Download Chapter 13 Urbanization and Creating Livable Cities

Chapter 13
Urbanization and
Creating Livable Cities
Central Case: Managing Growth in
Portland, Oregon
• Oregon’s law required land use plans, including
an urban growth boundary (UGB) - separating
urban and rural areas
• The Metropolitan Service District, or Metro,
focused growth on urban centers where people
can walk or take mass transit between home,
work, and shopping
• Opponents require that landowners be
compensated if the value of their land is
decreased by government regulation
Our Urbanizing World
• The shift from rural to urban living, or
urbanization, may be the greatest change in
society since we changed from a huntergatherer lifestyle to an agricultural lifestyle
• Agriculture gave rise to sedentary societies
– specialized professions
– class structure
– political hierarchies
– urban centers
Our Urbanizing World
• In developed nations, urbanization has slowed
because most people already live in cities,
towns, and suburbs - the smaller
communities within cities
• Since 1950, urban populations have
quadrupled worldwide
– Increased human population
– Farms  cities
Our Urbanizing World
• Today, 20 cities are home to more than 10
million residents!
– Tokyo ~ 35 million
– New York City and Mexico City ~ 19 million
• Fastest-growing cities are in the developing
world
– Industrialization is increasing city jobs, decreasing
need for farm labor
– Wars and conflict drive people into cities
Our Urbanizing World
• Factors that influence the geography of urban
areas
– Climate
– Topography
– configuration of waterways
• Portland, OR developed due to its location on the
Willamette and Columbia rivers
• Chicago developed due to railroads – grain
trading center, location for slaughterhouses,
meatpacking
Our Urbanizing World
• Spatial patterns of urbanization can change;
global interconnections by
– Jet travel
– Television
– Cell phones
– Internet
– Fossil fuels – make long distance travel possible
Our Urbanizing World
• People have moved to suburbs
– By mid-20th century, more people in cities in US
and Canada meant less jobs to offer
– Rise in unemployment
– Crowded inner cities  poverty and crime
– Interstate highway allowed for transportation
to/from home and work
*People spaced out = new developments in natural
areas
• “What made your city?” page 360
Sprawl
• Sprawl refers to the spread of low-density
urban or suburban development outward
from an urban center
• New houses and roads cover over 2.5 million
acres of US rural land every year
– 60% agricultural
– 40% forest
Sprawl
• Spread of development increases at a greater
rate than population growth
• Phoenix, Arizona (2002) – population
increased by 12%, land area used increased by
27%
• Each person in the suburbs takes up 11 times
more space than someone in the city
Causes of Sprawl
• Two main components/causes:
– Human population is growing
– Per capita (per person) land consumption
has increased
• Government policies encouraged sprawl by:
– funding for Interstate Highways
– road-building projects that moved
population away from cities and into
suburbs
What is wrong with sprawl?
• Transportation—constrains (limits)
transportation options
• Pollution—increases pollution
– CO2 emissions (climate change)
– Nitrogen (N) and Sulfur (S) air pollutants (urban
smog, acid rain)
– Motor oil and road salts (pollute waterways)
What is wrong with sprawl?
