Intro

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

Dr. Michael Mercier

Ph.D Geography
Teaching and Research interests
Teaching human geography
Regional Geography (Us, Brazil, Ireland, Europe)
Urban Geography (social issues, urban planning)
Historical Geography
Geography of Health
Research Methods
What is Geography?
General questions to consider
o What is geography?
o What is human geography?
Geography is the study of patterns and processes on the earths
surface. Derived from greek geo-the earth graphe-to write about

Two branches of geography

Physical geography
o Study of patterns and processes of the physical world
o Physical environment (landforms, climate, hydrology,
geology, ecology, etc)

Human Geography
o Study of patterns and processes of the human world
o Social environment (economy, culture, politics behavior, etc)

Geography: what is where, why there, and why care?

o What is where?
Involves description
o Why there?
Involves explanation
o Why care?
What is the meaning or significance
Involves interpretation

o Description of the spatial organization (patterns) of people,

places and human phenomena
o Explanation of the processes that produce these patterns
o Interpretation of what these patterns mean
1st law of geography:
Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more
related than distant things

Lecture 02

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

https://avenue.cllmcmaster.ca/d2l/le/content/111814/viewContent/911632/
View
Geographic Literacy
Key concepts to be able to effectively communicate geographical
concepts and ideas

Space
o Areal Extent, spatial extent, amount of earths surface that
something covers
o 2 ways to think about space

Absolute space: objective, measurable extent with

definable boundaries physically real with define
boundaries, campus is defined in terms of absolute
space.
Critical to map-making

Relative Space: subjective/perceptual and variable

over time, different people can have opposing views
regarding the space in question.
Absolute space can be defined (albeit with some
difficulty) by mathematical projections to convert 3-d
earth into a 2 dimensional map
Relative space is commonly defined in topological mapssketch maps scale, distance and positioning are
estimates (or non relevant) Subway maps are a good
example

Location
o Location refers to a distinct position in space
Absolute(mathematical) location: Obtained through
GPS, or similar system and is relatively unchangingprecise and consistent

Relative (perceived) location

Subject to change and interpretation

Nominal (or toponym) location: a place name, a
location of significance
Situation
Location defined as being relative to other
locations

o Place
Attachments, meaning, significance at an individual or
collective level. Location +cultural/human meaning =
place
We can gain a sense of place through traveling
Sacred Place: a place with a strong sense of place,
typically associated with religion
Placelessness: Locations lacking a strong identity,
standardized and homogenized
o Distance
The amount of space between two or more locations
absolute/physical distance
Travel distance: time of travel (think time-space
convergence)
Economic/communication distance: Think in dollar
terms or difficulty of communication
Psychological distance: the distance changing based
on psychological distance
o Distribution
Distance and organization
Three forms of distribution
Density
Concentration/Dispersion
Clustered (agglomerated)
Dispersed (scattered)
Pattern: The spatial arrangement of objects:
linear, rectilinear, random, uniformed, etc

This week and next chapter 1 of textbook

Lecture 03

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More Key Concepts

Spatial Interaction
o Amount of movement or communication between two
locations
1st law of geography
o Are you going to a nearby restaurant, or you going to a
nearly identical one across town?
o Are you more likely to meet with distant (former) neighbors
or distant relatives? What about immediate family?
Distance Decay
o How the level of interaction declines as distance increases
o The decline of an activity or function with increasing distance
Friction of distance
o Distance has a retarding effect on interactions
Accessibility and Connectivity
o Critical for the nature and level of spatial interaction
Accessibility
The ease with which distance can be crossed
Connectivity
The tangible and intangible ways that places are
connected
Friction of distance
o How easy or difficult it is to overcome the distances that
separate places
But think about it: Air Canada doesnt go to Africa!
Gravity models
o Measuring the quantity of movement or interaction between
two places
Relative sizes
Distance
Distance decay function
Related to accessibility and connectivity

Diffusion
o The process by which a characteristic spreads across space,
from one location to another, over time
Depends on distance, friction of distance, and densities
of population
Relocation diffusion
o The spread of an idea or characteristic through the physical
movement of people form one location to another
Immigrants
Currency
Contagious diffusion
o The rapid, and widespread, movement of a characteristic
through a population
Disease
Gossip
Heirarchial Diffusion
o The spread of ideas or characteristics from person or locations
of authority or power to other people or places
Fashion, music, technology

