Urban Settlement System Research Articles

The Pre-History of Urban Scaling

Cities are increasingly the fundamental socio-economic units of human societies worldwide, but we still lack a unified characterization of urbanization that captures the social processes realized by cities across time and space. This is especially important for understanding the role of cities in the history of human civilization and for determining whether studies of ancient cities are relevant for contemporary science and policy. As a step in this direction, we develop a theory of settlement scaling in archaeology, deriving the relationship between population and settled area from a consideration of the interplay between social and infrastructural networks. We then test these models on settlement data from the Pre-Hispanic Basin of Mexico to show that this ancient settlement system displays spatial scaling properties analogous to those observed in modern cities. Our data derive from over 1,500 settlements occupied over two millennia and spanning four major cultural periods characterized by different levels of agricultural productivity, political centralization and market development. We show that, in agreement with theory, total settlement area increases with population size, on average, according to a scale invariant relation with an exponent in the range . As a consequence, we are able to infer aggregate socio-economic properties of ancient societies from archaeological measures of settlement organization. Our findings, from an urban settlement system that evolved independently from its old-world counterparts, suggest that principles of settlement organization are very general and may apply to the entire range of human history.

Urbanization in remote areas: A case study of the Heilongjiang Reclamation Area, Northeast China

In a remote part of Northeast China, thousands of villages have disappeared from the map. Their inhabitants, more than 600,000 farmers, have been instructed by the government to relocate to nearby towns and commute to their farms to work. By concentrating the dispersed rural population in a small number of urban cores, the government hopes to improve housing conditions and accessibility to services, stimulate economic development, and free up more land for farming. This paper analyzes this kind of urbanization, which is distinct from the much-studied city-centered urbanization and in situ urbanization in coastal China. In addition to the resettlement program, this urbanization process is driven by agricultural modernization and economic liberalization. Urbanization has produced a rural–urban hybrid settlement system where urban construction coexists with a mostly agrarian economy. Urbanization has also improved the livelihood of many rural households, but there are significant social, economic, and environmental challenges.

The development of the urban settlement system in Belgorod oblast

We have investigated the urbanization processes in the region. The study revealed the characteristics of evolution of urban systems and of the urbanization development stages as well as ascertaining the current formation tendencies for large cities and their suburban zones.

The Application of Catastrophe Progression Method and GIS Technology to the Safety Evaluation of Human Settlements

The safety of urban human settlements has ever aroused extensive attention of the whole world. And the safety of urban human settlements and the evaluation are scarcely studied. The safety evaluation index system of urban human settlements was put forward, the safety evaluation model based on the catastrophe theory and GIS technology was built up. And the model was applied in the case study of cities in Sichuan Province. According to the above index and catastrophe progression method, the scoring and ranking of every 17 indicators of the safety evaluation in 18 prefecture-level cities in Sichuan Province were calculated. Finally, the grading map of the safety evaluation of Human Settlements in Sichuan Province was obtained. The results showed that the evaluation result is basically accordant with people's perceptions. According to concrete conditions of different cities, it should make corresponding measures and analyze deeply to get the scientific and feasible scheme.

The Optimization and Reconstruction of the Urban and Rural Settlements under Community Vision: A Study on Yan Chang County of Yan’an City

Based on the community theory, from the practice characteristic of the county urban and rural settlements, this paper analyzes the problems in concrete technology practice and science research, optimizes and reconstructs the residential system. With Yan Chang County of Yan’an City as an example, carried out the research and tested the application of the framework. Construction of the frame system coupled the relationships between the county settlement system and the community theory, which more expressed a kind of thought method and a concept of value, so then put forward the technical path of the urban and rural settlement system construction. At the same time, according to the urban and rural harmonious development, guided and constructed the urban and rural residential system with Shaanxi characteristic, which inferred with its space layout, scale, structure and planning method.

Uncertainty evaluation of the coordinated development of urban human settlement environment and economy in Changsha city

The coordinated development of human settlement environment and economy is of vital significance to urban sustainable development and urban ecosystem health. Urban human settlement and economic systems exist in urban ecosystems, which are a structural complexity. Therefore the research is being challenged by some uncertain factors between human settlements and economic systems. However most of the researches were focused on its determinate objective aspects and qualitative analyses while less concern on the quantitative evaluation of coordinated development of urban human settlement environment and economy, especially little on its uncertain aspect. At present, the urgent task is to study the coordinated development of urban settlement environment and economy in terms of the effect of uncertainty. This study analyzed the uncertain characteristics, which would be confronted at different stages, such as confirming the index categories, their bound values, and their construction rate, etc. According to the actual urban conditions, many construction principles based on uncertainties are put forward and an indicating system for human settlement and economic evaluation is established. Moreover, the application of fuzzy mathematics presents a new method and a calculation model for the comprehensive assessment of the coordinated development of urban human settlement environment and economy. The application of the method and model in Changsha city of China showed that the assessment results can reflect not only the overall coordination degree of the city, but also the mode of interactive mechanism between urban economic system and human settlement environment.

