Saturday, September 30, 2006

1300 Chapter 13 - The Area Tradition

The Region
  • An area of the earth that displays a distinctive grouping or physical or cultural phenomena
  • An area that is functionally united as a single organizational unit
  • Used to divide the world into smaller, more easily understood pieces

Regional Concept
  • Physical and cultural phenomena are arranged by complex but comprehensible spatial processes

Characteristics of Regions
  • Location
    • Generally a relative location
  • Spatial Extent
    • Exist within a definable geographic space
  • Boundaries
    • The edge of the defined traits of the selected region
    • May be zones of transition or precise, linear separations
    • Tend to be subjective and even arbitrary
  • Formal Regions
    • Areas of essential uniformity in one or a limited combination of features
    • The largest area over which a valid generalization may be made
    • Climate and Culture zones
  • Functional Regions
    • Areas defined by dynamic interactions and connections
    • Areas tend to be subject to rapid and constant change and modification
  • Hierarchically Arranged
    • Large regions are composed of smaller regions
    • “Super-regions” may be called Realms

Perceptual/Popular/Vernacular Regions
  • Define a Sense of Place
  • Composites of mental maps of people – individuals and groups

Regions in Physical Geography
  • Landform Regions
    • Tend to be more sharply defined and agreed upon
    • Tend to be based upon visible features and changes in the landscape
    • Tend to be durable and long-lasting/constant
  • Weather and Climate
    • Considered an example of a Multifactor Formal Region
    • Tend to be dynamic and cyclical
  • Natural Resource Regions
    • Tend to be sub-surface features
      • Three dimensional regions
    • Tend to be similar to landform regions
      • Heavily subject to human use and modification
    • Can become complex Multifactor Functional Regions
      • Advances in technology
      • Depletion
      • Replacement

Regions in the Culture-Environment Tradition
  • Creates regions defined by the myriad of human cultural variation and land-use
  • Tend to be dynamic and subjective
  • Population
    • One of the more basic forms of geographic study
    • Uses transportation patterns, climate, landforms, political divisions, technological expertise, urbanization, etc…
  • Language
    • Can be small or large area, single factor regions
  • Cognitive or Mental
    • Tend to be much less precise and formalized
    • Personal views of regions and regionalization
    • Individual Activity Areas
  • Political
    • Tend to be rigidly defined and carefully surveyed
    • May be marked on the physical landscape
    • Subject to change, negotiation, and dispute
      • Relic boundaries

Regions of the Location Tradition
  • Focuses more on the interactions of the cultural landscape
  • Tend to be Multifactor Functional Regions
  • Economic
    • Looks at interaction between people, resources, and culture
    • Looks at change and trends
  • Urban
    • Urban Geography and urbanization
  • Ecosystems
    • Systems Analysis
      • Studies the organization, structure, and functional dynamics of an area
      • Quantifies the interrelations and interactions between segments
    • Human impact on the landscape and environment

1300 Chapter 12 - Human Impact

Ecology
  • The study of how organisms interact with one another and their environment
  • Human construction of the Cultural Environment
    • Began with the earliest hunter-gatherers
      • Burning of areas
      • Planting beneficial plants
      • Modifying the landscape
    • Took off with Agriculture
    • Furthered with urbanization

Biosphere
  • The earth and the atmosphere in which we live.
  • Composed of three interrelated parts
    • Troposphere – lowest layer of the Earth’s atmosphere
    • Hydrosphere – surface and subsurface waters
    • Lithosphere/Earth’s Crust – the upper few thousand feet
  • Functions with two interrelated components
    • Outside energy source – the Sun
    • Living world of plants and animals

Ecosystems
  • Self-sustaining units of the Biosphere which consist of all the organisms and physical features existing together in a particular area.
  • Everything is interconnected
    • Modification of one niche affects every other niche
Food Chain
  • A sequence of organisms through which energy and materials move within an ecosystem