Lecture 04

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

Making World Maps

The Challenge of Projections
The Geographic Grid
Latitude & Longitude
Time Zones
Types of Maps
Pages 6-13 in text
Maps are 2-d graphical representations of the world, and depict spatial
relationships that help to explain and describe these spatial relationships.
Maps communicate information, maps communicate spatial information.
They analyze spatial relationships
Maps are socially constructed, and they are constructed for a purpose. The
map must be questioned regarding the mapmakers intent.
How do you convert a sphere, the world as we know it, into a map of
2 dimensions?
Projection
o Mathematical technique for representing a 3-dimensional
sphere on a 2-dimensional map
Imagine a light bulb at the center of the earth, earth is
transparent
The continents leave shadows
3 kinds of projections
o Specific variatiations, chosen based off what needs to be
precise
o Varying levels of accuracy
o Distortion in distance, direction and area

Cylindrical Projection
o The earths surface is projected onto a cylinder that just
touches along the equator
The map is most precise along the equator, declines
toward the poles, northern and southern areas seem
larger than they truly are
The Mercator Projection
Conical projections
o The earths surface is projected onto a cone that just touches
the outside edges of the globe in the mid-latitudes
Accuracy is best in the north/south hemisphere,
elsewhere the projection is extremely skewed
The Lambert Conformal Conic Projection
Azimuthal
o The earths surface is projected onto a flat surface that
touches the globe at one point only. Ususally the north or
south poles
There are hundreds of different projections, all with varying degrees
of these 3 projections

Latitude and Longitude

A system of imaginary arcs which are used to identify locations on
the earths surface
Latitude (or paralells)
o A series of lines that run parallel to the equator
Equator 0
Nort Pole 90 N
South Pole 90 S

o Each degree can be sub-divided into 60 minutes, and each

minute has 60 seconds (not time, unit of mesurement)
Longitude (or meridians)
o A series of arcs which meet/converge at the north and south
poles
Greenwich, England 0 (the prime meridian)
The international Date Line 180
o Lines of longitude are labeled as west or east of the prime
meridian
Placement=political decision
Using longitude and latitude, we can pinpoint the location of any
place on earth
o Philly: 40N and 75 W
Longitude is central to the idea of time zones
o The earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours and is divided
into 360 (ever 15=1hr)
o Time zones do not ALWAY follow the meridian due to political
considerations
Different information requires different maps
o Accurate representation of spatial data
topographic map
Maps are only as accurate as their data
o Dot maps
Reveal patterns of spatial concentration (clustering) or
dispersion (Dr.Snows cholera epidemic in 1854
o Chloropleths

 Indicate graduated variations in data

o Isopleth
Connect locations of equal data value
o Cartograms
Space is distorted to emphasize particular attributes
o GIS
Computer based tecchnoolgy that allows maps to be
created

Lecture 05

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

What is development? What is Globalization?

Transformations of the global economic system
Communication & Transportation
Elimination of trade barriers
TNCS
Global Culture and the Global Village
-Chp. 9
Development
A process of improvement in the material conditions of life
The Geography of Economic Development:
Spatial Variation in terms of well-being
o The haves and have nots
Level of prosperity, income, consumption and well-being, etc
The world can be viewed as a system of haves and have nots
World systems theory
o Simple explanatory framework
Core
Periphery
Globalization
Increasing interconnectedness of people and societies around the
world
OR
Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in
making something worldwide in scope
Globalization leads into the idea of a global village
o A village is where everyone is connected, get along, speak the
same language, etc
Goods and services: a global shopping mall and a global assembly
line
Where has this interconnectedness come from?

