Shelter • Shelter is also very important, particularly from the cold northerly winds and prevailing southwesterly winds in the UK. • A good example of settlements being sheltered by their natural surroundings are the many spring-line settlements found along the base of the chalk escarpments of the North and South Downs. • These settlements would also have benefited from the good water source and fertile farmland nearby.

Water Supply • A supply of water was probably the single most important factor in deciding where a settlement might be located. • Not only do rivers provide a source of clean drinking water, they also provided a food source through fishing, and a transport route. • Most of the world's largest cities are located on rivers, especially the point at which they reach the sea, as this was often the first point that explorers landed.

Dry Point Sites • Water is vital to a settlement and is the most common factor behind their location. • A dry point site is one that is slightly raised from the surrounding area, meaning that it is less likely to flood. • Ely in Norfolk is a good example of this.

Wet Point Sites • This refers to any site that has access to water, usually through being beside a river. • Towns would either grow up along the river or clustered near the point at which the river enters the sea. • Examples of wet point sites include the towns and villages of the Welsh valleys, which tend to extend along the flat valley floor, rather than up the steep valley sides. • Spring line settlements in the North and South Downs are also good examples of wet point sites.

Defence • In medieval times defence was one of the most important factors influencing the site of a settlement. • The relief (shape) of the land often proved to be the best form of defence. • Edinburgh castle sits on the top of a glacial crag, in an almost perfect position to defend itself, with very little chance for the attackers. • In Italy, there are many walled hill-top villages, whilst the Maoris in New Zealand built their settlements (called Pa's) on the top of steep hills to prevent being attacked.

Defence • The other common natural feature used for defence is water, and in particular rivers. • Both Shrewsbury and Durham are very good examples of where a meander of the river has formed an area of land bounded (circondata) by water on three sides. • This provided both cities with excellent defences, as they only had a thin neck of land to defend.

Resources • The idea of resources covers a huge number of different things. • For early settlers the most important resources were fuel, building materialsand food. • Settlements grew in areas where wood was plentiful, stone easily accessible and good soil allowed agriculture to be developed. • Since those early days of settlement many different resources have become the focal points for the growth of urban areas.

Mining • The coal mines of South Wales, Tin mines of Cornwall and large mining projects as seen at Carajas in Northern Brazil, have all encouraged the rapid growth of settlements aimed at housing the workers and providing them with all that they require.

Food, Oil, And Metals • The farming area of East Anglia is one example of how small settlements will locate in areas conducive to good agriculture. • Settlements in Alaska and the Middle East have grown rapidly on the back of the oil industry. • Settlements in South Africa have grown after the discovery of large deposits of precious metals such as gold. The most famous settlement to grow due to finding gold is San Francisco, after the gold rush to California in 1849.

Site Characteristics

Route Centres • Route centres are often called Nodal Points. • Anywhere two routes meet has great potential for settlement. • Often these are formed by the meeting of two valleys, but settlement nowadays will grow where two main roads meet. • In the UK, York is a good example of a route centre. • Birmingham also enjoys a very good location, where many routes join up, and this is one of the reasons for its growth to become one of the largest cities in the UK.

Bridging Points • Just as water is very important for drinking, fishing, irrigation and navigation, so the ability to cross the rivers is also very important. • Many towns and cities have built up at points where it was easiest to cross a large river. • Exeter is one such example, crossing the river Exe. • However one of the best examples is Paris in France. • The original town was based on the tiny Ile dela Cite, which is an island in the middle of the River Seine. • This island meant they could build two small bridges across the river rather than one large one.

Benefits • The new settlement also benefited from all the other advantages associated with being beside a river, as well as becoming a route centre due it being one of the only places to cross the river. • Nowadays the island has been engulfed by the huge city that Paris has become, however it does still have many bridges going to it and is the point where the huge Notre Dame Cathedral is built.

The Confluence Has 2 Rivers • Just as two valleys, or roads, make a nodal point for settlement growth, so do two rivers joining. • One such example is found in Khartoum in Sudan, where the Blue and the White Nile meet.

Situation • The situation of a settlement is the description of the settlement in relation to the other settlements and physical features around it. • The situation of a settlement is the most important in determining whether it grows to become a large city or stays as a small town or village. • In the UK, Birmingham is an example of a city with an excellent situation. • It is located central to the country, with excellent links by road to the North and South to London. • As cities begin to fulfil different functions their importance can increase or decrease. • Their situation plays an important part in deciding which of these will occur.