• Health—driving cars instead of walking
– Sprawling counties weigh 6 lbs more and have
higher blood pressure than the least-sprawling
counties
• Land use—more land is developed
• Economics—drains tax dollars from existing
communities and funnels them into new
development
Smart Growth (page 368, table 13.2)
– Mix land uses
– Compact building design
– Housing choices
– Walkable neighborhoods
– Attractive communities with a sense of place
– Preserve farmland, natural beauty, environmental
areas
– Develop existing communities
– Transportation choices
– Fair, cost-effective development decisions
– Encourage community/stakeholder collaboration
Activities/Work
• Human Settlements and Urbanization Round
Robin
• Testing Your Comprehension, 1-3
Creating Livable Cities
• Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago - early
standards for city planning
– professional pursuit that attempts to design cities
to maximize efficiency, functionality, and beauty
• Sprawling metropolitan areas - regional
planning
– same issues as city planner on a broader scale
Zoning
• Zoning is a key tool for planning
• The practice of classifying areas for different
types of development and land use
– Out of district – residential only
– Designate areas as single use or mixed use
– Give home/business owners security
Urban Growth Boundaries
• UGBs aim to
– revitalize downtowns
– protect farms, forests, and industries
– urban dwellers access to open space
– prevent sprawl
• UGBs also
– Saves taxpayers 20%
– Increases housing prices within
– Increases population density within
New Urbanism
• New urbanism
– design walkable neighborhoods with most
needs close to home
– neighborhoods connect to public
transportation
– Mimic traditional neighborhoods before
creation of suburbs
• Harbor Town in Memphis, TN is an example
http://harbortownonline.com/index.html
Transportation Options
• Transportation options - vital to livable cities
– Improves quality of life
– Cheaper (depending on city size and technology)
– Energy efficient
– Cleaner than auto
– Less traffic flow
*Curitiba, Brazil – bus system used by ¾ of the 2.5
million people
Parks
• City parks established in early 20th century
– Based on European designs, led by Frederic
Olmsted (Central Park in NY)
• Two conflicting goals motivated design of
early city parks
– pleasure grounds for the wealthy
– alleviated congestion and allowed escape for the
poverty-stricken immigrants
Small Public Spaces
• Smaller public spaces are also important.
– Playgrounds
– Community gardens
– Greenways – strips of land that connect
neighborhoods, usually near water, good for
walking/running/biking
– “Rails to Trails” making abandoned railways
spaces for walking/running/biking
Interpreting Graphs and Data
• Page 379
• Individually
• Due at the end of class
Urban Sustainability
• Urbanization has positive and negative
consequences
– Resource sinks—cities and towns must import
nearly all food, water, clothing, and building
materials; cities export wastes
– Efficiency—cities can minimize per capita
consumption by maximizing efficiency of resource
use and delivery of services (supplying electricity)
Urban Sustainability
• Consequences continued
– More consumption - ecological footprints of cities
are much greater than their actual land areas
• London, England’s ecological footprint is 125 times
greater than its actual land area
• Cities that take up 2% of the world’s land surface,
consumer over 75% of its resources!
• Consumption also correlates with wealth
*more money = more problems
Urban Centers Preserve Land
• If all 7 billion people were evenly spread
across Earth’s land area, we would have less
– Agriculture
– Wilderness
– Biodiversity
– Privacy
Urban Centers and Pollution
• Cities export wastes, which masks affects of
pollution from the residents
– Shipped to other states
– Power plants (coal) cause acid rain 100s of miles away
• Cities suffer pollution
– Heavy metals, chemicals, industrial compounds
– Noise/light pollution
*poorer communities – more pollution – environmental
justice concerns
Urban Centers Foster Innovation
• Cities promote
– Culture
– Innovation
– Creativity
– Technology and Scientific research
• Solutions to societal problems
• Recycling programs!
• Environmental education!
City Sustainability
• Urban ecology -cities can be viewed as ecosystems
• Ways to improve city sustainability
– Maximize efficiency
– Recycle!
– Eco-friendly technology
– Account for all costs (environmental, especially)
– Offer tax incentives for sustainable practices
– Use locally produced goods
– Use organic waste/wastewater to restore soil
– Encourage urban agriculture (community gardens)
Testing Your Comprehension
• Due Monday!
• Page 378, TYC, 5-10
• Worth 50 points
Chapter 22
Waste Management
Types of Waste
• Waste - unwanted material that results from a
human activity/process
– Municipal solid waste - non-liquid waste from
homes, institutions, and small businesses.
– Industrial solid waste - from the production of
goods, mining, agriculture, fossil fuel extraction
– Hazardous waste - solid or liquid that is toxic,
chemically reactive, flammable, or corrosive
– Wastewater—water we flush down pipes and
polluted runoff
Waste Management
• Minimize waste generated – Best
Management Method!
– Reduce the amount of materials that enters waste
sites
• Recover and recycle waste
• Dispose of waste safely/effectively
Municipal Solid Waste
• U.S. - paper, yard debris, food scraps, plastics
• Most municipal solid waste comes from
packaging
• 2003 - average U.S. citizen generated ~ 4.5
pounds of trash PER DAY!