Environmental Pollution
  • Introduction into the biosphere of wastes that cannot be readily disposed of by natural recycling processes.
  • Point Sources
    • Pollution enters from a specific site
  • Non-point Sources
    • Pollution is expelled from a more diffuse and widespread source
Impact on Water
  • Hydrologic Cycle
    • The system through which water cycles though the biosphere
    • Cycle tends to purify the water
Availability of Water
  • Regional variation as to access to water and reliability of water resources
    • Rain and snow fall
    • Rivers and lakes
    • Subsurface aquifer
  • Size of Population dependent upon water
    • Personal use and agricultural use
    • 70-90% of water use if for agriculture
  • Scarcity
    • Increasingly used to discuss available water resources for humans and agriculture
  • Water Deficit
    • Consuming more water than your annual renewable supply
    • Generally associated with groundwater aquifers
    • Texas – operates a major water deficit
  • Desalination
    • Cleansing of sea water of salts and minerals for use by humans
    • Expensive and inefficient
Modification of Streams
  • Prevent flooding, regulate supply, generate power
  • Channelization
    • Construction of embankments and dikes
    • Straightening, widening, and deepening of channels
    • Decrease of wetlands and species
  • Dam Construction
    • Artificial impediment to water flow
    • Water storage for individual use and irrigation
    • Prevent flooding
  • Canals
  • Reservoirs
Water Quality
  • Agriculture is the chief cause of water pollution
Agricultural Sources of Water Pollution
  • Fertilizers
    • Nitrates and phosphates from manure and artificial fertilizers
    • Eutrophication – enrichment of waters by nutrients
    • Accelerated Eutrophication – from fertilizers
      • Stimulates growth of algae and other plants
      • Blocks sunlight and oxygen
    • Creation of Dead Zones in the oceans
  • Biocides
    • Herbicides and pesticides
    • DDT
    • Long term presence in the environment
    • Unknown long term affects of even small amounts in humans and animals
  • Animal Wastes
    • Spreading of manure on farmland and from contamination from waste pools.
    • Dead zones in oceans
    • Contamination of food products with animal waste
Industrial Sources of Water Pollution
  • Equal to agriculture in industrialized nations
  • Acids, toxic minerals and organic chemicals, radiation
    • Mercury – from power plants
    • PCBs – found throughout the manufacturing and industrial process
    • Plastics
  • Petroleum Industry
    • Toxic organic chemicals
    • Direct release of oil into the environment
  • Acid Rain
    • Power plants
  • Thermal Pollution
    • Discharge of heated water into the environment
Mining
  • For coal and other minerals
  • Contamination of groundwater and surface water
    • Cyanide and mercury for gold mining
    • Strip mining and mountaintop mining
Municipalities and Residences
  • Uses of chemicals
  • Storage tanks
  • Waste sewage
  • Storm water runoff

Impact on Air and Climate
  • Air Pollutants
    • Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, particulates, sulfur oxides
  • Factors Affecting Air Pollution
    • Temperature inversions
      • Stationary layer of warm air above cooler air
      • Air does not move and pollutants accumulate
    • air currents
      • move pollutants from their source to downwind areas
    • levels of urbanization and industrialization
      • High population and transportation densities increase pollution
      • Types and locations of industry
      • Agricultural practices – field burning
  • Acid Rain (Precipitation)
    • Sulfuric and Nitric Acid
    • Produced by burning fossil fuels
      • Vehicles, industries, power plants, metal smelting
    • Carried hundreds of kilometers by air currents
    • Increases the acidity of the area where it falls
    • Terrestrial Effects
      • Acidifies soil
      • Coats soil with toxic metals
      • Kills microorganisms and plants
    • Aquatic Effects
      • Kills microorganisms, plants, and insects
      • Interferes with fish reproduction and feeding
    • Material Effects
      • Damage to buildings and monuments
  • Photochemical Smog
    • Nitrogen oxides – Ozone
    • Assisted by hot and sunny weather
    • Generally an urban problem
    • Causes lung damage and ailments
      • Significant increases in asthma in children
    • Damage to plants
  • Depletion of Ozone Layer
    • Forms blanket in upper atmosphere
    • Protects earth from solar radiation
    • Can be destroyed by a variety of industrial chemicals
    • Ozone depletion over entire earth
      • Hole over the Antarctic
    • Increases in skin cancers in humans
    • Destruction of oceanic algae
    • Damage to other plant life