Variation 2: SITUATION The location of a settlement in relation to the surrounding area. E. g. ‘near a bridging point’ or ‘on a route centre’.

Variation 4: FORM The shape of the settlement. There are six forms shown on your handout which will now be covered in detail. Add any extra notes to your sheet.

Variation 3: FUNCTION The purpose for which the settlement grew up. E. g. port, ecclesiastical centre, regional centre, industrial centre, newtown, etc.

Variation 4: FORM 1 – Isolated This is usually a farmhouse found either in areas of extreme adverse physical conditions or in areas of pioneer settlement where land was divided into planned lots.

Variation 4: FORM 2 – Dispersed This consists of 2 - 3 buildings, perhaps forming a hamlet, and separated from the next small group of buildings by 2 - 3 km.

Variation 4: FORM 3 – Nucleated Buildings grouped together, originally for defensive purposes as well as for social and economic reasons. Usually found around a crossroads

Variation 4: FORM 4 – Loose Knit When houses are built near each other and are obviously in the same settlement, but there is spaces between them . Similar to the nucleated type, but the buildings are not so close together. They are spread out around the settlement.

Variation 4: FORM 5 – Lineated The buildings in this type of settlement are strung out along a road, river, dyke or canal in a line.

Variation 4: FORM 6 – Planned These are near enough to large cities to house the workforce. Tend to contain small crescent shaped estates (complesso abitativo, tenuta) with individual buildings on.

Urban Hierarchies

There are many different types of settlement, but these can roughly be divided into rural and urban settlements. Rural Settlements: Settlements that are found in the countryside (rural areas) and contain less than 10, 000 residents. Urban Settlements: Settlements that contain more than 10, 000 residents. Isolated Building (or dwelling): A single building. An isolated building is normally a farm. Hamlet: A small group of houses, normally about 5 to 10. There is often no services in a hamlet. Village: A settlement of up to 10, 000 people. Villages will have some services in them like small shops, a primary school, a doctors surgery, bus routes.

Town: A settlement of over 10, 000 people that has not be designated a city. City: A large town, in the UK a town becomes a city when it has a cathedral in it. Capital City: The main administrative centre within a country and the home of the national government. Primate City: The largest and most important city within a country. The primate city will often have double the population of the next most important city. Most of the time the primate city is also the capital city, but there are some famous exceptions e. g. New York, Sydney and Sao Paolo. Conurbation: Two or more towns or cities that have joined to together e. g. Birmingham, Walsall, Dudley and Wolverhampton in England. Megalopolis: A conurbation or a clustering of cities with a population of over 10 million people e. g. Tokyo.

Hierarchy The hierarchy of a settlement normally depends on three variables: The size of population The range and number of services The sphere of influence Obviously these three variables are very much interconnected. For services to be offered there has to be a minimum threshold population. When services are then offered more people are attracted. As more people are attracted more services are offered and the sphere of influence increases. As you move down the settlement hierarchy the number of settlements increase. For example you only get one capital city (near the top of the hierarchy) in each country, but you get thousands of isolated buildings (farms - near the bottom of the hierarchy) in every country.

PULL FACTORS (Why people are attracted to another place) • Better job opportunities • Electricity and a better standard of living • EDUCATION for themselves and their children – education is seen as the way out of the poverty trap • HOSPITALS – better health care and vaccinations • Feel safe – police force PUSH FACTORS (Why people leave a particular area) • Disease • To escape a natural disaster • Not enough land to go around • Large family sizes and absence of contraception (condoms, pill) means that there are many unemployed • Crop failure – people are starving so flee to the city to start a new life • Lack of government investment in rurul areas • Heard of friends / family who have “made it” in the city and so go and join them

What Are They? • Settlements can be described as being part of the urban hierarchy. • Where they stand on the hierarchy depends on a number of factors, the main ones being population, the number of services a settlement has and its sphere of influence.

Population • The most obvious way of deciding where a settlement ranks on the urban hierarchy is by using the population of that settlement. • The larger the population, the higher the settlement is placed on the hierarchy. • In the UK, the largest city in terms of population is London, which most people would agree is the most important settlement in the country and so deserves to be placed on the top of the urban hierarchy for the UK.

