SUMMARIES UNIT 13 : CITIES (2ºESO)

1. TYPES OF SETTLEMENT

RURAL AND URBAN SETTLEMENT

People form settlements when hey live together in a territory. Traditionally, setlements have been classified as rural or urban according to the following criteria:

• Size. Rural settlements have smaller populations than cities.
• Economic activity. Urban populations mainly work in the tertiary (or services) sector and industrial activity. Many people in rural areas work in agricultura.

However, the difference between the two types of settlement is not as grea now as it was several decades ago. Today, agricultural work is mainly done by machines, so many people who live in the countryside no longer work on farms. Transport and communications have improved greatly, and transformed the relationship between rural and urbana reas:

• Many inhabitants of rural areas commute to work in cities.
• Factories and companies have moved out of cities and located in neighbouring regions, where land is cheaper. As a result, the surrounding regions have lost their rural character.

RURAL SETTLEMENT

Rural settlements are usually located in areas where water and fertile land are found. Agricultura, grazing and forestry can all be carried out in this type of enviroment. There are two types of rural settlement.

• Dispersed settlement. The population lives in separate buildings, which are dispersed across an extensive territory. This type of settlement is common in some parts of northern Spain, especially mountainous regions.
• Concentrated settlement. Buildings are built close together so they form villages and small towns. His type of settlement is common in many Spanish regions, like Castilla-la Mancha and Extremadura.

URBAN SETTLEMENT

High population density is characteristic of urban settlement. Buildings are built near each other, and industrial activity and services are all located in fairly small areas.

An urban environment is very different from a rural landscape. Buildings are higher and closer together. Cities are the centres of transport neworks and there is a great deal of traffic around them.

The urban population has grown considerably over the last two centuries, mainly as a result of rural exodus. Today, cities continue to grow rapidly in developing countries, where large nubers of pope are leaving the rural areas.

THE INTERACTION BETWEEN RURAL AND URBAN ENVIRONMENTS

There are many interactions veteen rural andurban environments:

- Rural areas supply food, raw materials and some industrial `products to cities. Many leisure activities are practised in rural areas. Additionally, much of the urban population originally lived i the countryside.

- Urban companies and institutions sell products and provide services to the onhabitants of rural areas. Moreover, there has been a recent trend for people living in cities to move away and look for homes in the neighbouring countryside.

2.  THE ORIGINS AND HISTORY OF CITIES

WHAT IS A CITY?

Cities have the following characteristics:

• Population size. Cities have large populations, and high population density. In many countries, settlements ith over 10,000 inhabitants are considered to be cities.
• Econoic activity. The inhabitants o cities mainly work in the services sector and industry.
• Space. Cities have high density construction and tall buldings. They have services and transport infrastructures.
• Lifestyle. People from many different origins live in cities. They create their on characteristic lifestyle based on a high degree of social mobility and cultural interaction.

Cities have changed continuously since the earliest urban centres were built about 8,000 years ago. Modern cities are completely different from the earliest settlements- there have been several stages in their development: pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial.

THE PRE-INDUSTRIAL CITY

Pre-industrial cities were the cities that existed before the Industrial Revolution of the 19 th century. They were important centres of political and religious authority, as well as places where commercial and economic  activities were carried out. Most pre-industrial cities were much smaller than mother ones, and did not have big populations.

• The earliest cities wee built in Mesopotamia, India and China, and were a key part of classical Greek civilisation. Roman cities had goog streets, sanitation and other facilities, and were built on  grid pattern that influenced later urban planning.
• In Medieval Europe, walled cities did no have a standard plan, and their streets were very narrow. Cathedrals and markets were built on the main square in the centre of the city.
• In Renaissance and Baroque Europe, classical ideals of order and systematic planning were rediscovered. There were some attempts to improve the aearance of cities, and make them healthier places to live in.

