The urban geography is a branch of the human Geography whose object is the geographical study of the urban phenomenon. It is thus at the same time the study of the space organization of the Ville and the organization of the cities between them in urban networks.

The object of the urban geography is thus distinct from that of the Urbanisme, which it uses just as the Sociologie, the economy, the Histoire and of course the Cartographie.

Plan and typology of the cities

Plan

The Géographe studies the plan cities.

The function of different the districts varies according to their situation (Center-ville or Périphérie), their use (Residential zone or Zone of activities), them Population density (houses or buildings) and their social composition (easy popular quarters, districts, etc).

The layout of the premises of the capacity (political, economic, cultural), of the places of exchanges and meetings, of the routes transportation is often related on the history and the choices or constraints political or economic.

Typology

One can establish a typology of the cities:

• according to their size (measured by the number of inhabitants, or the importance of the zone of influence, or their row in the urban hierarchy: Borough, Small town, Medium-sized city, Big city, Metropolis, Mégapole)
• according to their dominant activity (agricultural borough, industrial town, commercial city, money market, crossroads city (or rail junction, port, airport), administrative city, university town, tourist city); one describes all these activities with the concept of urban Fonction
• according to their plan (Plan hippodamien, Plan radioconcentric, checkerboard plan, bipartite plan)
• according to their age (cities ancient, medieval, modern, contemporary)
• according to their level of development (cities of the developed countries, cities of the Third world)
• of the civilization to which they belong (European cities, North-American cities, Latin-American cities, Moslem cities, Indian cities, Chinese cities, African cities),
• according to their geographical growth: “vertical” city (Abidjan, Tokyo) or horizontal (Los Angeles).

in the world come to settle downtown and nourish the Rural migration. Strong the Population growth also explains the urban development of the countries of the South.

In 2006, the total urban population is evaluated to 3,15 billion urban on 6,5 human billion being. The urban explosion poses environmental problems: the large metropolises suffer from atmospheric pollution and pollute the rivers or the seas.

In the industrialized countries

At the beginning of the 20th century, London was the most populated city world with 6,5 million inhabitants.

In 1950 London will contain 8.7 million inhabitants, behind New York and its 12.5millions. it will be besides at this times both only megapoles (cities of more than 8M D (inhabitants) of the time.

In the countries in the process of development

The rural migration largely feeds the urban growth in the Pays in the process of development. Certain countries still count a majority of rural (India, China). But the cities attract more and more: they offer less constraining and better paid employment than the campaigns (BTP, various industries, services). In addition, the green revolutions modernized agriculture and released from the arms for the urban economy. The campaigns are often hearths of misery and civil war, in Africa sahélienne. The city exerts an attraction on the young people of the campaigns: it very often represents a place of leisures, appropriatenesses and modernity. The metropolis is also a door towards the world with its possibilities of emigration, its transport infrastructures or its universities. However, the rural migration produces imbalances and difficulties. Much rural uprooted resident in the Shantytown S where reign poverty and violence (Favelas in Brazil). These disinherited districts miss public installations.

See too

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