Population • After that the divisions between what is classified in each layer is a bit more vague. • Different sources will have different numbers for how many people are needed for a place to be called a city rather than a town for instance. • However the most important thing to notice on the diagram is that as you go up the hierarchy, there becomes a lot less of that type of settlement. • So, the diagram shows us that there are huge numbers of isolated farmhouses and hamlets. • There are less villages and small towns and so on.

Settlement Hierarchy

Services And Functions

Services • Services are things such as retailers (commercianti al minuto, shops), professionals (doctors, lawyers etc), entertainment (tempo libero), government functions and leisure (svago). • The theory goes that the larger a settlement is, and therefore the higher it is on the urban hierarchy, the more services and functions it will have.

Size • In general in the UK, this is the case. London is the settlement at the top of the urban hierarchy, and it has the greatest numbers of services and functions of any settlement in the country. • For instance, it has the major international airports, it is the seat of national government, it has the widest range of shops, including very specialist ones, and it has the most renowned (rinomato) professional services. • This is because its population is large enough to support all of the services. • A small village may on the other hand only have the population to support a pub, post office, village store and perhaps a small garage.

Villages • Villages and other rural settlements have found over the last 20 years that it has been increasingly hard for services to remain viable in these settlements. • Small post offices and banks have frequently been closed down, as there are simply not enough people using them to make them viable. • The number of services (functions) that a town provides normally relates to the number of people living there. • There are however, two noted anomalies.

Anomoly A • A Tourist town: Towns, such as Brighton, Blackpool and Eastbourne, that have grown due to the tourist industry, often have more services than their population suggests they should have. • This is because many of their services are catering for the huge numbers of tourists who flood into the towns during the summer months. • Hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, beach shops and ice cream stalls all are aimed to provide services for the tourists. • The extra tourist numbers swell the total population during the summer to a level that is more appropriate for the number of services provided.

Anomoly B • A Commuter Settlement: Many rural villages are becoming commuter centres, where people live, but work elsewhere. • Many villages and towns around the London area fulfil (svolgere, completare) this function.

Commuter Settlements • Have a large resident population, but as very few of them actually work in the village, there is nobody to support any services. • The commuters will do their shopping and banking in the city where they work. • This means that these settlements will have fewer services than their population suggests they should have. • Some commuter settlements are changing their services to cater for the different residents, with restaurants and cafes replacing the traditional village services.

Sphere Of Influence

What Is It? • The sphere of influence of a settlement describes the area that is served by a settlement, for a particular function. • Its sphere of influence for different functions may cover vastly different areas. • For instance a supermarket may attract people from a 20 -mile radius, whilst a leisure (tempo libero) activity, such as going to theatre may attract them from far further away.

What Does This Mean? • A small village may only have a village store selling the daily newspaper and food such as bread and milk • People will only travel the shortest distance they need to buy these products. • They are described as being convenience goods. • In other words, something that you can buy easily and for the same price all over the place.

Comparison Goods • A larger town would have a wider sphere of influence because it would have shops and services that are more specialist, and so people would be willing to travel further to use them. • An example might be a furniture shop. • This sells comparison goods, in other words products that you might shop around for before going ahead and buying something.

Range • The range of a good or service describes the maximum distance that someone would be willing to travel to obtain that good or service. • A newspaper shop has a small range because people will not travel far to use them. • A cinema has a much wider range as people are prepared to travel much further to go to it.

Threshold Population • The threshold population of a good or service is the minimum number of people needed to allow that shop or service to be successful. • A newsagent will have a small threshold, where as a supermarket like Tesco's needs a much larger population before it can consider opening a store.

Settlement Functions

Function • These can be grouped into a number of headings, such as residential, recreational, retail, government, entertainment andindustrial. • Some settlements have one predominant function. • This was particularly thecase when settlements were first established. • Some towns performed important defensive functions, others were ports and others were important route centres for further exploration of a country (such as the gateway cities of Canada e. g. Calgary and Edmonton).

Multi-Functional • Most settlements now are multi-functional, which means that they perform a range of different functions, however some may be more important than others to a particular settlement. • For instance a tourist town will perform all sorts of functions, but its main ones are concentrated towards the tourists.

