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How this guide works...
This guide is the Changing Urban Environments guide and should be used
alongside the exam question booklet you got last term. Together it gives you a full
and detailed guide of everything you’re expected to know – fun right?
Remember – everything in this booklet (along with the other five!) you need to
know about, and we’ve already done at least once in class. The activities I’ve
included in this book will help you, but are not exam questions, they are designed
to encourage you to get thinking about revision / do revision!
You should therefore attempt exam questions from your
exam book let as you go along to really help you. The
symbol to the right and the page numbers next to it tell
you where you can find exam questions linked to that
topic in the exam question book.
If you should lose this booklet (naughty you), then you can easily download and
print off a new copy from the homework section of the CTS website. They are also
available from the swish revision hub board outside of the geography room.
As always remember – you do them, I mark them, you respond / improve and then I
remark. Put simply… There is no excuse for not having your revision / exam
question books on you – or for not doing revision…ever.
The next six pages are the best places to start they talk about what the exam will
look like, what the exam board say you should know for this unit, a small guide to
the types of questions there are on GCSE geography exams and how to answer
them and finally a list of command words.
Any questions at all...
...please ask!
What will my exam look like? You will have two exams, both will last 1 and a half hours and will be made up of 2 sections – the helpful diagram below will
explain everything.
Physical Geography - 1 and 1/2 hours
long
Section A
Q1 - Restless Earth
Section B
Q5 - Water on the Land
Q6 - Ice on the Land
Human Geography - 1 and 1/2 hours
long
Section A
Q2 - Changing Urban
Environments
Section B
Q4 - Development
Gap Q6 - Tourism
Page | 3
What does the exam board expect me to know for the Changing Urban Environments Section?
You should know and understand: ✓
What an urban area is
What urbanisation is and what causes it
What the different parts of urban areas are called and what their
functions (what they do) are
What the issues facing housing in urban areas in the developed
world are
What the issues facing the inner city in urban areas in the developed
world are
What the issues facing traffic in urban areas in the developed world
are
What the issues facing the CBD in urban areas in the developed
world are
What the issues facing the segregation of cultures in urban areas in
the developed world are
What the issues facing rapid urban growth in the developing world
are and how they can be improved
What the issues facing urban areas in the developing world because
of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation are
What the issues facing urban areas in the developing world because
of waste disposal and air and water pollution are
What makes a sustainable city
Ways of making the environment of a city more sustainable
Ways of making the social environment of a city more sustainable
A case study of sustainable urban living
Page | 4
The really helpful bit
In GCSE geography there are two types of questions – short answer questions
(worth 1, 2 or 3 marks) and longer answer questions (worth 4, 6 or 8 marks). This
help guide should help you recognise the difference between the two and how to
answer each type of question.
Short Answer Questions (worth 1, 2, or 3 marks)
These questions are point marked. This means that the examiner will give you a
mark for each point that you make and explain (if the question asks for it).
Before answering the question you should read it carefully. It might be worth
highlighting or circling what the command words are and then underline what
topic the question actually is asking for.
A few quick points:
- Make sure you give / answer the correct number of points for the marks that
the question is worth.
- Make sure you introduce your answer – it only takes a few words and shows
the examiner you know what you’re talking about. Avoid starting any
sentence with words like it or they. A better example would be “An MDC is a
more developed country”
Long Answer Questions (worth 4, 6, or 8 marks)
These questions are level marked. This means that the examiner will read all of
your answer and then decide on a level to give you. In 4 or 6 mark questions the
maximum level you can get is level 2, in an 8 mark questions the maximum level is
level 3.
IMPORTANT - On your human geography paper for your 8 mark questions there is
3 extra marks awarded for your spelling punctuation and grammar. The table
below shows what you need to do to get these extra marks.
Threshold performance
(1 mark)
- You spell, use punctuation and use the rules of grammar with reasonable accuracy.
- Any mistakes do not stop the examiner understanding what you meant in your response.
- You use a limited range of key words appropriately.
Intermediate performance
(2 marks)
- You spell, use punctuation and use the rules of grammar with considerable accuracy
- The examiner has a good idea of what you mean in your answer. - You use a good range of key words appropriately.
High performance
(3 marks)
- You spell, use punctuation and use the rules of grammar with consistent accuracy.
- The examiner has no trouble understanding what you mean in your answer.
- You use a wide range of specialist terms adeptly and with precision.
Page | 5
The examiner is looking for what are called ‘linked statements’ to give you the
higher levels, and therefore higher marks.
Linked statements are sentences with developed explanation, statistics or
examples in your answer that prove your point.
What the examiner is looking for at each level is shown in the table below along
with some example sentences to help.
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Basic knowledge with little or no detail showing very simple understanding. There is little organisation of the answer and few key words.
Clear knowledge with clear and developing understanding and explanation shown. Some examples are used along with key words.
Detailed knowledge with clear and detailed understanding and explanation. Examples are used to answer the question with explanation and a wide range of key words are also used.
Lots of people die in poorer countries die in earthquakes.
Lots of people die in earthquakes in LDCs because there is likely to be less emergency services.
Lots of people die in earthquakes in poorer countries because there is likely to be less effective emergency services. This is because there is less money to pay for training for them, or give them good equipment. This means that less people will be saved and therefore more people will die.
A good 4 step plan to remember when writing a longer answer essay question is:
Page | 6
Exam Command Words
These are sometimes called trigger words – they should trigger you into knowing
what the question is asking of you. But sometimes people can get confused as to
what they need to do to answer the question effectively.
The table below shows you the most often used command words and what they
mean. They are in an order with most often used ones first.
Command Word
Definition
Describe Give a detailed version of what happens / has happened.
Give Use words like because in your answer as you will be explaining how or why something is that way.
Discuss Explore the subject by looking at its advantages and disadvantages (i.e. for and against). Attempt to come to some sort of judgement.
Explain Describe, giving reasons and causes.
Define Give the meaning. This should be short.
Outline Concentrate on the main bits of the topic or item. Ignore the minor detail.
Evaluate / Assess
Give an opinion by exploring the good and bad points. It’s a bit like asking you to assess something. Attempt to support your argument with expert opinion.
Factors Not strictly a command word – but it can come up – where a question asks about factors it means give the facts, reasons or circumstances that can make something happen.
Identify Recognise, prove something as being certain.
Compare / Contrast
Show the similarities / Show the differences (but you can also point out the other side of the argument).
Analyse Explore the main ideas of the subject, show they are important and how they are related.