INDUSTRIAL CITIES

Cities were transformed during the Industrial Revolution that began in some parts of Europe and North America in the 19 th century. Factories and small workshops were built inside cities, and people moved away from the countryside t olive near their new workplaces. Urban areas increased greatly in size, old city walls were pulled down, and ralway stations and new streets were built.

As cities grew bigger, new residential districts were created .ciy extensions (ensanches)with large, comfortable houses were built for wealthy people. Poorer people lived in unhealthy conditions in working-class districts.

POST –INDUSTRIAL CITIES

In developed countries, cities have been tranformed over the last 50 years. Factories have been moved away from the city centres, and set up in industrial parks. Today, offices, shopping centres and residential housing are all found in places whee factories used to be located.

Improvements in public transport and the increased use of cars have made it eassier for people to live at a considerable distance from the city centre. Pele can find good housing at reasonable prices if they decide t olive further away.

As a result of this process, urban settlement is now often spread across a much wider area than before. Metropolitan areas have emerged, which consist of a main urban centre and its surrounding territories. The whole metropolitan area is closely linked together through its population and infrastructure (transport, communications, etc.).

3. THE FUNCTIONS AND STRUCTURE OF CITIES

URBAN FUNCTIONS

Cities perform a very wide range of functions;

• Residential. They are places where large numbers of people live.
• Political. Political institutions were set up in national or regional capitals. Today, international organisations are based in cities like Brussels, Strasbourg and New York.
• Commercial. Liverpool, Bilbao and many other cities grew because of their role in international trade. These cities required very good transport and communications, so they were often built on rivers or near the sea.
• Industrial. There are many important industrial cities around the world like Mumbai in Idia, Okinawa in Japan and Shanghai in China.
• Cultural. Some cities have educational importance (for example, Oxford and Salamanca)or religious significance (for example Mecc and Jersusalem).
• Tourist.Cities with monuments and museums, like Venice and Florence, atract millions of tourists.

But most cities do not just perform a single function. For example Rome is a national capital with a residential function, but it is also a commercial city, a place of religious importance and a cultural and tourist destination.

THE STRUCTURE OF  CITY

Th estructure of a city is the way its buildings, roads and open spaces are organised. It is greatly influenced by its physical environment, so a city on a hill does not have the same structure as a city built near a river or closet o the sea.

The urban layout of a city is connected to its historical development. It is represented on an urban plan. There are three common types:

• Irregular. Streets are narrow and winding, and are not arranged in any order. This plan is characteristic of Medieval cities.
• Grid. Streets run in straight lines and cross each other at right angles to form a grid pattern. This type of plan was characteristic of ancient Roman cities. Later, it became a common way of building new cities in Latin America and North America.
• Concentric. In some cities, streets radiate outwards from a central square. Other streets cross them o form concentric circles.
• Many large cities have a complex layout, combining different features. This reflects their gradual expansion over a long period of time.

Many large cities have a complex layout, combining different features. This reflects their gradual expansion over a long period of time:

• Historic cente. This is the original centre of the city, where monuments and historic buildings are located. In cities of Mediaeval origin, the centre is likely to have narrow, winding streets.

In recently developed urbana reas, especially in Noth America, the historic centres have often been replaced by a central business district (or CBD).

• City extensions (or ensanches) were built as residential districts in the 19 th century, when cities grew beyond their original boundaries. Shops and services are found in city extensions, where blocks of flats are a common type of housing.
• Suburbs are separae residential areas located on the outskirts of cities. They generally have single-family homes as well as blocks of flats, and their green spaces make them attractive places  to live in. Industrial parks and shopping centres are often built near these areas.

4. TYPES OF CITIES

METROPOLITAN OF CITIES

Advances in transport and communications have increased the influence of cities on their neighbouring areas. Cities have become central hubs, which supply goods and services to their surrounding regions.

• Many people commute each day between the city and the rest of the area. They do this for their work or to make use of urban goods and services.
• The expansion of a city leads to the creation of industrial parks, commercial centres and residential districts on the outskirts.
• The city shares a transport network with the area.