Controlling Air Pollution
  • Montreal Protocol of 1987
    • To reduce and eliminate CFC’s
    • Still a problem in developing nations
  • 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution
    • 33 countries in Europe and the Americas
    • To reduce Acid Rain and Smog and Ozone
  • U.S. Clean Air Acts (1963, 1965, 1970, 1977, 1990)
    • Reduce urban smog by limiting allowable levels of particulates and ozone
    • Promote cleaner burning fuels
    • Lower emissions from vehicles
    • Reducing acid rain causing emissions from power plants
  • Strategies
    • Improved technologies for fossil fuel usage
    • Reduce energy consumption
    • Reduce emissions from motor vehicles

Impact on Landforms
  • Excavation (tell story about silver city bars, closing time, dogs…)
    • Surface/Open Pit Mining
    • Strip Mining/Montaintop Removal
    • Pits, ponds, canals, reservoirs, etc.
  • Dumping
    • Mining – spoil heaps/slag heaps
    • Agriculture
    • Dredging and dikes
  • Surface Depressions
    • Subsidence
      • From removal of liquids
    • Sinkholes and pits
      • From removal of solids

Impact on Plants and Animals
  • Endangered Species
    • Immediate jeopardy of becoming extinct in the wild
  • Vulnerable Species
    • Decreasing population – likely to be come extinct
  • Threatened Species
    • Refer to both endangered and vulnerable species
  • Extinction
    • Species no longer exists
  • Habitat Disruption
    • Main threat to species
    • Agriculture, mining, logging, urbanization
  • Hunting and Commercial Exploitation
    • Ivory, trophies, medicinal, sport
    • Over fishing
  • Exotic Species
    • No native predators
    • Out-compete and replace native species
    • Killer/Africanized Bees, Gypsy Moth, Tiger Mosquito, Zebra Mussels, Sparrows, Honey Bees
  • Poisoning and Contamination
    • Biological Magnification – the accumulation of poisons in an organism and its concentration at higher levels in the food chain.
    • Highest levels in the top predators
    • Increasing resistance to chemicals
      • Antibiotics
      • Biocides

Solid-Waste Disposal
  • Municipal Waste
    • Mainly domestic waste with some commercial
    • Affluence
      • Disposable society
      • Americans worst at waste
    • Packaging
      • For all of the disposable waste
    • Open Space
      • Does not force recycling and reduction
    • Hazardous Waste
      • Poses threat to human health and/or the environment
      • Household chemicals
      • Electronic devices
  • Landfills
    • 71% of all U.S. Municipal Waste goes into landfills
    • Great threat of groundwater contamination
  • Incineration
    • Burn it
    • Emissions contain many pollutants
      • Toxins, heavy metals, sulfides, etc…
    • More favored in Japan and Europe
  • Source Reduction and Recycling
    • Producing less waste
    • Reduce weigh of packaging
    • Concentrate materials
    • Recovery and reprocessing of used materials
      • Requires lower cost to recycle than discard
      • Impoverished work forces in 3rd World Countries

Hazardous Waste
  • More than 400 substances classified as hazardous by EPA
  • Categories of Hazardous Waste
    • Ignitable wastes – catches fire easily
    • Corrosive wastes – acids or bases which will corrode metal containers
    • Reactive wastes – unstable and can cause explosions, toxic fumes, gases, or vapors when heated, compressed, or mixed with water.
    • Toxic waste – chemical or metal toxins
  • Low-level waste
    • Decays in less than 100 years
    • Commonly found in landfills
    • Major threat to groundwater and health
  • High-level waste
    • Can remain radioactive for over 10,000 years
    • Civilian and military nuclear programs
  • Disposal of hazardous waste
    • Buried sealed containers
    • Dumping at sea
    • Exporting to other countries
  • Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976)
    • Early regulation on hazardous waste
    • Track waste from entrance through disposal
  • Superfund Site
    • 1240 sites +/-