Comment Discuss the subject, explain it and give an opinion on it.
Justify Give a good reason for offering an opinion.
Page | 7
What is an Urban Area? First thing to know about is some of the key words that we’re going to use this topic; as
before key words will be in red, but one is pretty important – right from the start…
An urban area is a town or a city, a built up area where people live surrounded by a
number of services like schools, doctor’s surgeries, hospitals and shops. The bigger the
urban area (like a city) the more the services it will have. There are different parts of urban
areas and in a couple of sections time you’ll learn about them.
The opposite to an urban area is a rural area – this is the countryside, where some people
live (like in villages for example), but often these are not built up areas and have very few
services.
What is urbanisation and where is
it happening? Urbanisation is a process that happens around the world, and is the growth in the
proportion (NOT NUMBER OR SIZE!) of people living in urban areas, compared
with countryside. As shown by the graph below in 2007, the world’s population
lived more in urban areas than rural areas for the first time ever.
Urban growth is the name given to the increasing SIZE of the urban area, the amount of
land that it actually covers. When this becomes a problem and it spreads outwards too
much or too fast it is called, urban sprawl.
Page | 8
Urbanisation has taken place in both developed / rich countries known as MDCs (More
Developed Countries) and less developed / poor countries known as LDCs (Less
Developed Countries). It has been fastest though in the world’s poorest countries – known
as least developed countries or
LLDCs for short – as the graph on
the right shows.
In rich countries, urbanisation
took place over a long period of
time and it was linked to the
development of industry. For
example in Britain with the
industrial revolution and growth
of factories in large towns from
1850s. In the UK industrial cities
like Sheffield grew rapidly (about
10% a year) as people flocked
from the countryside to work in
the factories – especially when
homes were provided. Today 90%
of the UK’s population is urban.
However, in the 1970s/80s
families started to ‘escape to the
country’ looking for a better quality of life – this is ‘counterurbanisation’ – Rockingham is a
good example of somewhere that offers a pleasant environment and easy commuting.
Recently ‘re-urbanisation has been taking place and young professional people are
moving into the CBD and inner cities.
In poor countries, urbanisation has been more recent, since 1960s and it has been linked
to rural-urban migration. Conditions in rural areas are poor and people think that there are
better opportunities in the cities. This has led to the unsustainable growth of megacities in
the developing world For example Mumbai has a population of 18m.
1. Using the first graph describe how the population in urban areas
has changed over time. Remember if this was an exam question you would
pick up extra marks for making specific reference to dates and / or figures
/ amounts.
2. Using the second graph describe how the percentage of people
living in urban areas has changed over time – make specific reference to
the areas where this growth has come from.
3. What is the difference between urbanisation and urban
growth?
p.34
Page | 9
What causes urbanisation?
There are two causes of urbanisation; one is natural increase – where more people are
being born than dying. This is higher in urban than rural areas, as there is a younger
population here than in rural areas, so there is a greater chance of babies being born.
The second is rural – urban migration – the movement of people from the countryside to
the towns. The movement of people moving from rural areas to urban areas is down to
factors known as push and pull factors.
Push factors are reasons for people to leave a particular area, things like drought, a low
amount of food being grown and a struggle to feed you and your family, a lack of services
like schools or hospitals or a lack of jobs available. Physical factors like being at risk of
floods, drought or soil erosion are also reasons for people to move away from rural areas.
Pull factors are reasons for people to move to a particular area, things like the chance of a
better job, better access to more services like schools or hospitals, or entertainment and
leisure facilities. A major pull factor is also the chance to have a better house, and
ultimately a better life.
4. Using the letter from Roberto in Rio, Brazil (below) – highlight or
circle the pull factors (reasons to move to Rio) and highlight in a different
colour or draw a box around the push factors (reasons to move away
from the rural areas).
“Hello my name is Roberto and I’m 12 years old. I live with my parents and 4 sisters
on the outskirts of Rio. Our home is in a slum district known in Brazil as a favela.
Our house is very basic but it is much bigger than the one we used to have and we
are making improvements the longer we are here.
We moved here because the farm wasn’t making any money, and we weren’t
growing enough food to feed our family. My father now makes sandals from car
tyres. He sells them at a small market and on a good day he can make over one
cruzado (about 80p). Now that we live here I can go to school, although only in the
mornings because it’s too expensive to go all day. In the afternoons and at
weekends I go to the city centre to work as a shoe shiner. I will probably have to
give up school and work full time eventually. My family needs the money but living
in the city means I can do that.
The council is really trying to improve conditions here. They recently provided us
with piped water and electricity which is a great help, and the drains they are
digging mean that our home will no longer flood.”
Page | 10
What are the different parts of an
urban area?
Urban areas are not all the same, for example if you walk to across from one side of the
urban area to the other the landscape around you, and the way in which the area is used
will change. This fits in with what geographers call an urban model, and can be pretty
useful at GCSE, although it’s not on your syllabus, it’s worth having at the back of your
mind – especially as it could help you remember the names of the different parts of urban
areas – WHICH YOU HAVE TO KNOW!
Burgess Model Hoyt Model
The Burgess model was drawn in the 1950s in Chicago, as a plan of what all cities looked
like, in the centre the CBD or Central Business District the most expensive area and the
focus for businesses, places of work and money. Outside of this is inner city, usually the
oldest part of the city with housing built before 1918 it is used for a number of different
things.
Beyond this are the suburbs, areas of mostly housing built after the WW2 when people
could afford more expensive houses, with bigger gardens and areas around them.
Beyond this is the rural – urban fringe – an area of the city where the town meets the city
and there is a number of different uses here too.
Page | 11
The Hoyt sector model was developed in the 1970s partly because it was discovered that
not all cities follow the same, rather strict model. Sometimes cities will redevelop or
rebuild or a physical factor will affect how the city develops. In Hoyt’s model the inner city
is split into industry and manufacturing (making things) and low class residential
(housing), the suburbs are called medium class residential, and the rural urban fringe is is
called high class residential.
The main difference is that Hoyt suggested that the richest people lived furthest away
from the industry in a ‘spine’ coming out from the CBD itself, but because of this ‘spine’
they could easily and quickly access the CBD without having to travel through more run
down areas.
5. Challenge yourself – draw the Burgess and Sector model from
above, leave them alone for a while, close this revision book then come
back to it – can you successfully name all the different areas?
6. Come back to this activity after the next section of information,
can you add in any information about what each section is like / the
problems surrounding it?
What do the different parts of an
urban area normally do?