Three main factors

o Reducing the friction of distance
o Breaking down barriers
o Extending the scope of business
Advances in accessibility and connectivity via innovations in
communication and transportation technologies
o Internet
Access is unequal
922 million in asia, but only 23% penetration
o Shipping containers (10,000 lost per year. Case Study: MSC
Napoli)
o Both of these allow goods and services to be provided from
afar
Supernational Organization
o Collection of like-minded, international states
Usually come together for economic reasons through
attempting to eliminate trade barriers and to facilitate
flow of goods between countries in the organizations
NAFTA, ASEAN, EU
Do countries even matter anymore?
TNCS
o Headquarters in one part of the world and subsidiaries,
factories, etc in others -> eg Nike
Nike has most of the manufacturing in emerging
markets
o Size and power
Number of employees, revenue, or political influence
Walmart is the second highest in terms of revenue on
the list of TNCs/Countries vs revenue
o Become powerful by
Exploiting differences in wages around the world
Differences in environmental regulations
Low cost of transportation via container shipping, and
subsidized infrastructure improvements
Reduction of trade barriers
Outsourcing

Globalization occurs in popular culture

Coca-colonization/McWorld
Optimists: Global Village & Increasing material well-being
Pessimists: Corporate Tyranny
Four types of change associated with globalization
Stretching of social, political and economic activities across political
frontiers, regions and continents
More connected
More speed
Local events have greater global impact

Lecture 06
What is

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developed?
Differentiating: Less Developed World (LDW) vs MDW, Third world
Relationships between these differentiations
Read chap 9

How do we think about development? What does it mean?

How do we measure it?
How do we understand development, and the consequences of uneve
development?
What is where, why there, why care?

What Is Development?

Striking spatial variations in terms of well-being

o Have vs. have not
These differences exist at varying spatial scales
o Most easily defined at a global level, but can also be regional
and national, or even local
Variations: Levels of development
o Extreme points, but in between are at continuum
Extreme points are difficult to define, individual areas of
any spatial scale can be identified along the scale
o Development: a process of improvement in the material
conditions of life
Development is typically measured in economic terms
o Usage of metrics such as GDP
o However, usages of these economic based metrics disregard
the importance of social development
o Economic metrics can evaluate social metrics, but can not
measure them
Healthcare, education, freedom of speech/vote, etc
Do the homeless care if they are living in a more
developed country?
Development: a process of improvement in the material
conditions of life

Implied: modernization, advancement, economic

growth, production and consumption

o We think about development as continuum between two

points
Third world vs third
Capitalist vs socialist
underdeveloped vs developed
Developing vs developed
LDW vs MDW
The less developed world is categorized by
o High mortality rates
o High fertility rates
o Low literacy rates
o Lower levels of industrialization
Questions to consider
o Is there judgment associated with terms like less
developed? Is our development better?
o Is there a mechanism through which they can change
o Is the world really divided in such a binary way
Relationship with the more developed world
o Consider the history of Colonial Europe and the effect on the
country/region in question
Third world dependence on colonial power in terms of economics,
political and social systems
World systems theory
o Framework for understanding this dependency relationship
o Core
o Periphery
Expolitation TNCs
o Peripherals depend on the core

Lecture 07

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

Development, and how can we measure it?

Measuring Development
Economic Tools
Global Income Inequality: GNI & PPP
Measuring Development
Social Tools
Global Social Inequality: HDI & IHDI
The world is marked by striking spatial variations in terms of well-being
Haves and have nots
These variations exists at various spatial scales

We refer to these variations in terms of levels of development areas

are considered in between two extremes

Measuring Development
Development: wealth or prosperity, ie. Average income
Per capita income?
o We cant get this info, so we might use GDP per capita, or
GNI per capita
Measures of total value of all materials, foodstuffs,
goods, services produced by a country for a year
o We call these proxy measures
It is one singular measured, not THE method for measuring
development
Example: World Bank GNI per capita per country, ranked into 5
groups

Problem:
These metrics do not account for the cost of living and not always
consider the different currencies, in terms of Purchasing Power
Parity(PPP)
Market Basket of Goods
o A theoretical basket of goods and services that allows the
purchasing power to be compared and contrasted
Ecuador vs. Canada
o Income:10 times higher
o Essentials 2 times higher
o Cost of living: 4 times higher
Average income differences are not as great
PPP lowers the relative GNI in wealthy countries and raises them in
poor countries
o Compresses the range in incomes

Even with this compression, the income disparity still exists and
markedly so
Big Mac Index cost of big mac vs income
Economic measures assume that they are reliable surrogate
measures of social development
We also have social development, and economic measures assume
that they are reliable surrogate measures of social development
Social development=social investment
o There are relationships and patterns between economic and
social development, but this is not always the case
Disparities between the more and less developed
o Is the disparity on the decline?