What Happens? • Many settlements around the world have found that their functions have had to change over time. • One such example is that of small farming villages finding that their residents are moving out to find jobs in the cities.

What Happens? • This leaves the village empty, apart from the older population. • The village then may become a retirement centre, or commuters (pendolari) may move in and it could become a commuter village. • Two good examples of the changing functions of a settlement can be seen in Benidorm (Spain) and the South Wales mining towns.

Urban Models For MEDC’s

What Are They? • Often in geography models are used to try to explain something that we can see in the physical environment. • During the 20 th century a number of models were developed to try to explain how urban areas grew. • Although models show a very general idea of the shape of the city, all of the ones described here have aspects that can be seen in most cities in the developed and developing world.

Burgess

Urban Structure What do you need to know today? 1. Differences in the structure of urban areas can lead to differences in the quality of life of the inhabitants. 2. Urban models attempt to show those differences.

Urban Model 1: Burgess’ Concentric Zone Model Burgess suggested that towns grew outward from the centre in a concentric pattern. This means that buildings become more recent closer to the edge (margine) of a city. It is possible that up to 5 rings may develop: A - Central Business District (CBD): - most accessible to the largest number of people - contains services such as shops, offices, banks, etc. - multi-storey buildings as land is very expensive (build upwards to save cost)

CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT

Urban Model 1: Burgess’ Concentric Zone Model B - ‘Twilight Zone (zona di transizione)’ - has 2 sections: 1 - wholesale light manufacturing (transitional) 2 - low class residential (old inner city areas): - 19 Century terraced buildings - no gardens - cheap, dirty slum areas - GRID IRON street pattern - high rise blocks were built after slums were pulled down - attract crime - old industries found here

Inner City

INNER CITY HOUSING: SMALL, RUN DOWN, OLD, UGLY, CHEAP = TERRACED (SEVERAL LINKED)

£ 49, 500 INNER CITY

Urban Model 1: Burgess’ Concentric Zone Model C - Council Estates: Semi-detached housing with gardens in large estates. Less expensive private estates also here. Not top quality (medium class residential). INTER WAR AREA D - Commuter Zone: High class residential area. Private, top quality housing. Detached and semidetached on cheap land. People can live here as are prepared to pay to get to work.

INNER SUBURBS - Medium Quality Residential

OUTER SUBURBS - High CLASS RESIDENTIAL

£ 695, 000

Urban Model 1: Burgess’ Concentric Zone Model E - Countryside Areas (suburb / exurbs): Countryside surrounding the urban area. Can also contain villages / hamlets in which town / city workers live.

Countryside and Greenbelt land

City Transect (sezione) Increase in vegetation This city transect shows a cross section through a city. The CBD is located in the centre of the diagram and the other areas are clearly marked. On your diagram, add 10 labelled arrows which show changes in the three quality of life environments towards and away from the centre of the city. Examples: traffic, costs, vegetation, etc.

City Transect Examples of labels Increase in vegetation Decrease in traffic congestion Increase in housing cost Decrease in land costs Decrease in services Increase in building height Increase in crime Decrease in space Increase in competition for land Decrease in car ownership

Burgess • Burgess based his model on the city of Chicago. • At its core is the CBD, or Central Business District. • This is the area with the highest land price, which could only be afforded by businesses. • Around this is the zone of transition, which is where industry located. • In many cities in the UK, such as Birmingham, this zone can be quite easily identified. • However in most cases the industry has moved out, leaving the zone empty and in need of renewal.

Burgess • Beyond the zone of transition are the rings of residential housing. • As people became more wealthy they could afford to live further out of town, in bigger houses, with larger gardens. • The houses closest to the centre originally would have housed the workers for the inner city industries. • Many British cities still have many of these terraced houses remaining. • As people moved away from the CBD, the houses closest to the centre would be taken by newly arrived immigrants to the city, either from elsewhere in the country or abroad.