Small towns in Poland - barriers and factors of growth

Abstract The paper focuses mainly on the factors influencing the growth of a small town by giving the rank of all small towns in Poland. In addition, the author stresses the role of the land ownership structure for the future development of towns. The urban settlement system in Poland consists of 891 units among which there are 39 big and 180 middle sized cities. Small towns with the number of inhabitants lower than 20 thousand clearly dominate in this differentiated collection of all 891 cities in Poland (2007). 672 towns make over 78% and are inhabited by more than 21% of the country urban population. It can be said that the development chances of the country are influenced by the condition of small towns. Small towns differ significantly due to their origin ranging from the 13th century ones to the very newly established towns. Towns differ due to the population, from the smallest with the population less than a thousand to almost 20 thousand inhabitants what makes them similar to the middle sized towns, both in functions and morphology. The functions of small towns ranging from the agriculture centres, industrial towns to local services centres are also the factor of differentiation. Presenting the rank of all small towns in Poland, the author focuses on the problem of the landownership structure of towns, which seems to be an important element influencing their harmonious growth on the one hand and being a barrier to the future development on the other.

Cairo's Zabaleen garbage recyclers: Multi-nationals’ takeover and state relocation plans

The paper investigates recently launched plans to privatize solid-waste management in Cairo, focusing on its adverse effects on the sustainability of the associated recycling economy and urban settlement system of the garbage collectors communities ( Zabaleen) located within the Muqattam mountain area which is adjacent to Cairo's old historical quarters. According to official development strategy, the privatization of solid-waste services is regarded as fundamental to overall government plans for Old Cairo's rehabilitation. The objectives of the rehabilitation programme tend to favour tourist-orientated projects, whilst ignoring the local population's interests through the removal of informal Zabaleen settlements in Muqattam mountain, and through the clearing of the Eastern Cemetery of its tomb dwellers and shanty town buildings. The study examines the consequences of recent official intervention in the sustainability of the Muqattam Zabaleen settlement in terms of physical and demographic growth, infrastructural development, and changes in land tenure system. The paper takes into consideration early 1980s programmes funded by the World Bank to improve the Zabaleens’ environment and to upgrade their settlement. These aimed to maintain the existing informal settlement pattern and to develop urban service delivery systems. The empirical study adopts a qualitative analysis employing ethnographic techniques of informal discussions with secondary stakeholder agencies (local municipality, planners, NGOs activists). A field survey of the primary stakeholder group (garbage collectors) involved in-depth interviews with householders and with community leaders in the Zabaleen settlement. The analysis explores narratives expressed by members of the Zabaleen community in response to the threat of enforced eviction resulting from potential state-controlled gentrification programmes for urban development and land speculation in the area. The findings emphasize the significance of local participatory mechanisms in restructuring solid-waste collection and in developing the recycling industry whilst putting vacant and under-used areas into productive use. These mechanisms would support the management of built environment and local resources and would build local capacity through developing new channels for co-operation and partnership between the garbage collectors’ association ( Gamm’yya) and grass roots organizations together with the local authorities and multi-national companies. In order to promote sustainable livelihoods and better opportunities for the urban poor the study concludes that there is a need to draw on the sustainable flow of local resources within low-income garbage collectors groups, whilst seeking new means of supporting land acquisition and its development for improved housing standards, basic services and environmental quality.

The impact of privatization of solid waste management on the Zabaleen garbage collectors of Cairo

This paper investigates the recently launched privatization of local solid waste management in Cairo, focusing on its adverse effects on the economy and on the urban settlement system of the Zabaleen garbage collectors’ communities. According to the official development strategy, the privatization of solid waste services is fundamental to overall government plans for the rehabilitation of areas of historical Cairo. But the objectives of the rehabilitation plans tend to favour business interests while threatening the interests of the local population. The findings of a study on the situation emphasize the significance of poverty alleviation initiatives in restructuring solid waste collection and developing the recycling industry, and the development of new channels for cooperation and partnership between the garbage collectors’ association (Gammiya), grassroots organizations, local authorities and multinational waste management companies. In order to promote sustainable livelihoods and better opportunities for the urban poor, the study emphasizes the need among the low-income Zabaleen to draw on the sustainable flow of local resources, while seeking new means of supporting land acquisition and its development for improved housing standards, basic services and environmental quality.

