1. What is Urban Geography?

2. What is the concept of Urban Geography?

3. What are the issues included in the study of
Urban Geography?
 An Overview of Urban Geography
By :Amanda Briney
Urban geography is a branch of human geography concerned
with various aspects of cities. An urban geographer's main role
is to emphasize location and space and study the spatial
processes that create patterns observed in urban areas. To do
this, they study the site, evolution and growth, and
classification of villages, towns, and cities as well as their
location and importance in relation to different regions and
cities.
Economic, political and social aspects within cities are also
important in urban geography.
In order to fully understand each of these aspects of a city,
urban geography represents a combination of many other
fields within geography.
 Physical geography, for example, is important in understanding
why a city is located in a specific area as site and environmental
conditions play a large role in whether or not a city develops. 
Cultural geography can aid in understanding various conditions
related to an area's people, while economic geography aids in
understanding the types of economic activities and jobs
available in an area.
Fields outside of geography such as resource management,
anthropology, and urban sociology are also important.
 Urban Geography: Definition and Concepts
Towns are viewed not only as hubs and epitomes of socio economic
and cultural systems and sub systems of the present day world, but
also as the highest and most complex marks of humanization and
colonization on the surface of the earth occupying however very
small portion of the earth‟s surface, the urban places are far more
significant as centres of population controlling, almost the entire
socio-economic and organizational set of a region.
Urban Geography is one of the largely developed branches of the
present discipline.
In contradiction, it is quite young in origin; while the birth of cities
is prehistoric, as the urban centres have evolved along with the
civilization itself.
Urban Geography tries to provide logical study of urban settlements of
a region in terms of areal variations including interrelationships with
other areal units-urban or non-urban. It considers both inductively and
also deductively the intra-urban framework in an area or the whole
world.
The basic approach of urban geography in studying town is to analyse
them more as human settlements or habitations existent on the
earth‟s surface as individual whole units, as made up of various
ingredient parts, as physical and functional entities, as parts of a larger
regional system and as evolving units of changing levels and
magnitude.
The principal aim of Urban Geography is to provide – generalizations in
patterns and trends about towns and their interiors and their
interrelationships more in totality than in separation or fraction.
The basic approach of urban geography in studying town is to
analyse them more as human settlements or habitations
existent on the earth‟s surface as individual whole units, as
made up of various ingredient parts, as physical and functional
entities, as parts of a larger regional system and as evolving
units of changing levels and magnitude.
The principal aim of Urban Geography is to provide –
generalizations in patterns and trends about towns and their
interiors and their interrelationships more in totality than in
separation or fraction.
Over the last 50 years, the world has faced vivid growth of its
population.
The number of 50 called Mega cities increased in the period
from 1975 until today from 4 to 22 mostly in less developed
regions (Munchner Ruck, 2005).
Particularly India mega cities are among the most dynamic
regions on the planet. During the last 50 years the population
of India (today 1.2 billion) has grown two and a half times, but
the urban population has grown nearly five times.
The number of India mega cities will double from the current
three (Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata) to the six year 2021.
 History of Urban Geography
The earliest studies of urban geography in the United States
focused on site and situation. This developed out of the man-
land tradition of geography which focused on the impact of
nature on humans and vice versa.
In the 1920s, Carl Sauer became influential in urban geography
as he motivated geographers to study a city's population and
economic aspects with regard to its physical location.
In addition, central place theory and regional studies focused
on the hinterland (the rural outlying are supporting a city with
agricultural products and raw materials) and trade areas were
also important to early urban geography.
Throughout the 1950s and 1970s, geography itself became
focused on spatial analysis, quantitative measurements and
the use of the scientific method.
At the same time, urban geographers began quantitative
information like census data to compare different urban areas.
Using this data allowed them to do comparative studies of
different cities and develop computer-based analysis out of
those studies.
By the 1970s, urban studies were the leading form of
geographic research.
Shortly thereafter, behavioral studies began to grow within
geography and in urban geography. Proponents of behavioral
studies believed that location and spatial characteristics could
not be held solely responsible for changes in a city. Instead,
changes in a city arise from decisions made by individuals and
organizations within the city.
