Part I WHAT IS A CITY?

1. Part IWHAT IS A CITY? Geography 1050 The Geography of Cities

2. Cities have been ‘invented’ several times In the ‘Fertile Crescent’, the Valley of the Tigris and Euphrates in what is now Iraq during the 4th millennium BC

3. In the Nile Valley ca. 3000 BC

4. In the Indus Valley of Pakistan ca 2500 BC

5. Other Places of Urban ‘Invention’ • The Yangtze Valley, ca 2000 BC • The Americas: Inca ca 800 AD Aztec ca 600 AD

6. Manchu Picchu., c. 2002. Evidence of urbanization here beginning at least 800 AD.

7. Roman Empire Inca Empire

8. The morphology of cities has changed dramatically over the millennia,

9. Athens Fourth Century BC

10. Rome in the 2nd Century AD

11. Gustav Dore’s View of London 1878

12. Canary Wharf, Isle of Dogs, London

13. Timbouktou, Mali

14. Timbouktou, Mali A UNESCO World Heritage Site

15. Centre of learning by 965 AD Sankore Mosque/University Djingareiber Mosque

16. Cities have always served more of less the same functions, providing sites of Defense Places of worship Education Fostering of culture Administration Shelter Production and Consumption Processes/Properties of the City (manual, p. 89) Production Reproduction Proximity Capitalization Sense of Place Governance Multiple urban origins, similar functions

17. Four Ways of DefiningThe City • Social - Demographic • Functional or Economic • Legal or Administrative • Statistical

18. Definition 1: Social - Demographic • A city can is a human settlement that is: • Large • Densely populated • Permanent • Socially heterogeneous, housing non agricultural specialists and a literate elite (Louis Wirth, 1938)

19. The Importance of Density(Manual, p. 94)How dense is dense?(persons/km2)

20. Downtown St. John’s 4,000

21. Chinatown, Toronto9,000

22. St. Jamestown, Toronto80,000

23. Mumbai43,000

24. Definition 2:Functional or Economic The function of a city is to provide goods and services to its own people and (usually) to a surrounding population (local, regional, national or global) as well

25. Defining a city • Functional or Economic • Only a small proportion of the population is engaged in primary activities such as fishing, farming or forestry • Most of the population is engaged in ‘secondary’, ‘tertiary’ or ‘quaternary’ activities • Manufacturing • Trade (wholesale, retail) • Finance • Administration • Education • Religion

26. Definition 3:Legal or Administrative A city usually has a legal existence, incorporated as a city or town under some appropriate legislation, and with a defined territory.

27. St. John’s was incorporated in 1888 St. John’s, 1859

28. Prior to that it did not exist legally. • But it did exist as a large, densely populated, permanent, socially heterogeneous settlement (Definition 1), and it performed urban economic functions (Definition 2) for the country. St. John’s, 1859

29. Definition 4:Statistical Statistical agencies like Statistics Canada make their own definitions of cities. Usually the purpose is to define a metropolitan area that approximates the area thatfunctions as a single urban settlement. The Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is the most common of these statistical areas.

30. This map shows the two cities of St. John’s and Mount Pearl, and ten of the towns on the Avalon Peninsula.

31. The goal is to define a metropolitan area that approximates the area that functions as a single urban settlement – in Canada we attempt to delineate the area defined by the daily labourshed. • The Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is the most common of these statistical areas.

32. Diagram of CMA

33. The Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) according to StatsCan • The CMA is an area consisting of an urban core plus one or more adjacent municipalities situated around the core. To form a census metropolitan area, the urban core must have a population of at least 100,000. To be included in the CMA, other adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the central urban area, as measured by commuting flows.

35. CMA Population 2006 Rank 1-13

36. CMA’s 14 to 27