CBD: Central Business District: Town Centre
The CBD is where main shops and offices are, it is the commercial centre of town. It is the
most accessible location of the entire
urban area as it has bus and train
stations in the centre of town and main
roads leading to the centre. There is
normally parking provided, although
this is normally pay and display.
The rent values of buildings in this area
are high so it is expensive to run a shop
in the CBD. This means that the CBD
has Department stores like John Lewis
and Marks and Spencer, chain shops
like Next, coffee shops like Costa and
the main branches of banks as these
are the only business that can afford it.
Because there is a range of shops and services this is the main retailing area for the urban
area but it is facing increasing competition from the internet and from out of town (rural –
urban fringe) stores.
Page | 12
Inner city: area around the CBD
This is an area that has undergone of big change. It was usually built before 1918 in UK
and is mostly Victorian terraced houses built during the industrial revolution for the
workers. There is lots of housing in a small area, known as high density housing.
There is mixed land use – in other
words there is older factories and
terraced housing together – this is
because during the industrial
revolution people didn’t own cars
and they had their work and housing
close together during the industrial.
The road pattern is grid like with
small narrow streets, a throwback
from the Victorian era when the
houses were built.
Inner city areas often have social problems linked with decline, deprivation (poverty) and a
concentration of poor people. This is made worse by a lack of basic amenities (like
schools and doctors’ surgeries) and overcrowding which leads to higher levels of
illness/disease and therefore people who live in these areas have lower life expectancy.
There are often higher crime rates in the inner city; this could be because due to the
deprivation (poverty) in this area. This means that some people call the inner city the
twilight zone as it has gone into decline, and people start to move out of these areas if they
can.
Recently some of these areas been
redeveloped, a process called gentrification
(where buildings are done up and richer
people move into the area) – these terraced
houses have become very popular with the
young professional people because they are
affordable first homes.
Some inner city areas were demolished in the
1960s and 1970s and replaced by high rise
blocks of flats – these have not been very
successful and have led to severe social
problems. A good example of this is Park Hill
in Sheffield which we learnt about in lessons
and there is some information about Park Hill later on.
Page | 13
Suburbs
Found near the outskirts of the city the
suburbs are mostly housing (also called
residential). Suburbs were able to grow as
transport improved because people were
able to travel to work in the CBD or the
inner city using buses or cars. Today
people who live in suburban areas
commute as public transport or travelling
by car is available to most people.
Many of the suburbs were built after 1945,
as you get towards the edge of the city
the houses get newer and the housing
quality increases as you move out from
the city with middle (3 bed semi-detached
with garden) to high class housing (4 bed
detached, double garage; gardens).
There is generally no industry and the
people who live in this area have access
to out-of-town retail centres. These are areas of growth as people want to live on the edge
of the town as it is pleasant to live and they can commute into centre for work.
Rural-urban fringe: edge of city where town meets countryside.
These are found right on the edge of the city
and tend to be full of retail parks, industrial
estates with factories and warehouses and
recreational areas including golf courses and
football grounds Sixfields in Northampton is a
good example and Phoenix Parkway.
There is pressure for additional development
here but there are often strong planning
restrictions because of trying to prevent urban
sprawl.
7. Which of the areas do you / would you like to live in? Why?
8. What issues are there with each of the areas? What causes these?
Can you think of any solutions to each of these issues?
p.27, p.28,
Page | 14
Other Strategies to Cope with
Urban Sprawl Urban sprawl is the uncontrolled growth of urban areas and this can cause a big problem
as a town or city spreads out. If it is poorly planned then it can cause traffic congestion or
poor quality housing with poor access to services.
Some ways to prevent urban sprawl are:
• Building ‘Green belts’: these are areas of mainly open countryside and small settlements
surrounding urban areas. They are protected from development and the number and type
of buildings that can be erected is restricted.
Planning permission is not normally given to developers. They stop the outward growth of
city and prevent towns and cities merging together to form a continuous urban area. They
protect the open nature of the countryside and preserve the land for farming and to
provide access for recreation like golf courses.
• Using brownfield sites: This is using areas that have been previously used for things like
industry for new redevelopment rather than developing out-of-town greenfield (new) sites.
There’s more information about brownfield sites later on.
• Inner-city redevelopment: This involves the modernising of old properties so that people
carry on living there and reducing the need for new estates around the city.
What issues are there facing
housing in MDCs? The need to try and meet the increased housing needs of the population in different parts
of the city. The Inner city problems are talked about later on in this guide – but below are
the increased need for houses, and the increased need for houses in the CBD.
Increased Need for Houses
The number of households is expected to increase by about 223,000 per year between
now and 2026 with a target for 60% of these new houses to be built on brownfield sites
(areas that have been built on before) and the rest having to go on Greenfield sites (areas
that have not been built on, usually on the edge of the city at the rural-urban fringe). The
advantages of using both brownfield and greenfield sites are shown in a table on the next
page.
There are a number of reasons for an increased demand for housing:
Page | 15
• The population of the UK has increased by 7% since 1971, and this likely to lead to
population of 52.5 million in England alone by 2021.
• More people now live alone - about 7 million people. 70% of the increased demand is
from single households, due to people wanting to live away from parents and become
independent an increased number of people getting divorced and people living longer.
(1/3rd of single person households are over 65).
Advantages of using brownfield sites Advantages of using Greenfield sites
Easier to get planning permission Don’t need clearing, so can be cheaper
Uses up derelict land Cheaper land prices
Utilities eg water/electricity/roads already
in place
More space for gardens
Near to facilities in town centres Pleasant countryside
Cuts down on commuting Can plan from scratch; no restrictions on
layout
Providing housing in CBDs
Traditionally very few people have lived in the CBD because of the high land values there.
However recently there been a change in an effort to revitalise (improve) CBDs and turn
them into 24/7 city centres with housing and services rather than areas just used during
the day. Housing has been provided in the CBD though:
a) Clearing old buildings and using the site to
build new mixed use high rise blocks like St
Paul’s Place, Sheffield where the ground floor:
bars, cafes and restaurants, the next floor is
offices and the top floors are apartments
designed for young professionals who want to
be in the heart of the city. There are associated
facilities here too like gyms. The car park for
this building is known as the Cheese Grater
and has won awards for design. These tend to
be expensive and designed for affluent (richer) young professionals
The following schemes tend to be a cheaper option
b) Using the top floors of existing shops as flats like above some of the older shops in
Corby town centre.
c) Converting old traditional buildings into apartments, this has happened in and
around Kettering town centre.
d) New purpose built residential blocks built on brownfield sites you get lots of these
in and around Northampton.