We also have literacy as a metric capable of measuring social

development
What about accounting for less material evidence of material?

o Free speech, gender empowerment, religious freedoms, etc

o We can, but its difficult to measure

HDI-0(none) to 1.0
Norway 0.942 to Sierra Leone 0.275
A general association exists between HDI and GNIpc, but only in a
general way
HDI is an excellent metric, but not perfect
Gender and Equality
o Most measures of development ignore the differential social
and economic roles played by men and women
Clear spatial variations exist in these inequalities
This unequal distribution has clear consequences,
undernourishment, malnutrition, death, civil unrest, war,
environmental catastrophe

Lecture 08
Can we

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feed the worlds population?

Nutritional quality of life
World Hunger
Our food Future
Read chapter 9 and 10

What is the significance of the inequality of development?

Consider some of the children being born into the have-nots
Global Food Crisis
The world food production has increase drastically and steadily
since the early 1800s with the industrial revolution
o New crops that are more productive
o Mechanization
o Increased use of fertilizers and pesticides
o Conversion of new land to cultivation
o Intensification of agricultural resources
This food poorly distributed, but at the global level, there is no food
shortage
o 800 million people go hungry, concentrated in Sub_saharan
Africa and South Asia
o With global population continuing to grow, the food problem
looks to be more serious
o Basic calorie requirements
Minimum of 1800 calories a day
o These vary based upon
Occupation
Age
Physical size
Gender
Climate
o Under nourishment: When calorie intake does not meet basic
physiological needs
o Quantity and Quality when it comes to food (protein, fat,
vitamins)
o Too much of certain things results in malnourishment

 Underweight and obesity

Other health-related issues
o 800 million are undernourished
About the same number for the past 4 decades
The relative amount has been decreasing

Average consumption is 2780

o Higher than minimum
Spatial variations
o MDW:3500
Us: 3800 Canada:3650
LDW 2630
o Sub-Sahara Africa: 2290
Spatial patterns of nutrient consumption
o Cultural prefenrces for certain types of food
o Levels of development
o Physical geographic conditions
Different and changing diets + projected population growth +
environmental challenges
All point to a potential perfect storm for food supply in this
century

o Can we produce enough food?

o Is food supply the problem, or is it poorly distributed?
o Can modern agriculture solve the crisis? Or is local production
key?
o Think about feeding 9 billion

Lecture 09

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

Population Geography
Demography
o The Study of population
Some universities have them, Mac does not
o Population Geography
The study of spatial expressions of the population
o Where do the live, work?
What is the spatial distribution of population?
o How do they live?
Density?
What are the consequences of our lifestyle?
o What resources do they use?
Are they accessible to all?
o What are the conditions of health and well being?
How is the social development?
What is the current approx population?
7.11 Billion
What was the global population in 1995?
5.69 Billion
Since I was born, ever day the population increased by 220,000
people
What is the worlds largest (by population) country?
China is #1
But India will surpass them by 2020
Global

Population Growth
1=300 mil
1800=1 bil
1927=2
1960=3
1975=4
1987=5
1999=6
2012=7

2013 =7.11
2050=9

Population growth rate:~1.2% per year

Doubling time:54 years\
The key issues of of population growth
Unequal growth
o 10% of births in the more developed world
What are the consequences of growth?
o Provision of healthcare and social services
o Provision of food
o Resource scarcity
o Potential for conflict
Distribution
Geographic phenomena can often be explained in terms of their distance
between them and their spatial distribution
Three forms of distribution
Uneven distribution
o Clustered vs dispersed
o Factors: physical geographic & human geographic
Population clusters

Remember the haves and have notes

This correlates with levels of population
Most populous countries tend not to be members of the core, and
have lower levels of development
This results in a lare number who live in poverty with little to no
access to scarce or non-existing infrastructure (healthcare, food,
water)

Recall: Population Density

Arithmetic density
o Number of people per unit area of land
Physiological
o # of people per unit area of arable land

Are there limits to population growth? Are there limits to what the earth can
hold? To what it can support?