By the 1980s, urban geographers became largely concerned
with structural aspects of the city related to underlying social,
political and economic structures.
For example, urban geographers at this time studied how
capital investment could foster urban change in various cities.
Throughout the late 1980s until today, urban geographers have
begun to differentiate themselves from one another, therefore
allowing the field to be filled with a number of different
viewpoints and focuses.
For example, a city's site and situation is still regarded as
important to its growth, as is its history and relationship with
its physical environment and natural resources.
People's interactions with each other and political and
economic factors are still studied as agents of urban change as
well.
List down the 20 urban cities/mega cites of the world. Include
in the data the population, land area, population density, and
the population growth.
Historical Development and Growth of Urban Geography
Urban geography is rapidly mounting sub-discipline of human
geography; it increases fast after Second World War.
A logical study of urbanization is a recent fact in developed countries.
In India, urban study has been done by conducting socio economic
surveys for selected cities.
Town planners have conducted precise survey in several cities
focusing on the development and trends of urbanization in India. The
first review of urban geography was made by Aurousseau in 1924. He
commented that urban geography embraces such a huge section of
human geography that it is barely a speciality at all.
Thus, studying outcome of the problem involved in identifying urban
geography as a organized study.
Many Indian geographers have contributed in the pitch of urban
geography.
In the study of municipal geography one primarily studies urban
places and the problem linked with urban areas. These problems
are of different types and take place due to speedy urbanization.
Our cities are escalating at unparalleled rate in other chaotic
manner, mainly during latest decades. The second urban
phenomena was related with the „Industrial Revolution‟ in the
closing half of the nineteenth century, with new and vital scope of
the progress of urban centres.
By the end of nineteenth century, the world witnessed an
unparalleled swelling in percentage of the urban population to the
total population.
The economically and industrially advanced western world
faced rapid expansion of urban centres.
Today about 80% of their population lives in urban centres and
in some western countries and mainly in the U. S., there is also
counter urbanization.
On the other hand, the not as much of developed countries
have on an average only 34% urban population; but they
having rapid growth of urban centres, mainly metropolitan
cities, due to economic growth and industrialization.
It is assumed that such countries will have additional 50% of
their population residing in cities at the end of 20th century.2b
Urban geography is a recognized branch of geography that
attracts researchers and students in large numbers, and
produces a large and escalating volume of published work to
aid understanding of the city.
The progress of urban geography to a central portion within
the discipline has occurred over the part of half century.
As Herbert and Johnsten (1978 p.1) noted: Where as in the
early 1950, a separate course on urban geography at an
English Speaking university was quite outstanding, today the
absence of such a course would be equally remarkable; in fact
in many institutions students can opt for a group of courses
treating different aspects of the urban setting.
Urban geography is a vibrant sub discipline that comprising an
intermingle part of ideas and approaches, current concept and issue
that are still being work out. It may be linked to a city with districts of
different ages and vitalities. There are some long well-known districts
dating back to a century ago and occasionally in need of repair; and
there are areas which were formerly smart but are so no longer,
while other is being rehabilitee. Other districts have expanded
recently and rapidly; some are well built and others remain on the
way to develop. Since the soon after 1970, the scope of urban
geography has stretched rapidly for some commentators the
increased multiplicity is a source of potential flaw that may lead
eventually to its disintegration for others, together with the present
writer the breadth of point of view strengthens urban geography
section as an integrative focus for research on the city.
 NEW CITIES, NEW URBAN GEOGRAPHIES
The only consistent thing about cities is that they are always
changing.
Classifying and understanding the processes of urban change
present problems for geographers and others studying the city.
Cities, since their inception, have always demonstrated
gradual, piecemeal change through processes of accretion,
addition or demolition.
This type of change may be regarded as largely cosmetic and
the underlying processes of urbanisation and the overall
structure of the city remain largely unaltered.