Page | 16
e) In university cities, student accommodation is provided in old converted buildings
and new blocks built on brownfield sites - Cambridge is a very good example.
p.22, p.29,
What issues are there
facing the Inner City in MDCs? Inner cities have suffered from many
problems, in the beginning they
suffered from problems with
pollution from nearby industries, and
terraced housing that was closely
packed in together. The quality of
these houses quickly deteriorated
and the area became known as a
slum area. This was made worse by
the closing down and movement of
industry out of the inner city to the
rural urban fringe, and then more
recently abroad.
Since then a number of government
schemes have tried (and sometimes failed) to improve the inner city often by improving
housing, employment, amenities and the environment.
In the 1960 and 1970s – the plan was to knock down terraced, slum housing and replace it
with high rise tower blocks. This was not a
success. In Manchester blocks like the Hyde
Park flats were built but the build quality was
poor and they suffered from damp and were
very noisy. In Park Hill in Sheffield they were
noisy, full of damp and over time the council
moved residents here, who were difficult to
place anywhere else and as a result more
crime and anti-social behaviour happened. In
both locations the tower blocks were
unsuitable for young families, there were
issues like gangs, intimidation and the
environment became damaged very quickly.
Page | 17
Strategy 1: Urban Development Corporations (UDCs):
In the 1980s onwards the idea was to set up UDCs – using money from the government and
tax payer to attract private investment from business to help develop the area.
One famous project was to redevelop the old London Docklands area which had gone
into very severe decline
The London Docklands Development Corporation was born, but was very expensive:
£1.86 billion public money was spent along with £7.7 billion of private money.
The investment led to developments very large scale and expensive developments
such as Canary Wharf, the O2 arena, and improvements to the transport system like
the eastward extension of the Jubilee line with 144km of new and improved roads.
The land became available through the selling off of 431 hectares of land and
reclaiming derelict (unused) land - 762 hectares of derelict land was reclaimed so that
improvements through building could be made.
All in all 24,046 new homes built, an extra 2,700 businesses are now trading, 85,000
people are now working and services like education and health centres have all been
improved with funding for up to 11 new primary schools, 2 secondary and 9 vocational
centres, redevelopment of 6 health centres and contribution to 5 new ones.
Overall the area has completely changed from a deprived and run down area where
people were poor and unemployed to become a major commercial centre and a very
desirable place to live with the
conversion of warehouses into loft
apartments. There is a problem with
the original residents feeling side lined
and out priced by the newcomers.
Page | 18
Strategy 2: City Challenge Partnership
The City Challenge Partnership was a big initiative in the 1990s designed to try and
improve the inner city. It takes a different approach to regeneration as local authorities
(councils), private companies (businesses) and the local community worked together from
the start.
Our example is Hulme, an inner city area in Manchester.
The focus was to improve the
housing that had been built in
1960s to replace the old slum
terraced housing, but had
actually just caused
segregation problems. The
high rise blocks were poorly
built, damp and people did
not feel safe. The large areas
between each of the curved
crescents, designed to be
like playing fields for people
to meet and use were instead
used for joyriders, abandoned cars and as a meeting place for gangs.
£37.5million was spent demolishing the curved crescents, although some older buildings
were kept to keep some of the heritage of the area. The replacement housing was varied
so it would suit families, young single people, couples and old people with a variety of
friendly, welcoming architecture and different building styles and materials to attract new
people to the area, while remaining sustainable by conserving water and being energy
efficient (and therefore keeping bills down too)
Locals were involved from the beginning and wanted an improvement in the environment,
community facilities and shopping provision. As a result – an old church hall was rebuilt to
provide facilities for dance and music lessons and shows, numbers of well equipped play
and sporting facilities were built along with a number of local primary schools. Finally the
high street was re-instated, providing a local shopping hub for the community.
Page | 19
Strategy 3: Sustainable communities – New Islington Millennium Village
This strategy is a way of improving the inner city AND a way in which sustainable
settlements are being developed. SO you could use it in two sections…..worth
remembering that.
Construction of the New Islington Millennium Village
began in 2003 in an area previously called the Cardroom
estate, a run-down area with poor slum housing and high
crime, closed down industry and derelict empty buildings.
The aim of the scheme was to allow people to live in an
area where there is housing of an appropriate standard to
offer a reasonable quality of life, with access to a job, education and health care within a
sustainable community setting.
The locally community association worked closely with the architects, the housing
association (who would rent out the housing), the city council and the company in charge
of the regeneration; Urban Splash
(remember them?!),
As part of the regeneration more
than 1000 new houses or
apartments were built many
private secured gardens; while the
refurbishment of the derelict
Ancoats hospital and Stubbs Mill
into apartments providing nearly
1000 more apartments.
New office space, workshops and shops were built to
provide areas for employment alongside new parks and
gardens with 300 new trees and 2 garden islands with an
orchard and beach, and new play areas with climbing
rocks. Visitors to the area are encouraged to the area by
3000 metres of new canal side for walks, 50 moorings for
narrow boats and canal side facilities including 2 pubs, 2
restaurants; 200 on-street and 1200 underground car
parking spaces; and a metrolink stop in 5 minutes walking
distance
Community facilities were improved with the building of a health centre with 8 GPs, a new
primary school, a number of football pitches and crèche.
Underlying all of this is the idea of resources being used sustainably – the area is clearly a
brownfield site, so urban sprawl is being reduced, while the developments have all
improved the social sustainability side the environmental side of sustainability is looked
after by boreholes being drilled into the ground to provide 25 litres a second of naturally
filtered water; recycling collection points have been built around the area to encourage
increased recycling; and wind and solar panels have been used extensively throughout.
Page | 20
9) How does greenbelt work? Explain in no more than 50 words what
the greenbelt is, how it works and how it stops urban sprawl.
10) Do you think it’s a good idea or not? Why so? Do some research
about the greenbelt – it is increasingly under threat – but from what?
Why do you think there might be pressure to build on the green belt?
11) What is a greenfield site? What is a brownfield site? Write down the
definitions of both giving benefits and drawbacks to both types of
scheme.
12) Which type of site do you think is the best type of site to build on? Greenfield or
brownfield? Why? Explain your choice in a paragraph.
13) For one of the strategies to improve housing in the inner city (1 – the Urban
Development Corporation in London Docklands, 2 – The City Challenge Partnership in
Hulme, Manchester or 3 – Sustainable Communities in New Islington Millennium Village,
Manchester) produce a poster that advertises all the improvements and new
developments that have been built in the area and the problems they have tried to solve.