Overpopulation
o State in which the number of people in an area exceeds the
capacity of the environment to support life at a decent
standard of living
o A recognition that the environment can only sustain a certain
population size
o What is a decent standard of living?
o Have we reached our carrying capacity?
o Catastrophists
believe that we are over populated and are pushing
beyond the earths carrying capacity
o Cornucopians

Believe that technology will allows us to benefit from

undiscovered resources, and we can use the planet
indefinitely

Lecture 10

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

Population Dynamics
Fertility
Mortality
Theories of Population Growth
Malthus
Demographic Transition
Population Structure
Globally, population is understood with two things: Fertility (births) and
mortality (deaths)
P1=P0+(B-D)
Regionally though, population is also influenced by population movement:
Migration (immigration and emigration)
P1=P0+(B-D)+(I-E)
Crude Birth rate (cbr)
CBR=(B/P)*1000
o Total number of live births per every thousand people
True Fertility
The number of women in the population, and the number of women
of child bearing age (15-49)
General Fertility Rate (or fecundity) (GFR)
GFR=(B/PF:15-49)*1000

Total Fertility Rate

o The average number of children that a woman will have in
her fecund years
Global TFR=2.8
Replacement rates= c 2.1-2.5

o The number of children a couple must have to keep the

population at the same
o Must have more than one because kids get hit by cars, some
women cant have children, etc etc
o Loevel of development affects the replacement rates
Crude Death Rate (CDR)
CDR=(D/P)*1000
Total number of deaths per year for every 1000 people
Infant Mortality Rate (an age adjust rate)(IMR)
IMR=(D0-1/B0*1000
Range: Less than 10 to more than 150
Linked to development
Life Expectancy
The Average Number of years of life
Range: from the low 40s to more than 80
Natural Increase
High fertility with decreasing mortality
Low fertility and low mortality means some areas are in decline
Recall

Rapid population growth ~6 billion in 200 years

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834)

Stated that population grows geometrically, but resources grow
arithmetically
Three stages
o Food>population
o Food=Population
o Food<Population
Malthus assumed the world was at stage 2.

Preventative Checks

o Natural
Positive Checks
o People will go to war
He did not consider
o Agricultural productivity
o Contraception and reduced fertility rates

Demographic Transition
Demographic changes are associated with stage of economic
development

Population Gowth Theory DTT

To what extent doe this DT model fit with experiences in the
developed and developing world?
o More developed world
Less predictive
o Stage three?
Making Connections
We can draw connections between these theories and our
understating of population dynamics be examining a populations
structure
Population pyramid
o Age structure is determined by the relative birth and death
rates of a population

Lecture 09

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

Population Migration
The spatial movement of population from one place to another
Recall: P1=P0+(B-D)+(I-E)
o Immigration(I)
People coming into the country
o Emigration(E)
People leaving the country
Different spatial contexts
o International migration
o Inter-regional migration
o Inter-urban
Key issues of interest to Geographers: Migration
o Cultural, political and economic characteristics of migrants
Who are they?
o Number of migrants(flow)
How many of hem are there?
o Distance moved
How far have they traveled?
o Political boundaries crossed
Provincial vs. national
o Causes of migration
What factors influence ones decision to migrate?
o Time spent in new location
Permanent, transient, etc

Migration
o A form of population redistribution
Over-populated to under-populated
North Africa>Europe
East Asia>North America
Latin America>North America
o Many core countries depend on immigration to sustain
population and economic growth
250,000 each year
1850-1900 30-60K
1900-1950:20-150k/year (peak in 1910)

o 1950-2000: 50-240K/year

Net Migrartion:
o Immigration-Emigration
o Destination countries
Low natural population growth, high economic and
social development
o Source countries
High natural population growth, low economic and
social development

Push/Pull Theory
o Based upon push and pull factors
o Push
Factors that make a current living location undesirable
Local economic crises, cultural or political oppression,
environmental or political crises
o Pull
Conditions that make another place appear to be better
Economic opportunities, family reunification, freedoms,
environment and amenities
o Push and pull factors take three main forms
Economic
A consequence in difference in wages
Political

Threat to survival due to political or religious

beliefs
Environmental
Severe weather, desertification, pollution, etc
o Ravensteins Laws
Series of generalizations drawn from observations of
migration behavior as illustrated in historical census
data
Most migrations are of short distance
Migration usually involves several intermediate
steps
Most migrants were adult single men
(Although this is no longer the case)
Inter-regiuonal is characterized by rural to urban
migration
Migrants are drawn to large centers of economic
activity
o Types of migration
Free(Voluntary)
European examples (A search for a better life)
Relieves population pressures
Barriers today
Kinds of migrants countries would like,
migration targets
More intra-regional than international
Forced
Slavery
Impelled
Where choice to stay is limited
Civil wars
Are these choices made freely, or are they
impelled(forced in some ways)? A difficult
distinction
Illegal
US and Mexico
Chinese in North MAerica

