Managing Urban Environments

Topic Case study

Impacts of rapid urban growth (urbanisation)

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Managing inner city decline in an MEDC

Newcastle Upon Tyne – TWDC and WECC

Managing conflict at the edge of cities Newcastle Great Park (NGP)

Managing urban environmental pollution

Cairo, Egypt

Key ideas in the unit;

1. Urban areas in MEDCs are subject to constant change in their land use.

2. Urban areas in LEDCs are subject to very rapid growth.

3. Urban problems require sustainable solutions.

Urbanisation – causes of growth of cities.

• In most rich countries (MEDCs) city growth has slowed down and stopped. In LEDCs city growth continues. The increasing number of people living towns and cities is known as ubanisation, the main causes of urbanisation are natural increase and rural to urban migration (where people migrate from rural or countryside areas to urban areas). The table below summarises the causes of Urbanisation.

Push factors forcing people away from rural areas.

Pull factors attracting people to urban areas

Crop failures due to unpredictable climate.

Low wages in agriculture.

Poor service provision in the countryside, e.g. few hospitals, no schools.

Natural hazards – drought, forest fires etc.

Poor range of employment opportunities.

A wider range of jobs are available.

Higher wages in manufacturing industries (although migrants have to fight for these jobs and often don’t get them).

“Bright lights, big city” syndrome – people are attracted by the recreational and retail facilities in the city.

Reliable food supplies.

Better service provision.

Location

Rio De Janiero is on the south-east coast of Brazil. It has a large port running through it and lies on the tropic of Capricorn.

Rio De Janeiro

Causes of problems.

Rio De Janeiro is affected by urbanisation caused by Rural to Urban migration. This has resulted in the growth of many large favelas.

Rochina is a favela which is home to over 100,000 people on one single hillside. Although the buildings have been improved, many are built by the people who live in them and lack some basic amenities such as toilets. There are no refuse collection facilities, schools are over crowded and drug crime is rife.

Rio also suffers from urban pollution and traffic congestion.

Rio cannot grow because of physical factors, to the North and West are mountain ranges, to the South and East lies water. This makes the traffic congestion problems and overcrowding in outlying shanty towns worse.

Impacts of rapid urban growth (urbanisation) – Rio de Janeiro

Impacts of rapid urban growth (urbanisation) – Rio de Janeiro

Solutions to the problems in Rio• A new town has been built (see map) at Barra da

Tihuca. This has shopping malls, busses, good schools, transport links and holds over 100,000 people. It is mainly for middle class residents of Rio who can afford to move. It is separated from Rio by a mountain range which had to be tunnelled to allow access to Rio.

• Within the Favelas the government has assisted people in improving their homes. Breeze blocks and other materials (pipes for plumbing etc) were given as long as people updated their homes.

• The government also moved a lot of people out of shanty towns and into low cost, basic housing estates with plumbing, electricity and transport links. The waiting list for these properties was huge.

• Community policing has been encouraged with greater links between the police and the local communities and businesses, but drug gangs still pose a huge problem.

Managing inner city decline in an MEDC;Newcastle Upon Tyne – TWDC and WECC

Comparison of Newcastle to the West End

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The problem.

The riverside areas of Newcastle upon Tyne were responsible for the cities incredible growth and wealth during the industrial revolution. Heavy industries such as the Armstrong armaments works and ship building (e.g. Swan Hunters) employed tens of thousands of people from riverside communities in Newcastle such as Elswick and Scotswood. Overseas competition in these industries in the 1960s, 70s and 80s led to the decline and closure of these industries and the communities suffered as a result.

The graph shows this decline in these riverside areas in comparison to the rest of Newcastle. The graph shows that the West End is a poorer area than Newcastle overall. There are a lot more people who live in a council property in the West End than Newcastle. This could be because of low monthly wages given to the people at the West end, this might be because of the people being under qualified in the area from lack of education. This also could be proven by the 30% of students still at school at the age of seventeen compared to the Newcastle area of 41%. This means that the area overall is under qualified and a lot poorer than Newcastle. Unemployment was an incredible 42%.

Areas such as Scotswood and Benwell suffered economic, social and environmental (in the form of derelict buildings etc.) decline.

Managing inner city decline in an MEDC;Newcastle Upon Tyne – TWDC and WECC

What did the government do and where?

• They set up 2 groups do the work.• Each group was given an area to

work in.• The Tyne and wear development

corporation (TWDC) and west end city challenge (WECC).

• The TWDC were given the area between quay side to the port.

• The WECC were given the west end of Newcastle to work.

Key words

Regeneration – The complete demolition and rebuilding of an area.

Renewal – The improvement of an urban area, using the building that are there and improving them.

Managing inner city decline in an MEDC;Newcastle Upon Tyne – TWDC and WECC

Tyne and Wear Development Corporation (TWDC) – large scale regeneration

West End City Challenge

Aims Create new business districts or modern offices and industrial estates

Increasing employment through grants and training

Reviving riversides as a place to live

Improving environment and landscaping

Create new jobs

Improve educational achievements

Support training and employment opportunities

Funding £430 million of government money attracting £1,114 million of private sector money

£37.5 million of government money over 5 years, which attracted £80 million of private cash.

Management style

Top down Bottom up

Projects Mainly Flagship projects including

Newcastle Business park - £140 million development of 25ha of offices on previous derelict land British Airways have offices there

Newcastle Arena

Newcastle quayside – cost £170 million

Local community based projects including

Extension to Newcastle Breweries – creating 280 jobs

Renovation and gentrification of old Scotswood housing

Employing extra teachers and free alarm clocks for students

John Marley community centre for training

CCTV to combat crime

Evaluation TWDC has transformed the Newcastle Quayside but has been less successful at regenerating housing estates. Many local communities had to be relocated to make way for the big developments.