14) What problems have each of the strategies to improve housing in the inner city tried to
solve? How? What problems have they created? Draw your own version of the table below
and complete. I’ve done a problem that the Docklands development tried to address for
you – but there are more!
Scheme / Strategy Problem in the area How the Scheme
strategy has tried to solve the problem
Problems it has caused itself.
Urban Development Corporations
Lots of derelict buildings / lack of
housing
Turn the empty ship docks and
warehouses into apartments
Housing prices have gone up so much that locals to the
area have now been priced out of the
area.
City Challenge Partnership
Sustainable Communities
15) You might want to do activity 13 again for the other two case studies / strategies…..just
saying.
16) Take a non-geographer (non-believer) and tell them all about Sheffield. Tell them what
has happened in Park Hill and why, tell them how it has changed twice since the 1960s and
be passionate about the detail! Tell them about the CBD and St Stephen’s place – tell them
about the improvements there until they walk away from you – calling you a bizarre
geography person……or you could draw an A4 page spider diagram, divided into two. Up
to you.
p.17, p.22 (also good for CBD housing), p.45
Page | 21
What traffic issues are there facing
urban areas in MDCs? Traffic jams, or congestion as they are called
in geography, are a problem the world over –
and not just in MDCs.
In 2015 in the UK alone there is 36.5m
registered road vehicles, with 317.8 billion
miles a year travelled by vehicles, increasingly
roughly 3% a year and the majority of this
growth being from city to another (because of trade or employment) it is no surprise that
average speeds have reduced (gotten less) too. The average morning rush hour (8am –
10am) speed on A roads is 23.4mph, while in London the average is just 15mph.
Why should I care?
Shame on you for even asking such a question – but apart from the fact you need to, it
could be on your exam – congestion causes a problem for cities because:
• It causes increased journey times
• It leads to an increase in air pollution, which in turn may
impact on the number of breathing conditions like
asthma and…
• Because of the air pollution it can cause damage to
buildings, like historic limestone buildings for example.
• It can put people off visiting and companies investing
into the CBD which in turn may contribute to the decline
of the CBD (more on that in the next section).
So what can be done about it? There are a number of different solutions and AQA could
ask you about these – plus the benefits and drawbacks that these solutions bring.
17) Using the next few pages complete a large table (maybe A3 size) like the one below –
you could revise from this lots later on.
18) Choose the scheme that you think is the most effective – explain why
you think this is, and how it works. Describe the benefits it brings for the
environment, the CBD, for local residents and for drivers / motorists.
Scheme How it works Advantages Disadvantages Example
Page | 22
Park and Ride
Park and rides are schemes which
encourage people to park up on the
outside of the city, and then provide a
cheap bus fare into the city centre itself.
For example in Norwich you’ll pay £2 to
park, and then £1.50 for a return trip,
while in Cambridge you’ll pay nothing to
park and about £1.50 for a return trip.
They work by providing large car parks
on the rural urban fringe near to main
roads going into the city, and are able to catch people as they drive into the city. If they
are successful they can reduce the number of cars in the city, and speed up people’s
commute (drive) into the city, especially if there are bus lanes (see later on), and reduce
air pollution as there are less cars in the city.
However some people believe they contribute to urban sprawl, can encourage
development at the rural-urban fringe and could be not used if placed incorrectly.
Pedestrianisation
These schemes work by stopping all traffic in certain parts of the CBD only, and make it
much safer for pedestrians to walk, shop and work in the CBD. Because of this it often
encourages more people to visit and shop, for example Corby and Kettering experienced
an increased number of shoppers when they
pedestrianised part of their shopping areas but there
are some problems with this type of scheme.
For example local retailers may be unhappy as they
lost passing trade, and by taking drivable roads away
it reduces the amount of parking available close to
their shops so less people may visit here. Nearby
surrounding areas may also experience a higher
increase in traffic as vehicles are diverted around the
road now pedestrianised – and increase congestion
here instead.
Congestion Charging
This is a charge set out by the City of London for passing
through a central zone of London where traffic is a problem.
Motorists have to pay (currently) £11.50 a day, or face a
penalty notice (fine) if they do not, congestion charge
cameras are found at each road entrance into and out of the
congestion charge zone to catch people who have not paid
the charge. Local people are entitled to a discount, and
environmentally sustainable vehicles can go through the
congestion charge for free.
Page | 23
By increasing this charge it has successfully reduced the traffic within the congestion
charge zone, but there is an argument to say it prices poor motorists out of driving
through London, and that all it has done is pushed the problem somewhere else, namely
outside the congestion charge zone. There’s some evidence to this as the congestion
charge zone was increased between 2007 and 2011 as other areas of London suffered
from higher levels of traffic.
Rising Bollards
Are a scheme used lots of in the CBD of
Cambridge, where only certain traffic like
emergency vehicles, buses and taxis are let
through onto certain roads. The bollards drop
when these vehicles approach and a transmitter
in the car alerts the bollards to drop and let the
vehicles through – they then rise directly after.
They can be dropped for long periods of time,
like weekends and evenings when traffic is
traditionally less.
The amount of traffic is reduced on these roads, it is made safer for people, cyclists and
essential traffic is allowed through (and their journey times are made shorter – potentially
encouraging more people to cycle or use buses).
They are expensive to put in place though, and
do require the road to be closed during this
time and can be subject to technical problems
which can cause congestion when they fail.
Sometimes people try and drive behind a
vehicle to get through the bollards, and are
then caught when these rise up. I call these
people idiots.
Bus lanes and / or Cycle Lanes
Are regularly used in urban areas around the UK – they
work by dedicating space for certain road users only and
speeding up their journey time, therefore encouraging
people to take alternative routes of transport and get out of
their cars. In the case of cyclists it also makes their journey
much safer as it keeps them away other road users.
There are some problems however – it does need to be
managed and controlled normally with bus lane cameras –
otherwise anyone could drive in them, and the use of space
for buses and cyclists can make congestion worse for cars
as they have less lanes to use on their drive in. Some would
argue though that this is the point of them!