Friday, September 29, 2006

1300 Chapter 11 - Urban Geography

Origin and evolution of cities
  • Settled hunter-gatherers and early agriculturalists
  • Agriculture
    • Agriculture requires year-round activities
    • Agriculture provides a surplus of food
    • Settled lifestyles and grains reduce infant mortality
  • Emerging Political elite and power
    • Military
    • Religious
    • Based on control of surplus
    • Hydraulic Civilization Theory
      • Control of irrigation
    • Control of city and hinterland
  • Areas easy to defend or with materials to construct defences
  • Areas with access to transportation
    • Coastal
    • Rivers
  • Development of a complex economy
    • Increased numbers of specialists
    • Merchants (incipient middle class)
  • Development of new agricultural practices and technology
    • Larger surpluses
    • Fewer farmers needed
    • Increased urbanization
  • Industrial Revolution
    • Agricultural technology
    • Jobs in cities
Location of Urban Areas
  • Dependent upon efficiency
    • Centrality
    • Location relative to resources
    • Transportation network
  • Site
    • Absolute location
  • Situation
    • Relative location
  • Break-of-Bulk Points
    • Location along a trade route where goods must be transferred from one carrier to another
    • Ports, river crossings and head of navigation, borders, transportation hubs, etc…

Economic Base
  • Basic Sector
    • Population producing goods and services for regions surrounding or outside of the urban area
    • Bring money from the periphery/hinterlands into the urban area
  • Non-basic Sector
    • Population producing goods and services for the urban area itself
    • Redistribute urban wealth
    • Numbers grow faster than basic personnel
  • Overlap between sectors
  • Produces a Multiplier Effect
    • The more people involved in the basic sector the more people arrive to provide for non-basic needs
  • Urban Classifications
    • Manufacturing
    • Retailing
    • Wholesaling
    • Transportation
    • Government
Functions of Cities
  • Cities generally have multiple functions
  • Many cities specialize in one or more functions
  • Functions
    • Central Place
    • Transport center
    • Special functions
Central Markets
  • Central Place Theory (see below)
  • Urban Influence Zones
    • The size of the area affected/controlled/influenced by one urban area and not another
    • Dependent upon distance from the urban area

Central Place Theory (Walter Christaller – 1933)
  • Explains size and location of urban areas
  • Concepts and assumptions
    • Towns would develop to provide basic services for agricultural areas
    • Agricultural population dispersed in an even pattern
    • People would possess similar needs, wants, and income
    • Each product or service requires a “threshold” number of people before it develops in an urban area
    • Consumers go to the nearest location for goods and services
  • Results
    • Landscape can be divided up into hexagonal market areas
    • A central place will be located at the center of each market area
    • The size of the central place and its market area will be proportional to the goods and services offered at that central place
  • Further Results
    • Towns of similar size are generally evenly spaced across the landscape
    • Larger towns are placed farther apart than smaller ones
      • More small towns than large ones
    • Spacing of towns is interdependent
      • Removal or placement of a town requires entire system to readjust
    • The higher the threshold for a good or service the farther (on average) the consumer must travel to get it.
Centers of Production and Services
  • Cities form around and attract industry
  • Population engaged in manufacturing/industry attracts service people
  • Service population can overtake manufacturing in importance
  • Post-Industrial society
Centers of Administration and Institutions
  • Urban areas as places from which control is exercised upon the hinterland
    • Administration as a non-basic service
    • Federal, state, metropolitan, and local governments
  • Education Sector
    • Primary, secondary, post-secondary, technical, professional
  • Health Care Sector
  • Entertainment Sector

Urban Hierarchy
  • Ranking of urban areas
    • Size
    • Functional complexity
Rank-Size Relationship
  • Useful for regions with a long history of urbanization and complex economies
  • Size of the city is determined by its relationship with the largest city
    • Nth largest city will be 1/n the size of the largest city
      • i.e. the 2nd largest city will be ½ the size of the largest city
  • Less applicable to developing nations or those with Primate Cities
    • Primate City
      • A city which is far more than twice the size of any second ranked urban areas or with no second ranked cities
      • Developed in Europe during the early industrial period
        • Slowly changing in some nations
      • Common as a colonial legacy
World Cities
  • Large urban centers
  • Control points for international production, marketing, and finance
    • London
    • New York
    • Tokyo