Hoyt’s Sector Model

Urban Model 2: Hoyts’ Sector Model Hoyt proposed the idea that towns grew as sectors or "wedges (spicchi)". That means that if, for example, industry grew up in one part of a 19 th century town, future industry would then develop in that sector. As the town grew, so would the area of industry and therefore it would grow out in a wedge shape. A – Central Business District B 1 – Wholesale Light Manufacturing B 2 – Low Class Residential C – Council Estates D – Commuter Zone (Suburbs) E - Countryside

Hoyt • The sector model has a similar idea of a CBD to Burgess. • This is still the area with the highest land price. • Hoyt then used transport routes to determine where his other sectors would be located. • He still had a zone of transition around the CBD, but he also had industry fanning out from the centre along major transport routes. • He assumed that "Like would attract like", which is why he decided that land-uses would concentrate to form sectors, rather being in rings, like Burgess thought.

Hoyt • The lowest class housing would be closest to the industry, and probably be located where the prevailing winds would blow the pollution towards them (and away from the higher class housing). • The high class housing also is in a sector of its own, running all the way from the CBD, where many of the residents would work, to the outer suburbs.

Case Study: Urbanisation In Cairo, Egypt ()

Push Factors - from countryside • Drought in desert • unreliable weather, bad for growing crops, no water. • Unreliable (inaffidabili, scarse) water supply, runs out. • no jobs • unpleasant conditions

Pull Factors - to urban areas • Irrigated, fertile land on the Nile delta • reliable water supply • “bright lights of city” effect • job opportunities • inertia - if people move, others will follow

• New, modern European additions to the city, such as Parisian style boulevards and commercial centres, as well as bridges and transport links. • New suburbs built. • Egypt becomes free of European control.

Urban Problems • Strain on services - demand for piped water, sewers (fognature), schools, paved roads and electricity. • Traffic congestion, air pollution and water pollution • housing shortages - people live in The City of the Dead = old cemetary

• Lack of permanent jobs • illegal housing is built on ‘green’ land, and protected farmland • overcrowding, lack of basic sanitation and poor refuse collection, in temperatures of 40 o. C +, leads to disease and illness. • 3 million people now live in the city of the dead in the tombs of old Cairo • people are squatters on rooftops of office buildings and flats in home made huts

• Private landlords illegally add extra storeys to their existing blocks of flats • rich poor imbalance - very few rich, many poor • no enforcement of catalytic converters on cars, or unleaded fuel, this leads to toxic smog • low pay for jobs, and unskilled jobs are hard to come by • polluted sewage water raises the water table, and rots the foundations of buildings

Solutions • Gentrification (bonifica) - improving city • building a new sewage (raccolta • Dei liquami di scarico) di system (greater Cairo sewage project) • Zabbaleen people given official contract to collect waste and sewage

• New satellite and dormitory town are built in areas around Cairo • a massive new ring road and metro system have been built • waste is seen as a resource • a drop in birth rate may be the best solution long-term

Urban Structure What do you need to know today? 1. Differences in the structure of urban areas can lead to differences in the quality of life of the inhabitants. 2. Urban models attempt to show those differences.

Harris And Ulman’s Multiple Nuclei Model

Harris And Ulman • This model was aimed at being more specific than the other two, however it also has become more complicated. • Harris and Ullman still have a central CBD, but they also have other smaller centres performing specific functions that Hoyt and Burgess decided would have been found in and around the CBD • Thus Harris & Ullman also have a business centre, and industrial parks.

Harris And Ulman • Large cities do display some of these characteristics. • London has different areas of its centre that have different functions: the City, Westminster, Oxford Street and the West End all have differing specific functions. • London has also grown to engulf other towns and villages, which have become smaller CBD's within the whole of Greater London. • These CBD's act as growth poles, meaning that the city does not just grow from one central point, but from many spread around its area.

Urban Models For LEDC’s

Waugh’s Model

What Is It All About? • Based on cities of the developing world, using some of the ideas found in the MEDC models, but also incorporating the urban features only found in LEDC cities. • The CBD is still central to the urban area, and is the area of highest land price. • However around it is the most expensive residential areas. • In some places, such as Sao Paulo, this means huge luxurious high-rise apartment blocks, whilst in others, such as Delhi, the former colonial areas are the most lucrative in which to own property.

What Is It All About? • Industrial development is along major transport routes, whilst there also sectors of high-class housing. • The most striking difference between the LEDC model and the MEDC models is the remaining residential areas. They have been divided into three sections. The periferia are low class, poor quality houses. However they do have limited amenities and are permanent homes.