Page | 24
Other schemes
You could talk about are – one way streets; these keep the traffic moving and offer some
parking while reducing the slowing of traffic searching for parking spaces or trying to
pass each other in narrow streets; multi-storey car parks; which provide more parking
spaces in the CBD and reduce the amount of on road parking needed therefore offering
the room for more lanes and faster travel; higher car parking charges; which may put off
people parking and travelling into the CBD; and traffic calming measures; which slow
traffic down, make the area safer and encourage more people to use public transport than
sit in a slow moving car. Each of these have problems of course – you should by now be
able to think of some of these!
p.21, p.42, p.43, p.44
What issues are there facing CBDs
in MDCs? Town centres or CBDs are funny old
things. They are traditionally the oldest,
most used part of the city, but they are
also the richest and constantly changing
and being renewed. Since the late 1990s /
early 2000s the CBD have struggled with
high rent costs and because of out of
town shopping centres and from the
increased number of people buying goods
over the internet.
Out of town shopping centres like Merry Hill
in Dudley in the West Midlands, Meadowhall
on the outskirts of Sheffield, the Trafford
Centre on the outskirts of Manchester
(shown above) and the Metro Centre on the
outskirts of Newcastle have all stolen trade
away from the CBD. Out of town shopping
centres like these all offer bigger shops,
more choice of products, different types of
shops and services (like restaurants), with
free parking, closer to main roads (faster and
Page | 25
easier to get to) and open for longer hours (so are more accessible). Out of town retail
parks (think Phoenix Parkway, Asda, Corby!) offer similar competition while more and
more people buying products off of the internet all mean that 1 in 5 shops in CBDs now
stand empty and unused.
How can the CBD fight back?
There are a number of ways in which the CBD can try and recover – most of these are
shown below.
Encouraging Independent Businesses
Places like Bedford have tried to encourage local, independent businesses to open up in
closed down units with the view to getting unique shops that will attract more visitors into
the town centre from miles around. Independent businesses also tend to spend their
money with other local businesses and so this brings a positive multiplier effect – in other
words – it helps other local businesses in the area too.
Rebrand / Market the area
Places like Northampton
have started to rebrand
areas of their town to
encourage more people to
visit – the area
surrounding the two theatres has been rebranded into the Cultural Quarter – with an
increased number of art galleries, museums and posh restaurants opening up. All of which
have increased the number of visitors to a previously run down area of the town.
Develop Destination Shopping Centres
In Birmingham they have tried to encourage people
back into the CBD by creating a large, destination
shopping centre – in other words a shopping centre that
would attract a large number of people from a wide
area. In Birmingham they redeveloped the Bullring
shopping centre, originally built in the 1960s it was run
down, and an ugly concrete box like building
surrounded by fast, busy roads.
Following extensive redevelopment of the CBD in
Birmingham in 2003 the new Bullring shopping centre
opened – home to 140 stores, and attracting 276,000 in
the first week and over 36.5 million in the first year alone it is one of the three busiest
shopping centres in the UK.
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Hold Regular / One off Events
Regular events like farmers markets, car shows, food
festivals and summer beaches and winter ice rinks can
all encourage more visitors to CBDs for a unique and
different experience. Other local businesses all benefit
from the increased number of visitors.
Encouraging Housing in the CBD
One final way to improve the CBD is to increase or encourage the number of houses or
apartments in the CBD like in St. Stephen’s place in Sheffield (talked about earlier!) The
idea behind this is by having more people in the CBD they use more services, shops and
restaurants and this keeps the area alive with money, investment and people.
19) In a paragraph explain what the challenges facing CBDs are – how
they are caused and the impacts that they will have.
20) Find out about the Cultural Quarter of Northampton and what has
been done there to encourage people to visit, the attractions that are
there and the improvements that the area has undergone.
21) Choose one of the strategies to improve the CBD on the page above
and explain what was done, how the area was improved and the
outcomes from it. You may need to do some extra research for this.
p.10, p.11, p.40, p.41
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What issues are there facing the
segregation of cultures in MDCs?
One problem urban areas in MDCs face is
the segregation (separation) of different
cultures or ethnicities (a social group
that has common national or cultural
traditions). Since 2001 places like
Bradford, Oldham and Luton have
experienced conflict between youths of
different ethnic groupings, and between
them and the police and some people are
increasingly worried about it.
Some reasons why groups of people from
similar cultural backgrounds live
together is because of:
- Support from others – this is particularly important for new migrants to the area
who know nobody they can get support in terms of learning a new language,
friendship and help getting to know the local area.
- A familiar culture – this might make new migrants to the area feel more at home if
they are surrounded by people who speak the same language as them, and have
similar interests in film and music.
- Specialist facilities – People from similar cultures may live close to each other in
order to access similar, specialist facilities like religious temples or country based
food shops.
- Greater voice in numbers - This is more of a political reason but the idea is that by
living with people of a similar cultural background to you, your views are more likely
to be heard, as there is a greater number of people with similar views. This could be
important in local council decisions about the local areas.
- Economic / employment factors – New migrants may live in similar areas because
they could be more likely to get a job if they know someone, or they may know
someone who has a house where the rent is cheap. This is particularly important for
people who are brand new to a country.
There have been many schemes designed to bring the community together, regardless of
their ethnicity or culture. For example the Luton in Harmony project has tried to bring
together different ethnic groupings to celebrate the difference and diversity of the town
through music, art and drama. Other schemes that have helped to bring people together in
urban areas include:
Page | 28
1. Providing new facilities like community centres or schools that are not cultural
biased or based.
2. Producing information in a variety of languages
3. Involving all different cultures in community decisions
4. Provide interpreters in local services e.g. hospitals and schools
5. Provide suitable services for all cultures e.g. same sex doctors
6. Provide training to teach ethnic groups English and new skills
22) What is segregation? Why is it a problem?
23) Why do people of similar cultural or ethnic groupings tend to live
together? Can you explain why?
24) Choose two of the schemes above and explain how they would help
integrate different cultural groups in an area.
P.13, p.14, p.15, p.16, p.38, p.39,
What issues are there facing
countries in LDCs because of rapid
urban growth? The urban population in LDCs has grown rapidly within the last 30 – 50 years and shows no
sign of slowing down. This is for two main reasons – firstly natural population growth –
there are more babies being born in developed countries because of a lack of
contraception, and this is more in urban areas anyway where there are traditionally more
younger people and therefore more people of child producing age.
Secondly – there is a large amount of rural – urban migration – with lots of people moving
from the countryside to towns and cities in search of better jobs, more services and a
better quality of life. You should remember that these are all called pull factors and are
covered in depth earlier in this revision guide.
Page | 29
Because of this large rural – urban
migration and urban areas have
experienced massive, quick growth
and in LDCs this has meant the growth
of slum settlements (also known as
informal settlements, shanty towns,
squatter settlements and in Brazil as
favelas). These massive slums house
the poorest and newest people to the
city, and are often found on the
outskirts of the city, on marginal land.
