Urban and Territorial Geography

Urban and Territorial Geography

ing. Gianfranco Minniti & Milazzo Team contribution

Bruxelles – 25/29 Jan 2011

Urbanization

Urban Rural

Why it’s impossible to distinguish– a continuum of settlements picture

we cannot establish a dividing line between urban and rural – changing concept of “urban character” picture

the conditions evolve (example: we pass from fortified walls to satellite settlements born with the industrialization)

– inadequacy of official definitions

Bruxelles 25/29 Jan 2011 – Urban and Territorial Geography – ing. Gianfranco Minniti and Milazzo Team

How can we measure urbanization?

• no measurement based on census data can be done without making mistakes

• referring to population density may help to define the measurement of urbanization but does not solve the problem of separating urban from rural areas

Urbanization


Urbanization For Pierre George the only possible definition of

the term “city” can be obtained from the only characteristic common to all forms of urban civilization.

The city is a socio-cultural organism• Community (individuals adhere to a mutual pact)• Culture (the community feels to belong to a place

and gives it a typical environmental feature)


• Behaviourismrelated to experience and behavioral patterns

• Structuralrelated to the activities of the population and the mutation of the economic structure

• Demographicrelated to the different concentration of population

Urbanization

Sociological interpretation

Economic interpretation

Adaptability

Lampard has identified three core concepts


UrbanizationVariables involved

• Population• Environment• Technology• Social organization

Key stages• Primitive

collective adaptation to the physical and social environment

• Finalstabilization of the primitive tendencies

• Classicallimitation of growth due to constraints and circumstances

• Industrialdecreased restrictions and increased concentration of population


Urbanization Characteristic Urban Functions• Central functions in relation to adjacent

areas• Transport functions carried out in major

communication lines • Special functions related to noncontiguous

areas


Urbanization

> 80 % 60-80 % 40-60 % 20-40 % < 20 %

Urbanization Rate


Counterurbanization and life cycle of the city

• The counterurbanization should not be construed as an abandonment of the city for a return to a rural area and then as a symptom of a crisis in the city

• Then it is more correct to speak of periurbanization in which we introduce the concept of urban decentralisation and spread of cities over the surrounding area



• In the coming decades more than 85% of world population growth will materializes in the urban areas of underdeveloped or developing countries

• The urban population growth continues being fed both by its natural increase and by the immigration from rural areas



Phenomenon of urban gigantism The city ceases to be a territorial nuclear

institution to become a more or less extended area:

• Agglomeration• Conurbation• Metropolitan area• City region



Agglomeration(Tokio, New York, Paris , London)

• indicates an extended city that includes a large central municipality, along with surrounding suburbs and satellite towns

• is a monocentric urban area• reliance connection is related not only to

demography but also to facilities



Conurbation(Genova, Gallarate-Busto Arsizio-Legnano, Ruhr Region)

• is an urban area including a number of cities which, due to population growth and urban expansion, have physically merged to form one continuous built up area

• is a form of polycentric urban area• is formed by the expansion of different units of

more or less the same importance which gradually merge



Metropolitan area(Roma, Milano, Napoli, Torino, Firenze, Bari)

• is an area surrounding an urban area or agglomeration which depends on the central city in terms of facilities and is characterized by integration of functions and intensity of inner relations

• essential elements are the presence of a transport network that links together the various areas of the urban metropolitan area and the presence of strong socio-economic interactions within the metropolitan area itself



City region(Roma, Napoli, Milano, Barcelona, Liverpool)

• indicates the hinterland of a city, an agglomeration, a conurbation, a metropolitan area

• the majority of population residing in rural areas, suburbs and towns are employees who commute to a specific city



a metropolitan area will develop over the urban centers; its growth

involves the smaller towns

• Urbanization

• Suburbanization(Urban sprawl)

• Disurbanization

• Reurbanization

cities attract population and activities taking them away from

the surrounding areas

there is a large-scale decentralization with loss of population and

development of activities beneficial to the outer areas

the metropolitan areas recover population and activities



Urbanization Suburbanization (Urban sprawl)

DisurbanizationReurbanization



• Closing the loop does not involve a return to origins

• The development of the city is irreversible• The next cycle will create something new

that will not repeat in any way what happened earlier



• These transformations naturally leads to consider the city as a continuous built-up environment, and realize the pattern of Spread out or reticular city or better Urban Territorial System

• Several contiguous urban territorial systems, linked by functional preferential relations on an area of macro-regional dimension, generate the megalopolis

• When stable relationships exist between these systems a network of cities develops

• The network can be hierarchical (tree, star) or interconnected (networked)


The contemporary city

• The urban sprawl cancels the social and

morphological differences between cities and their environs

• However, the city maintains its centrality for the presence of decision-making places for accessibility to higher level consumption, for the provision of rare services, as well as the presence of a historic, artistic and monumental centre


The contemporary city• The city rises to the role of service center• The places of residence are decentralized• Formation of the city (trade and business)• The sense of city as a community is

distorted

Mental Derangement

Increase in technical services

•Increased barriers to communication

•Traffic congestion•Reduced quality of life

•Crime


The contemporary city• The population density generally exceeds 100 residents per hectare of urbanized area

• The population is engaged in activities of the secondary but especially of the tertiary and quaternary sectors

• Large endowment of technological infrastructure and diversification of services

• Presence of districts of historical origin or resulting from a spontaneous zoning or determined by the urban planning regulations


The contemporary city• In most developed countries a regression of secondary

functions has occurred to the benefit of the tertiary sector• The advanced tertiary (business services) and quaternary

sectors are typical of metropolises and reach the top levels in some world cities (New York, Tokjo, Londra, Parigi)

• Metropolises are affected by social polarization around two types of population:

– The cosmopolitan one is very rich and bases its income on advanced tertiary and quaternary activities

– The low-income one , largely formed by immigrants from less developed countries, committed to low-paid or temporary jobs, in the less important service sector or even in the black economy


The End


Parma

Lucca

Paris

Gallarate-Busto Arsizio-Legnano

Milano – Metropolitan Area

Milano – city-region

Milano – city-region

Education

Urban and Territorial Geography