WECC has tried to benefit local people in improving their local environment. Despite strides being made in local housing many properties remain derelict and children still fail to achieve in school

NGP is all about whether or not we should build in the greenbelt or regenerate inner city Brownfield sites. NGP is a major housing and commercial development that has been built on a GREENFEILD SITE within the GREENBELT. Its located north of Newcastle next to Gosforth. The government gave special permission for the development to go ahead. Newcastle Great Park lies three miles North-west of Newcastle City Centre and is one of the biggest mixed-use developments in the UK. Around 600-acres has been earmarked for business, residential and commercial development and a further 600-acres will be richly landscaped, open parkland.

Where is NGP?

The park is located close to the A1 London to Edinburgh trunk road and the A19, which gives good access to the North Sea Ferries, Sunderland and Teesside. The park also has good links with rail networks, Newcastle International Airport and the city centre.

Managing conflict at the edge of cities - Newcastle Great Park (NGP)

Key wordsGreenfield Site – a green area of land that is used for a housing, industry or recreational development. This land has not been built on before.Brownfield site – land that has been developed/built upon before but is now disused. This land is within the city, needs clearing and cleaning before being re-used.Greenbelt - an area of land that is protected by law from development, they surround cities and are designed to stop cities spreading into the countryside.

Managing conflict at the edge of cities - Newcastle Great Park (NGP)

Arguments for NGP Arguments against NGP

1. 2,500 new homes in a parkland setting of 442 hectares will be complete. Useful for richer residents and generating income for the developers.

2. There will be 80 hectares of commercial development which could generate jobs. Already, the £50m headquarters for Newcastle computer group Sage have been completed. It is expected the software firm's 575,000 sq ft building headquarters will provide jobs for 1,500 workers within two years.

3. There is an integrated transport plan which will see every home not more than 400 meters from a bus stop, 27km of cycle routes in and around NGP, a discount cycle purchase scheme for residents and a car share database on the Internet.

4. A full time ranger will be employed to manage the country park to ensure local wildlife conservation

5. The development lies adjacent to the A1, which will be widened and improved, and is within easy reach of the airport, providing excellent opportunities for national and international travel.

6. It is hoped that the scheme will slow down the net loss of 1,500 people per year who migrate from Newcastle, pleasing city council members.

1. The three-storey properties priced from £188,000 are well beyond the average wage of people in Newcastle.

2. Environmentalists are concerned about the impact upon Red Squirrel (an endangered species) and deer populations which inhabit this area North of Newcastle.

3. The NGP housing plans contradict the principles of no/little development in the Green Belt. The greenbelt was designed to prevent urban sprawl into countryside areas which have recreation and agricultural uses, to the detriment of farmers.

4. There is space for around 20,000 high quality homes on Brownfield sites near to the city centre in the East and West end of the city. These areas (e.g. Scotswood, Benwell and Byker) are in decline since the loss of the shipping industry and are in need of a boost. Urban planners would generally prefer these sites to be used.

5. There is no guarantee of job creation.6. Traffic volumes in Gosforth and Newcastle city

centre will increase.7. Improving inner-city areas could slow down out

migration.

CAIRO, EGYPT (MANAGING URBAN POLLUTION)

Cairo is located to the east of the river Nile. This built up area has an airport to the north and to the east of the built up area is Eastern desert. This poses as a problem because the area now cannot expand to the west, due to the Nile and cannot expand to the east due to the desert region. The only way is north or south.Cairo’s main problem is overcrowding, and due to this overcrowding it means there is a great problem with pollution. Cairo is overcrowded for two reasons:• people have moved from rural areas to the urban city in search of jobs and a better lifestyle• the life expectancy has risen due to advances in medical care from 41yrs to 64 yrs Cairo's rapid population influx now means that there is over 30,000 people per square kilometre.This increase in population has lead to an increase in pollution:

PROBLEM: PROBLEMS CAUSED WHAT CAIRO GOV. IS DOING POSSIBLE SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS:

AIR POLLUTION

Fumes from Cairo’s 2 million vehicles combined with suspended particulate matter plus sand blown into urban areas, the concentration of air particulates is 5-10 times higher in Cairo than the recommended average. This is worst in the industrial areas and Cairo Old Town- this causes high blood pressure kidney problems, infertility and an IQ drop it kills 10-25000 people

Gas emissions are 5-10 times higher than WHO recommends

•Change unleaded petrol•Cairo Air Improvement Project has monitoring stations and car checks. it has 36 monitoring stations funded by US aid which gives $60 million. Have produced a programme that reduces the emissions from air filters- new equipment and smelters and relocation of factories; they also have vehicle emission testing randomly.

•Change fuel to natural gas•Relocate factories or install new equipment to stop harmful emissions•Metro system reduce no. of cars on road

LAND POLLUTION

•10,000 tonnes of waste •Waste incinerators broken•No health waste disposal

Hazardous waste is helped to spread by rats and other vermin

•Cairo Cleaning and Beautification Agency only collect 60% of waste

•Service incinerators with filters•No fee for rubbish disposal•recycle

NOISE POLLUTION

•Cars in rush hour traffic mean roads are gridlocked throughout the day and night•Night clubs open late•Boats on river

•Metro-system to reduce cars •Encourage people to walk or take public transport•Reduce opening hours of clubs•MOTs on boats + cars