A metropolitan area consists of a densely populated city and all the towns and municipalities that surround it. When two or more metropolitana reas grow in size they may join together to become a conurbation. Some conurbations are very large indeed. For example, the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan has more than 35 million inhabitants.

A megalópolis (sometimes called a megaregion) is a huge network of conurbations. The region is usually linked together by a transport network of motorways and high-speed trains. In the United States, the Northeast megalópolis crosses Washington DC, Philadelphia, new york and Boston. It has over 55 million inhabitants.

There are many huge cities in developing countries that have grown very quickly with almost no urban planning, so they often offer dramatic contrasts. Wealthy people live in districts that have an excellent infrastructure. But shanty towns are built with few resources in a chaotic way. Their inhabitants face overty, unhealthy living conditions and social exclusion.

THE URBAN HIERARCHY

Cities can be placed on a scale of importance following various criteria, such as their influence, functions and population size.  We call this scale the urban hierarchy:

• Global cities. Asmall number of great cities have a huge influence on world affairs. These financial and economic centres are the headquarters of important multinational companies, stock exchanges, and so on. London and New York are global cities.
• National metropolises. National capitals, like Washington DC and Madrid, are major metropolises with great political and economic influence, especially in their own countries.
• Regional cities. Many ciies, such as Milan in Italy, have large populations and are extremely important economic and cultural centres. However, they are not national capitals so their political role is less significant.
• Small cities and towns. These are small urbana reas, with a few thousand inhabitants, that only have local influence.

5. SPANISH CITIES

THE URBAN HIERARCHY IN SPAIN

Spanish cities have developed over a very long period of time and haave grown continuously in the last century. Most of the main urban centres are located on the country’s periphery. Urban growth has followed a series of axes of development, along which economic activities and transport networks are located. Today, about 80% of the Spanish population lives in urban areas.

The urban hierarchy in Spain is the following:

• National metropolises, Madrid and Barcelona arethe two most important cities in Spain, and both have great national and international influence. They perform all the main urban functions: political, commercial, industrial and cultural. Their metropolitana reas have over five million inhabitants.
• Regional cities, like Valencia, Sevilla, Zaragoza, and Málaga have between 500,000 and 1,500,000 inhabitants. They performa wide range of urban functions and provide services throughout large regions. They are connected to the national metropolises by transport networks of motorways, high-speed rail and air routes.
• Sub-regional cities, such as Valladolid, Murcia, Vigo, A Coruña, Palma de Mallorca and Córdoba, have between 200,000 and 500,000 inhabitants. They are usually provincial capitals, and perform administrative, commercial and industrial functions.
• Provincial centres, like Burgos, Santander, Pamplona, Cádiz, Logroño, Palencia and Castellón, have been 50,000 and 200,000 inhabitants. They are administrative centres, and ae often provincial capitals.
• Small cities have between 10,000 and 50,000 inhabitants. They play a role in their local administrative area (or comarca).

THE STRUCTURE OF SPANISH CITIES

The layout of Spanish cities reflects their long and complex development.

• The historic centre is the oldest part of the city, and was once surrounded by walls. It usually has an irregular street plan and many historic monuments, such as churches and palaces.
• New districts were built when cities expanded in the 19 th and early 20 th cenruries. These city extensions (or ensanches) were usually built with wide streets following a grid patern, and wee the place of residence of wealthier eople. Some of the most important extensions were built in Barcelona and Madrid.
• Working-class districts were built in the 20 th century . they consists of blocks of flats are several storeys high.
• Suburbs have developed in recent decades on the outskirts of cities. They consists of residential areas with blocks of flats and single-family houses. Industrial parks and shopping centres are often located near them.

The expansion of big cities has resulted in the creation of conurbations and metropolitan areas. Barcelona and Hospitalet form a single conurbation together. The Madrid metropolitana rea consists of the city of Madrid together with neighbouring townsand municipalities . Málaga is also a metropolitan area.