What Is It All About? • The favelas or shanty towns are illegal settlements, where the houses are built from what ever the people can find, and there are no basic amenities. • In some cities, such as Sao Paulo, schemes have been introduced to help the residents of the favelas, and these people can be found in the sector of housing improvements schemes.

Urban Zoning

Urban Line Transect Outer Suburbs Inner City CBD Inner City Inner Suburbs Outer Suburbs

Transect • By drawing a transect of a city, you can quite easily identify the different zones, in much the same way as Burgess and the other theorists did. • Transects help you to identify and classify zones, enabling you to compare the characteristics of each area. • You can identify the CBD, the older terraced housing, and as you move further from the city centre the newer housing of the suburbs.

The CBD • The focal point of the city, with the highest land prices. • The CBD is where shops will locate as they know it is the most accessible point for the people of the city. • The high land prices mean that buildings tend to grow upwards, and this is why CBD's often have tall skyscrapers, particularly in American cities. • The main functions of the CBD will include retail, entertainment, financial services and other professional services.

The Inner City • This is Burgess's zone of transition. • The inner city in the 19 th Century would have been the centre of industry for most cities. • Low paid workers would have lived in the many rows of terraced houses that were built beside the factories. • Nowadays, although the factories have gone, many of the terraced houses remain. • The Inner city of many urban areas has undergone great changes.

The Inner City • These are covered in detail in a later section. However once the industry moved out, the inner cities became areas in need of redevelopment. • The first plan was to build tall blocks of flats to replace the terraces. • This occurred in the 1960's and 1970's. • During the 1990's Inner City redevelopment has taken the form of gentrification schemes aimed at rejuvenating the area, producing more of a community spirit, whilst trying to keep some of the old architecture.

The Suburbs • Many suburban houses were built in the period between the two World Wars, during the first half of the 20 th century. • Estates full of detached and semi-detached houses grew rapidly as public and private transport improvements allowed people to live further away from their place of work. • During the 1960's and 1970's these areas also continued to grow.

The Rural-Urban Fringe • The rural-urban fringe is where most of the post war housing has been built. • Usually in estates of mainly detached and semi -detached houses, the emphasis has often been on making the houses as spacious as possible. • Again these housing developments were only possible thanks to the fact that most families now own at least one car.

Urbanisation CBD Problems And Solutions

Urbanisation: (= an increasing number of people living in urban areas (cities)). There are 3 main causes of this: 1. People migrating from the countryside to the city (common in LEDCs – eg Mexico City) 2. People migrating from other countries (international migration) 3. More babies born to the people who migrate to the city – who are generally young anyway In MEDCs the reverse is often occuring where people are moving from the city into the countryside = COUNTER-URBANIZATION

Congestion • Many British cities still have street plans that were laid down hundreds of years ago. • The roads cannot cope with the ever-increasing numbers of cars and other vehicles. • This can cause massive congestion problems, especially at "rush hour". • Solutions to the problems have included improving public transport (e. g. the trams of Manchester); introducing park and ride schemes (e. g. Oxford); pedestrianisation (e. g. Exeter & Oxford); encouraging people to share cars into work and building roads (e. g. Watford).

Congestion • In Athens (Greece) they have tried an extreme form of control by only allowing cars with odd numbers on their number plates into the city on one day, and then cars with even numbers the next day. • Unfortunately this has led many people to own two cars, one with an odd number and one with an even one!

Lack Of Space • CBD’s are limited in their outwards growth by the fact that the city encompasses them, and due to the fact that businesses want to locate as close to the centre as they possibly can. • This has led to land prices rising to astronomical amounts. • The only solution seen by most businesses is to build upwards, which is why CBD's can be characterised by the presence of skyscrapers.

Pollution • The major pollution seen in urban areas is air pollution, or smog. This pollution is mainly caused by the fumes given off by traffic and industry. • The most famous example of where this pollution haze can be seen is over Los Angeles, but most of the large cities of the world experience it too. Poor air quality can lead to an increase in the cases of asthma and bronchitis.

Pollution • Air is not the only thing polluted in cities. Water can be badly polluted, and so has to be carefully treated before being drunk. • It’s a horrible thought, but most of the water that you drink in London has already been drunk by 7 other people! • Solutions to pollution problems include: banning heavy vehicles from CBD's; developing cleaner fuels, and providing more litter bins in CBD's.