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Chapter: Chapter 29: Urban Environments
End of Chapter Questions
1. Should we try to save New Orleans or just give up and move the port at the mouth of the Mississippi
River elsewhere? Explain your answer in terms of environment and economics.
2. Which of the following cities are most likely to become ghost towns in the next 100 years? In
answering this question, make use of your knowledge of changes in resources, transportation, and
communications.
a. Honolulu, Hawaii
b. Fairbanks, Alaska
c. Juneau, Alaska
d. Savannah, Georgia
e. Phoenix, Arizona
3. Some futurists picture a world that is one giant biospheric city. Is this possible? If so, under what
conditions?
4. The ancient Greeks said that a city should have no more people than the number that can hear the
sound of a single voice. Would you apply this rule today? If not, how would you decide to plan the size
of a city?
5. You are the manager of Central Park in New York City and receive the following two offers. Which
would you approve? Explain your reasons.
a. A gift of $1 billion to plant trees from all the eastern states.
b. A gift of $1 billion to set aside half the park to be forever untouched, thus producing an urban
wilderness.
6. Your state asks you to locate and plan a new town. The purpose of the town is to house people who
will work at a wind farm—a large area of many windmills, all linked to produce electricity. You must first
locate the site for the wind farm and then plan the town. How would you proceed? What factors would
you take into account?
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7. Visit your town center. What changes, if any, would make better use of the environmental location?
How could the area be made more livable?
8. In what ways does air travel alter the location of cities? The value of land within a city?
9. You are put in charge of ridding your city’s parks of slugs, which eat up the vegetable gardens rented
to residents. How would you approach controlling this pest?
10. It is popular to suggest that in the information age people can work at home and live in the suburbs
and the countryside, so cities are no longer necessary. List five arguments for and five arguments against
this point of view.