Inside the City
  • Urban Area
    • U.S. Census Bureau definition requires a population of greater than 2500 people
    • Greece it means over 10,000 people in a metropolitan area
  • City
    • A multifunctional, nucleated settlement with a central business district and both residential and non-residential land uses.
    • Determinations of “city” status depend upon local and national laws and traditions
      • Population
      • Mayors or city managers
      • Letters of patent
      • Presence of a cathedral
  • Town
    • A nucleated settlement that contains a central business district but that is smaller and less functionally complex than a city
    • In Britain it meant a fortified settlement
  • Suburb
    • Subsidiary area, a functionally specialized segment of a larger urban complex, dependent upon a larger urban area
    • May develop into independent urban areas over time
    • Generally an American creation
  • Urbanized Area
    • A continuously built-up landscape defined by buildings and population densities with no reference to political boundaries
    • May contain a central city, suburbs, surrounding towns, etc…
    • Houston and Harris County
  • Metropolitan Area
    • Large scale, functional entity
    • May contain several urbanized areas but operates as an integrated economic whole
Central Business District (CBD)
  • The center of a city/urban area where economic business and cultural activities are focused.
  • Within and surrounded by areas of high land value.
  • High population densities and high accessibility
Outside the CBD
  • Land Uses
    • Residential Areas
      • High, middle, and lower class areas
    • Light manufacturing and wholesale industries
    • Heavy manufacturing
    • Industrial areas
  • Land value and population density decrease as one moves away from the CBD

Models of Urban Form

Concentric Zone Model
  • Ernest Burgess – 1920’s
  • Five Zones radiating outward from the CBD
    • CBD
    • Zone of Transition
      • Stagnation, high-density, low-income slums and ghettoes
    • Low-class/working-class residential
      • Smaller, older homes on smaller lots
    • Middle-class residential
    • Upper-class residential
  • Apply mainly to Chicago (where research was conducted)
  • Does not apply to non-North American cities
Sector Model
  • Homer Hoyt – 1930’s
  • Urban areas grow along wedge-shaped sectors
  • Focused on transportation arteries
  • High-income housing focuses on access to transportation routes
    • Surrounded by middle-class residential areas
    • Low-income residential areas on outskirts
      • Near to industrial areas
  • Industrial areas focused on transportation lines as well
  • Dynamic model
  • Based on North American cities
    • Chicago and Calgary
  • Application mainly to North and South American Cities
Multiple-Nuclei Model
  • Chauncy D. Harris and Edward L. Ullman – 1945
  • Counters the CBD growth models
  • Cities grow from by spreading from several connected nodes of growth
  • Peripheral expansion lead to eventual coalescence along lines of juncture
  • Developed in Los Angeles
Peripheral Model
  • Attempt to model changes in North American urban areas since 1945
    • Development of suburbia
  • Supplements the previous models
  • Focuses on the periphery of the city instead of the CBD
  • Functions are determined by their relationships with other periphery functions and not the CBD