• Developing nations generate less waste
• Wealthier nations invest more $ in waste
collection and disposal
Sanitary Landfills
• Sanitary landfills - regulated by health and
environmental guidelines by the federal
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA)
• Waste is buried in the ground or piled up to
prevent contamination of the environment
• Bottoms and sides must be lined with heavy
duty plastic and impermeable clay
Incinerating Trash
• Incineration - controlled burning of mixed
garbage
• Ash must still be disposed of in hazardous
waste landfills
• North American incinerators can use the heat
generated by combustion to generate
electricity or to fuel heating systems
– over 100 waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities across
the United States - process ~ 100,000 tons of
waste/day
Gas to Energy
• Landfills can produce gas for energy.
• Landfill gas can be collected, processed, and
used in the same way as natural gas
• More than 330 operational projects collect
landfill gas in the United States
Composting
• The conversion of organic waste into through
the natural process of decomposition
• What can you put into a compost pile?
– Food scraps
– Coffee grounds
– Grass clippings
– Leaves
– Most organic items
Recycling – 3 Steps
• collecting materials that can be broken down
and reprocessed
• collected items are taken to materials
recovery facilities (MRFs) - sorted, cleaned,
shredded, and prepared for reprocessing and
manufacturing new items
• Purchasing products made from recycled
materials
Recycling
• Recycling aluminum cans saves 95% of energy
required to make the same amount of
aluminum from virgin bauxite – source
material
• “Bottle Bills” allow consumers to return
bottles and cans to stores for a 5 cent refund
per bottle or can
– Decreases bottle litter by up to 85%!
Industrial Solid Waste
• According to the EPA, U.S. industrial facilities
generate ~ 7.6 billion tons of waste/year
– 97% of it is wastewater
• state and local regulation is usually less strict
than federal regulation
• cheaper to manufacture products quickly but
messily
Industrial Solid Waste
• Industrial ecology seeks to make industry
more sustainable.
– redesigns industrial systems to reduce resource
inputs, minimize physical inefficiency, maximize
economic efficiency
– examine the entire life cycle of a given product to
make the process more ecologically efficient life-cycle analysis
Hazardous Wastes
• Poses a danger or potential danger because of
its chemical nature
• 4 criteria/categories:
– Ignitability: easily catch fire
– Corrosivity: corrode metals
– Reactivity: chemically unstable and readily react
with other compounds.
– Toxicity: harmful to human health when inhaled or
ingested, or come in contact with skin
Hazardous Wastes
• Heavy metals such as lead, chromium,
mercury, arsenic, and copper are used widely
in industry
• Computers, televisions, VCRs, cell phones, and
other electronics represent new sources of
potential heavy metal contamination
– e-waste should be treated as hazardous waste
Hazardous Wastes
• U.S. law mandates that large generators of
hazardous materials have permits and that
materials be tracked “from cradle to grave”
• Many biologically hazardous materials can be
treated by
– Incineration
– bacterial bioremediation
– phytoremediation - plants that take up specific
contaminants and break them down or
concentrate heavy metals in their tissues
Three Main Disposal Methods
• Hazardous waste landfills (Y-12)
• liquid hazardous waste - surface
impoundments - water is allowed to
evaporate, leaves a solid residue that can be
removed and transported elsewhere
• deep-well injection - a well is drilled deep
beneath an area’s water table and wastes are
injected into it
Where does it go?
• Yucca Mountain in Nevada has been approved
as the single-site repository for all U.S. nuclear
waste
• Currently, a site in the Chihuahuan Desert in
southeastern New Mexico serves as a
permanent disposal site for radioactive waste
Contaminated Site Clean Up
• Superfund (EPA) - identify sites polluted with
hazardous chemicals, take action to protect
groundwater, and clean up the pollution
• Sites ranked according to level of risk to
human health; cleanup = when there is $
• 1980 law, tax was placed on chemical raw
materials - funded cleanup at Superfund sites
– Bush Administration/Congress allowed this law to
expire.
– There are no funds available for site cleanup, so
taxpayers are paying the costs completely