This is land that is too polluted, too hilly
or too easily flooded for housing to be
built him under normal circumstances.
For us there are plenty of examples of slum settlements we have looked at – Rocina on the
outskirts of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Dharavi on the outskirts of Mumbai in India – but the
one we looked at in most detail was Kibera, on the outskirts of Nairobi in Kenya shown in
red on the map to the right.
Kibera is the largest slum in Kenya and is home to
between 800,000 and 1 million people in an area the
size of around 255 football pitches meaning most
people get on average about 1 metre of floor space
per person.
90% of the people who live here have no right to the
land or their homes and could be evicted at any
moment.
Because there was no preparation for these houses
before they were built there is no sanitation, no piped
water, no road access and no legal electricity supply
and the houses are built from any available material
like cardboard and corrugated iron.
The paths between houses are irregular, narrow and
often have ditches running down the middle that have
sewage in, contributing to the large numbers of
disease that are common in Kibera. Diseases like
typhoid, malaria, tuberculosis, measles and HIV /
AIDS – along with diarrhoea from drinking dirty water, mean that 1 in 5 children die before
their fifth birthday and there are an estimated 100,000 orphans in Kibera, with an adult life
expectancy of around 42.
Clean water is difficult to access, one standing pipe may provide 40 houses, each with
between 8 – 12 people living in them, and although there are private companies that
provide hosepipes they then charge double than he standard rate for water meaning many
people get their water from local rivers which are polluted with human and industrial
waste.
Page | 30
Toilets are shared by anything up to 2000 people, and people work in poorly paid, informal
sector jobs, selling food on the street, stolen goods or in prostitution. Children do often not
go to school as they are contributing to the income of the household. There is little or no
public transport here and no street lighting meaning that at night in particular crime is a
significant problem especially as police are reluctant to enter the slums.
25) Why do LDCs have a greater problem with urban growth? What are
these problems? How are they caused?
26) Using the information above highlight all the problems that there
are/ with living in Kibera.
27) Using the highlighted problems – expand these further to talk about
the future problems that these will create – for example: children not
going to school because they are working to make money for the house
– lack of qualified people to be the next generation of teachers or
doctors.
28) Using the information above write a short diary extract about the life of someone living
in Kibera and the problems that they have to overcome.
p.23, p.31, p.32, p.46, p.47,
What can be done to improve these
problems? There are three types of schemes that you need to know about to improve shanty towns.
Assisted Self Help Schemes
This is where the council gives money and / or
materials and the local community does the
improvement work to the local area.
The scheme also works by giving people legal
ownership of the land they live on and
encouraging people to work together to
improve the area, for example to collect and
remove the rubbish from the area, to provide
Page | 31
standpipes for a clean water supply, and to provide the workforce for bigger schemes like
the provision of sanitation.
There are some problems with this scheme though as the improvements are only as fast
as local people can do it, and in some instances there has been money from the
government which has never been used on improving the local area.
Site and Service Schemes
This is where an area of land is identified for housing to be built. Infrastructure is laid
down in advance so water, sanitation and electricity are all supplied to marked plots. From
here the people who live there can build their homes using whatever materials they can
afford.
Some problems with this type of scheme is that progress can be painfully slow and relies
on people making improvements when they can afford them.
Local Authority Schemes
These are big, large scale improvements
when entire shanty towns are knocked
down and either massive improvements
are made or entire new towns are built
elsewhere.
There do cost a lot of money however, so
examples are few and far between –
Dharavi in India is a good example. But
what happens to the people living in the
area while the area is being improved?
28) Explain how each of the schemes to improve squatter settlements
works and the improvements that it brings.
29) Spend some time researching about the improvements in Dharavi
– what is being planned? What benefits will it bring?
p.18, p.32, p.33
Page | 32
What problems are there with
waste, air and water pollution? In LDCs pollution is a massive problem in part because there isn’t the infrastructure to
deal with waste, there isn’t strong environmental laws and some multi-national companies
move to poorer countries with the idea of being able to treat the environment less well
than they would in MDCs. Strange but true – because companies can make more profit by
not disposing of their waste sustainably.
For example in Indonesia the Citarum river, once
the world’s most polluted river, has been polluted
for many years by textile factories which have
released harmful chemicals like lead, arsenic and
mercury into the water. The effect has been
massive – fish float to the surface having been
poisoned by the water, and local fisherman have
been forced out of business and instead sift
through the rubbish on the river looking for plastic
and metal waste to sell.
Air pollution is a significant problem in parts of
China where the amount of pollution has reached hazardous levels and causes schools to
close, businesses to shut and cars to be stopped or to be arrested because of it. The
pollution in parts of Beijing has gotten so bad that the rate of lung disease and asthma
attacks has meant that the Beijing city government have declared recent pollution
incidents as states of emergency.
p.7, p.8, p.23, p.36
What can be done to improve this? The following page shows the problems and solutions that can be taken regarding waste
disposal, air pollution and water pollution and is taken from an old revision guide. You
should read this information carefully and complete the activities that follow.
Page | 33
Effects and management of air and water pollution.
Causes of pollution:
Increased car ownership
Industrialisation
Use of fossil fuels
Lack of pollution controls
LDCS, due to low level of development often do not have the steps in place to control pollution. They lack the infrastructure to deal with it (eg proper waste management), do not have laws and penalties in place to prevent pollution.
Strategies to reduce pollution and problems of waste:
Pollution controls eg. clear guidance on what level of emissions allowed. Fines if greater.
Congestion charging
Rotation of cars allowed: odd number/even number days
Encourage people to walk and cycle, so reduce the amount of cars going into town centres.
Taller chimneys so that industrial fumes go higher into atmosphere
Fitting filters into chimneys to trap some of pollution and reduce the amount of gases going into atmosphere.
Clean Air acts
Ensure can police the laws.
Carbon tax
Use of new technologies which reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.
Examples of reducing the problems
Sao Paulo Brazil – 2 large waste incinerators capable of burning 7,500 tonnes of waste a day. Waste used to go into landfill sites. The incinerators do not cope with the problem and there are concerns about air pollution from them.
Shanghai China – effective solid waste disposal unit has been installed in most households – waste is then used as a fertilizer.
Cairo – the Zabbeden are a group of people who are employed to collect and recycle waste.