Changes in Urban FormsPrimarily in North American Cities
  • Automobile
    • Freeway system
    • Replaced mass transit
    • Allowed massive spatial expansion of urban areas
  • Interstate Highway System
    • Expanded urban areas/commuting zones out 20 to 30 miles
    • 50 to 60 miles in Houston
  • Rise in individual home ownership
    • Revolution in mortgage practices by the Federal Government
    • Own free-standing home in suburbs instead of renting within the city
  • Decreased work week
    • More time at home
    • More time to commute
Suburbanization
  • Uniform but spatially discontinuous housing developments beyond the boundaries of the older, central cities
  • Unfocused sprawl since they were not tied to mass-transit routes
    • Automobile
  • Began in late 1940’s to early 1950’s
  • Slowed during the 1970’s and resumed again in the 1980’s
    • Affected by fuel prices
  • Development of the Shopping Mall to provide services to suburban communities
  • Relocation of industry to suburban locations
    • Follow workforce
    • Use of roads meant less dependence upon rail and water transportation
      • Flexible truck transportation
    • Service industries follow Base Sector
  • Edge Cities (Joel Garreau)
    • Development of Suburbs into smaller, independent urban areas surrounding the old city and CBD.
    • It must have more than five million square feet (465,000 m²) of office space. This is enough to house between 20,000 and 50,000 office workers, as many as some traditional downtowns.
    • It must have more than 600,000 square feet (56,000 m²) of retail space, the size of a medium shopping mall. This ensures that the edge city is a center of recreation and commerce as well as office work.
    • It must be characterized by more jobs than bedrooms.
    • It must be perceived by the population as one place.
    • It must have been nothing like a city in 1960.
  • Houston Edge Cities
    • The FM 1960 Area
    • Kingwood
    • Sugar Land
    • The Woodlands
    • Uptown Houston/The Galleria
    • Clear Lake City
    • Greenway Plaza
    • Westchase
    • Greenspoint
    • Sharpstown
  • Megalopolis
    • A continuously built-up region with many new centers that compete with the old CBDs.
    • Boston to Washington D.C. along the eastern seaboard
    • Tokyo
Decline of the Central City
  • Rise of the Edge Cities and highways
    • Wealthier and better educated moved to suburbs
    • Poor remained within the central cities
  • Loss of revenue from taxes
  • Loss of job opportunities
  • Federal Housing Acts
    • Beginning in the 1940’s
      • Low income war housing and slum clearance
      • Initially effective and well designed
    • Late 1950’s – massive experiments with social engineering
    • Massive slums
  • Urban Decay
Renewal and Gentrification
  • Cities have centralized telecommunications links and access
  • Access to skilled labor necessary for a Post-Industrial society
  • Gentrification
    • The rehabilitation of housing in deteriorated city areas by middle and upper income groups
    • Tension between poor residents and incoming renovators
  • Attractions of short commutes and non-homogenized lives
  • Sports and convention facilities
  • Smart Growth Programs
    • Restrict urban sprawl
    • Preserve green zones
    • Development of brown and grey fields
      • Former industrial areas
Social Areas of Cities
  • People tend to cluster in areas with people of similar family and social status, and ethnicity
  • Family Status
    • As distance from CBD increases
      • Average age of head-of-household declines
      • Size of family increases
    • Poverty and Gender in U.S. Cities
      • Central cities have more households headed by women than men
      • Women constitute the majority of poor individuals
      • The majority of the poor live in central cities
      • Women and the poor depend more upon public transportation
      • Minorities are more likely to use public transportation than whites
  • Social Status
    • Determined by income, education, occupation, and home value
    • Low density residence indicates higher status
    • Rise of gated communities to control access to areas to accepted social status
  • Ethnicity
    • Many times minority ethnic groups tend to cluster together
    • Ethnicity tends to follow the patterns of family and social status

Urban Institutional Controls
  • Non-market controls by local and national governments to control use of land
    • Zoning Ordinances
    • Building, Health, and Safety Codes
  • Designed to minimize incompatibilities
  • Provide appropriate locations for public and private land use
  • Many times used to exclude “undesirable” uses and people

Western European Cities
  • Classic examples of Primate Cities
  • Compact Form
    • Occupy less land area
  • Focus on apartments and high residential density
  • Lower skyline
    • Historical structures of stone
  • Pedestrian oriented
  • Well developed network of public transportation
    • Both within and between cities
  • Historical Connections
    • Narrow streets and older buildings
    • Radial main streets leading from the CBD
  • Greenbelts and Parks

Eastern European Cities
  • Very similar to Western European Cites
  • Generally compact with high population density
  • Sharp break at edge between urban and rural
  • CBD focused on Governmental uses instead of markets
  • Micro-Districts for residential population
    • 10,000 to 15,000 people
    • Generally self-sufficient
    • Located adjacent to industrial areas
  • Undergoing change

Canadian Cities
  • A transition form between European and U.S. urban models
  • Higher population densities
  • Well developed public transportation
  • Urban sprawl and roads/streets to accommodate the automobile
  • Focus remains on the CBD and not edge cities

Non-Western Cities
  • Latin American Model is commonly found
    • Centered around a Central Business District and a Commercial Spine
    • Elite Residential Zone anchored to the CBD and CS
    • A Zone of Maturity consists of mainly middle-class housing
    • A Zone of In-Situ-Accretion is a mix of middle and low income housing, generally thought of as a transitional area (moving either up on down)
    • A Zone of Peripheral Squatter Settlements surrounds the city, made up of the millions of impoverished and unskilled workers and recent migrants to the city
      • A center for the Informal Sector (Black Market)
      • Outside of government control or enforcement
      • Barrios or Favelas
    • Squatter Settlements on unused land along highways, rail corridors, and riverbanks. Even poorer then those in the PSS.
  • Cultural variations depend upon religions practiced, degree of colonial impact, etc…