Geographers have constantly to ask themselves whether the changes they
observe are part of the continual process of piecemeal change or whether
they are part of more fundamental processes of transformation. Just such
a debate occupied geographers, sociologists and other social scientists in
the latter part of the 1980s and the early 1990s. The issue of whether we
are witnessing the emergence of new types of cities has also raised
questions about the adequacy and relevance of the geographical models
and theories developed in the past to understand cities.
The earlier mention of the Industrial Revolution raises issues of
investigation that shape the themes of this book. Do we need to look at
the changes in not only the national but also the international economy
since the 1970s and ask ourselves whether or not they are as epochal in
their extent and significance as those changes now labelled the
‘Industrial Revolution’?
The answer to this question is unequivocally yes. There is
little doubt that since the early 1970s the world economy has
been affected by a number of fundamental changes. The
ramifications of these changes have been enormous and have
affected not only the economic life, but also the social, cultural
and political lives of nations, regions, communities and
individuals.
Visually, the evidence of a fundamental transformation of the
processes of urbanisation appears compelling. The signs of
significant change are apparent in many urban landscapes of
North America, the UK, mainland Europe and many parts of
the developing world.
Some of the most widely debated of these signs of change have
been the enhancement of city centres by extensive redevelopment,
the redevelopment of derelict, formerly industrial areas such as
factories and docks, the use of industrial and architectural heritage
in new commercial and residential developments, the social,
economic and environmental upgrading of inner-city
neighbourhoods by young, middle-class professionals (a process
referred to as ‘gentrification’), the appearance of brand-new ‘city-
like’ settlements on the edges of existing urban areas, and the
emergence of large areas of poverty and degradation (often
referred to as social exclusion), for example, in old inner-city areas,
and on council housing estates on the edges of numerous towns
and cities.
The language that academics have used to debate and
describe contemporary urban change would suggest that some
profound differences in the urbanisation process have
emerged. The language used by academics to describe these
changes has included: from industrial to post-industrial, from
modern to postmodern, from Fordist to post-Fordist.
However, despite apparently compelling visual evidence and
the language used to describe change, it is important to try to
remain objective and to assess the degree to which these
changes could truly be called a transformation of the
urbanisation process and an emergence of new forms of urban
settlement.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF CITY
Many urban geographers and historians have argued that the cities we
recognise are the product of a long evolutionary process, during which
the settlements of 15,000 BC gradually evolved into the complex cities of
the early twenty-first century.
This view may seem very appealing;
however, it ignores some very important dimensions of contemporary
urbanisation.
No two cities are identical. They may be broadly similar,
but cities have very different landscapes, economies, cultures and
societies.
This is a reflection of the fact that cities are shaped by a diverse set of
processes.
The particular set of processes that affect city development
depends on a number of factors that are unique to individual
cities, such as city size and the nature of its economy, and/or
related to wider factors, such as the relationships between
networks of cities, the nature of the nation within which they are
located and their position within the world economy.
The diversity of city types and processes of urbanisation cannot
be reduced to a simple, linear evolutionary process. It is
preferable to adopt a perspective that recognises this diversity
and to think of cities as having different roles and positions in the
world economy. The trajectory of urban development is bound
up with the workings of the world economy and the relationships
of individual cities to this (Savage and Warde 1993: 38).
The following classification of different types of cities
recognises this:
● Third World cities
● Cities in socialist countries
● Global (world) cities
● Older (former) industrial cities
● New industrial districts
This classification is not totally comprehensive, nor should it be applied
too rigidly.
For example, many cities fall into more than one of the
categories listed (Savage and Warde 1993: 40).
London is a global city; however, it contains a considerable decaying
industrial economy and yet it is surrounded by many new industrial
districts.
It is often far from easy to determine which category describes a city
best. Further, there is a great deal of diversity within each category,
especially between Third World cities but even between older industrial
cities which may have been based upon different industries. Despite
these limitations this classification recognises that urbanisation is
different in various parts of the world and for different types of city
(Savage and Warde 1993: 38–40).
Do you think new cities
really create new urban
geography? Why?