Bangalore, India – e-waste form the hi tech industries is supposed to be covered by laws but they are not enforced.
p.9, p.20, p.21, p.24
Page | 34
30) Using the information above create a spider diagram using two
different colour pens. Use one to talk about the problems that LDCs
have with waste disposal, air pollution and water pollution. Use another
colour to talk about potential solutions.
31) Using the information below, and extra information that you
research yourself find out about the Bhopal industrial accident. What
happened? Who was at fault? How did it affect the people of Bhopal
immediately? What about long term?
What happens when
industrialisation goes wrong? One aspect that you need to know according to AQA is some of the problems that happen
with rapid industrialisation. We’ve already covered this a little when we talked about why
LDCs suffer from problems with pollution. Our example that we looked at was the Bhopal
chemical plant disaster in December 1984.
This happened when a chemical
factory, making an agricultural
pesticide (a chemical that kills pests on
farms, to help crops to grow more), was
operating below the safety standards of
the same factory but in the USA.
Upkeep and maintenance of the plant in
India didn’t happen and when the
chemical got too hot the gas was
released into the area killing 3,787
people immediately (including the
toddler to the left in a picture that
shocked the world), injuring over
550,000 people and killing over a
further 16,000 more over the years that
followed.
What is a sustainable city? Sustainability is all about development or improvement that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the needs of the future generation. It can be environmental
(looking after resources and landscapes), social (looking after people, their lives and their
history) or economic (looking after money and making sure you don’t spend all of it at once
and leave future generations with huge debt).
Page | 35
Sustainable cities focus on:
Environmental Sustainability
Looking after and preserving the natural and historic environment - protecting
areas of green space, historic buildings and natural waterways.
Using brownfield sites – to prevent urban sprawl and the loss of green spaces
Reducing the amount of waste and safely disposing of it (through ideally recycling
or reusing it)
Providing adequate open spaces for communities
Social Sustainability
Involve local people in the decision making processes - so that they feel part of it,
are more involved and are likely to take part, back it and therefore make it
successful.
Provide an efficient public transport system - which helps large numbers of people
get around quickly, easily, cheaply and with minimal impact on the environment
Provide enough opportunities and a design to stop groups of people from being
segregated away from others – thereby encouraging more people
32) Look at the ways urban areas can be sustainable above – choose
three of them and explain how these ideas are sustainable.
33) Using the same three ways as in activity 32 - give a brief
explanation how urban areas could do this. For example – involve local
people in the decision making process by having regular meetings with
community groups. This is sustainable because local people have more
say in any development projects and are therefore more likely to be
involved in any project.
How can an area be more
sustainable? For this section the easiest and best way to learn any of this is through an example or case
study. This is particularly useful as quite often AQA will ask a question with the phrase
“Using an example” meaning they wanted a named (and detailed) example, without it – you
can’t get anything more than a level 1 answer, and therefore a E/ D grade for that
particular question.
Our first example of a sustainable development is the New Islington Millennium Community
up in Manchester. You can read about it (in detail using the information earlier in this
revision booklet but you should pay particular attention to what makes it sustainable.
Simply (and quickly) New Islington is sustainable because it has involved the local
community at every available opportunity, and taken on board their feedback, making
Page | 36
improvements where necessary. It has also cared for, protected, improved and built new
open space for residents encouraging residents to be more active and look after their
surroundings. New local businesses have been encouraged and local services like
healthcare and education have been developed. Finally the new housing developed use
naturally filtered water, solar panels, wind turbines and encourage higher rates of
recycling.
Our best example of a sustainable development is
Curitiba in Brazil – a city of over 2 million people, and
the first in the world to put in place a sustainable
urban master plan from the late 1970s by the
architect (and then city mayor) Jamie Learner –
pictured.
His plan was for a traffic free city centre with
pedestrianised streets (built in 72 hours to stop
traders from complaining), open green spaces and
well-designed parks with walkways and over 1.5 million trees to stop the development of
slum settlements on open spaces and prevent regular river flooding. Businesses who
want bigger skyscrapers can build a few extra storeys but only if they either provide
money for housing for poorer people, or if they provide open space at the bottom of their
skyscraper for the use of all residents of the city.
The public housing provided for poorer people is cheap and the city government makes
sure that even the most basic of homes has access to basic sanitation and clean water.
Sustainability is at the heart of everything the Curitiba city government do – from their
strict enforcing of environmental laws to prevent pollution from industry, to making sure
that environmental education is part of the school curriculum.
The main areas were Curitiba is sustainable is
through its integrated transport system known
as the BRT (Bus Rapid Transport) system. It is
cheap and reliable, with a single far covering the
entire city meaning lots more people take the
bus.
There are different types of buses - direct line buses which are speedy bi articulated
(bendy) buses which operate on 5 main routes into and out of the city centre; these are
particularly fast because they travel in bus lanes on these main routes. There are also
inter-district buses which take people from outskirts of the city into the city; feeder mini-
buses which pick people up from residential areas and drop
them off at a bus stop where people can change onto a fast
bus, and a radial bus (that travel between the residential
areas).
The system is clean and efficient so well off people use the
buses as well as the poor. Tickets are paid for before getting
on the bus as covered bus stops (pictured), which provide
jobs for people with little or no education, and wide doors
with ramps which allow lots of people to get on very quickly.
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By far and away though the most sustainable aspect of Curitiba is its waste management
systems. Around 70% of the Curitiba’s waste is recycled, and it was the first city in the
world to introduce a doorstep recycling scheme in 1989.
Residents put organic (recyclable) waste out for collection and a rubbish truck collects
this up taking it to a central depot. From here it is sorted by hand (again providing a job for
those with little or no qualifications, learning difficulties or even new migrants to the city),
and then either sold on, reused, recycled, or incinerated.
In the poorer areas and slum settlement of Curitiba
where it is impossible for rubbish trucks to get to, there
has been a green exchange system implemented. Here
people exchange rubbish and recyclables for food
(grown on the outskirts of the city, and destined for the
bin or to rot and be ploughed back into the ground) or
bus tickets, and children can even exchange waste for
toys or schools supplies.
34) Produce two A4 case study sheets – one for New Islington
Millennium Community AND one for Curitiba about what has
happened there and what makes it sustainable. These will be useful
for revision. Trust me.
35) What sustainable elements are there in Corby? How could the
sustainability of Corby be improved?
36) On the next page is an example of a sustainable city in London –
called BedZed – it has won awards, but is much smaller compared to
Curitiba. Read the information about it, and compare its similarities and differences to
Curitiba and Corby. Which do you think is more effective at being sustainable? Why?
p.12, p.19, p.25, p.26, p.30, p.48
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