Fractals in urban geography: a theoretical outline and an empirical example

Recently, fractal theory has become popular in urban geography. Actually, its formalisation is compatible with many characteristics of the urban systems: self-similarity in clustering and fragmentation of spatial patterns at different scales, hierarchical organisation, sinuosity of borders, and non-linear dynamics. First, we recall how fractal properties can be related to important features of urban morphology just as easily as to the evolution of urban systems. Second, we briefly review the main trends in the application of fractals to urban issues: the description of urban morphologies (built-up areas, distribution of activities, networks, borders…), the simulation of urban growth and settlement systems analysis. A specific application to the question of urban limits will be presented in detail. Issues of relevance and validation will be discussed, especially regarding the combination of different types of spatial structures.

An Analysis for the Japanese Urban Settlement System based on the UEA Definition

An Analysis for the Japanese Urban Settlement System based on the UEA Definition

The growth and structural change of Chinese cities: a contextual and geographic analysis

Recent theoretical attempts to understand the dynamics of urban change in North America have been made predominantly on the basis of either the “growth machine” model or urban regime analysis, both of which see the growth of cities as the result of the interplay among some internal urban-based actors for financial gains and fortune building. This study adopts an approach that moves beyond internalism and the growth deterministic interpretation of urban change, to analyzing the functional and spatial (re)positioning of cities as a system or systems in the broader context of regional growth and national development strategies. The city in China has functioned not simply as a body of assets and property but more as the center of economic and social transformation engineered by the state for both growth and non-growth considerations. Prior to the 1978 economic reforms, the system of cities created by the Maoist regime was dominated by large and extra-large cities because of the imperatives of optimum industrialization. For the strategic consideration of national defense, most of the new cities were developed in the central and western interior rather than the eastern coast. Market reforms and relaxation of state control over local development since the late 1970s have allowed a large number of small cities and towns to flourish on the basis of bottom-up rural transformative development. The intrusion of global market forces has helped re-consolidate the dominance of the eastern coast in China’s urban development. China’s urban development over the past five decades has been the direct outcome of national political strategizing, state articulation and reconfiguration, and shifts in global capital accumulation. A superimposed dual-track system of urban settlements integrating the Maoist legacy of large city dominance at the top with the rapidly expanding component of small cities and towns in the bottom is quickly taking shape to characterize China’s urban development and urbanization.

State Planning: A German Success Story?

Among planners in Europe, Germany has a reputation for its long tradition of spatial planning. The paper gives a concise overview over spatial planning achievements in Germany at two tiers of decision making, the federal and the state level, using Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin-Brandenburg as examples. The main conclusion from the paper is that spatial planning in Germany has played an important role in guiding spatial development in the country, in reserving space for transport corridors, in maintaining the balanced system of urban settlements and in preserving the natural and cultural environments. Moreover it has contributed much to strengthen the regional identity of the regions (states). Its role as a tool for economic development, however, has been marginal, partly because spatial planning at the federal and state level has never left the internal circles of the planning establishment to become a field of popular and media attention.

Polynucleated Urban Landscapes

City systems show a degree of resilience and persistence that has rarely been emphasised in urban theory. There is a fascination for recent and contemporary change which suggests that phenomena such as the rise of the 'edge city', for example, comprise the predominant forces determining how a polynucleated landscape of cities is emerging. We argue here that such explanations of polynucleation are largely false. Urban settlement structures from much earlier times are persistent to a degree that is extraordinary. We show this in two ways: first, from empirical evidence of stable rank-size relations in the urban settlement system for Great Britain over the past 100 years; and, secondly, from simulations based on weak laws of proportionate effect which produce aggregate patterns entirely consistent with these empirical relations. We then propose various spatially disaggregate models of urban development which generate an evolution of polynucleated settlement from initial, random distributions of urban activity. These models simulate the repeated action of agents locating and trading in space which illustrate how early settlement patterns are gradually reinforced by positive feedback. These produce lognormally distributed settlement structures that are characteristic of city systems in developed countries. In this way, we begin to explain how aggregate urban structures persist in spite of rapid and volatile micro change at more local levels of locational decision-making. Polynucleated urban landscapes are clear evidence of this phenomenon.

Spatial structure of urban settlement systems: stability versus changeability

Postulates of W. Christallers central-place theory are discussed with an introduction of a new sixth postulats. Under consideration are specific cases of settlement which can not be described by apparatus of classical central-place theory. It is shown that besides external causes responsable for deformation of Christaller grid (anisotropy of territory, etc.) there are some inner, immanent causes of it which have spontaneous nature. The paper formulates basics of relativist version of central-place theory, introduces notions of the degree of stability of urban settlement systems and “isostatic equilibrium (as an attractor). It presents results of analysis of degree of stabilite of settlement of Estonia, Armenia, Georgia, and Central Russia. It is substantiated that it is possible to create a theory of Great Unification by applying synthetic approach to both relativist central-place theory and phasic conceptions of spatial development.

The Magnetism of Miami: Segmented Paths in Cuban Migration

Miami is the primate city in a system of urban settlements that make up a Cuban ethnic archipelago in the United States. The city is also a national magnet, attracting Cuban migrants from metropolitan regions across the archipelago. Four large secondary cores of Cubans outside Florida serve as major “feeders” to the Miami enclave: northern New Jersey, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Currents of migration to Miami are especially strong among older, foreign‐born, and disadvantaged Cubans, an indication of segmented paths in Cuban assimilation. Although concentration in Metropolitan Miami has been the Cuban story over the past three decades, processes of deconcentration now may well be under way.

The Magnetism of Miami: Segmented Paths in Cuban Migration

ABSTRACT. Miami is the primate city in a system of urban settlements that make up a Cuban ethnic archipelago in the United States. The city is also a national magnet, attracting Cuban migrants from metropolitan regions across the archipelago. Four large secondary cores of Cubans outside Florida serve as major “feeders” to the Miami enclave: northern New Jersey, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Currents of migration to Miami are especially strong among older, foreign-born, and disadvantaged Cubans, an indication of segmented paths in Cuban assimilation. Although concentration in Metropolitan Miami has been the Cuban story over the past three decades, processes of deconcentration now may well be under way.

URBAN POLICY IN RUSSIA: A GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE

The author "describes current features of the Russian urban settlement system, recounts erroneous planning practices of the past, and prescribes changes for the improvement of settlement planning in the future. [Included] are tables, disaggregated to the economic regional level, showing spatial variations in the number of new cities registered over the period 1927-1989. In [a] modification of conventional former Soviet thinking, a case is made in favor of such processes as polarization of space, agglomeration, spontaneous transformation of urban economic profiles, and place-based rather than norm-based planning."

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The Development of Urban Settlement System in Hokkaido

This paper aims to trace the historical change in pattern and process of distribution of urban settlements in Hokkaido for period from 1879 to 1976. Total of 576 Shigaichi, urban settlements, were taken up for the analysis in this paper. Shigaichi means built-up area where more than 200 households collect together. These urban settlements were classified into five groups based on both their orgin and their main industrial activities; inland settlements, coastal settlements, mining settlements, satellite settlements and others.Table 1 and Fig. 1 show the change in rank-size distribution of Shigaichi, and Fig. 2 shows spatial distribution of Shigaichi in various years by size. Fig. 3, 4 and 5 show the change in number of population or number of households of Shigaichi in various periods. In Table 2, 3 and 4, the changes in number of Shigaichi and its growth rate were examined in each period. All these analyses show that we can discern three stages of development of urban settlement system in Hokkaido as follows (Fig. 7).1) First Stage: Meiji Era (1868-1912)In the early years of this stage, urban settlements were only distributed in the southwestern part of Hokkaido. As the frontiers moved to the east and to the north, there emerged many urban settlements as regional centers. Accordingly, these urban settlements have constituted the framework of urban settlement system. Hakodate had been the primate city throughout this period.2) Second Stage: Taishou Era (1912-1926) to just after the end of World War IIIn this period, many inland settlements have established and urban settlement system had begun to show dispersion. Inland settlements had experienced the highest increase in population, while coastal settlements had recorded inconsiderable growth in population. Throughout this period, Hakodate had been the same size as Otaru and Sapporo, and there was no primate city.3) Third Stage: After 1955Population had increased rather rapidly in large urban settlements, and this had strengthened a tendency towards unification in urban settlement system. The total number of urban settlements had decreased, however urban settlements with more than 5, 000 households had increased rapidly in number. The difference in growth rate of households is also seen among groups of urban settlements. The population of satellite settlements have increased remarkably, while that of mining settlements have decreased considerably. Sapporo has established its status as the primate city.To sum up the above mentioned development process, there are three different functions which played the most important part in the development of urban settlements: Gateway function for the first stage, central place function for the second and agglomeration function for the last (Fig. 8).