Africans in Europe
South Asians in Australia
Difficult to estimate numbers

Lecture 12

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

The Emergence of Urban Living

How many of us live in cities?
What is a city?
How do we know if we live in one or not?
What are they key factors?
o High amounts of amenities
o Political boundaries
o Types of work
o Feel
Greater and greater proportions of the global population are living in urban
areas each year
10% to 50% in about 200 years,
o 10% was in the time of Malthus
o Large change over spatial scale : <30% to 80%>
o
Urban areas can be thought of as:
o Centers of large and densely concentrated populations
o Centers of technological change and innovation
o Centers of concentrations of power and economic activity
o Centers of cultural change
o Places which reflect social, economic and political diversity
A Brief History of Cities
Early development in the middle east, around 3500-3000 BCE
Reasons for formation
o Surplus Theory
Agricultural Surplus
Social Stratification
Labour specialization
Leads to higher concentrations of people,
clustering of economic activities
Rural to urban migration
o Previosuly, people were nomadic hunter/gatehres
Social/cultural and economic transformation

Profoundly different forms of settlements

New forms of economic activity
New social institutions
People began to rely on others for survival

Cities between Mesopotamia and the Industrial Revolution 1700s and 1800s
Small, compact

The industrial revolution gave way to critical changes of way of life

o Agricultural revolution
Massively increased productivity
Surplus labour
o Mass production
o Trade on a global scale
o Demographic change
o Rural to urban population
Urbanization increases rapidly
Profound social/cultural and economic transformation
o Proportion of people living in cities
o Higher proportion of population woking in agriculture and
industry
1900-2000 Emergence of more developed cities
o Urban Conurbations
1950-2000 Emergence of less developed cities
o Mega cities and problems
Urban living defines most of our lives-most of us live in cities(of
varying size)
o Relatively recent phenomena
o A fundamental and economic transformation
We are all vaguely aware of what a city is, but defininitions are a
challenge

Lecture 13

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

Greater and greater populations f the global population are living in

urban areas every year
Variations <30% to >80%

This process of urbanization is relatively recent

o As recently as 200 years ago, very few lived in cities
o 10 to 50% in 200 years
o Urbanization is fundamentally connected to economic and
social/cultural change (including industrialization)
Change in labor demographics, etc
How many of us live in cities?
o Approx 80%
How do we know whether we live in one or not?
What are the key factors?
o Last class, we identified the following:
Population, size and density
Number/range off amenities and businesses
Types of employment
Presence of infrastructure
Political boundaries
We know population size is a relevant measure
o What about other seemingly arbitrary differences?
o Each of the following have about 30,000 people, now
Dundas
Ancaster
Stratford
o About 130,000
Oakville : wants to be smaller, referred to as town
Burlington
o About 300,000
Markham(was a town, recently a city)
Largest town
o Smallest city
780 people: want to seem larger, so named city
o Some languages do not differentiate well between towns and
cities

Definition
Urban area
o A community that is defined as being urban;, a city, a town,
a suburb, etc etc
Population/spatial size is unique
o Demographic criteria
Based upon laws, seemingly arbitrary numbers of
people that have to live in an area to be called a city
May be additional requirement of density
o Economic criteria
Certain percentages of the labor force needs to be in
certain types of jobs, certain percentage in non urban
jobs
Again, defined by a country, varies around the world
o Variations around the world
Canada-solely demographic
Population>1000;density>400km2- relatively low
USA
Population>1000 (density requirement has been
removed)
Japan
Population>50,000;density>60% of housing in
built-up areas: employment >60% in
manufacturing, trade, etc
Botswana
Population>5000; employment>75% in nonagricultural work
Norway
Population>200
Do urban and city mean the ame thing?
o Canada is 80% urban, does that mean 80% of us live in cities

Urban

A general term that is used to refer to many different kinds of areas

with local boundaries

City

A specific term-a place of a certain size, function and political status

Villages, towns and cities

All urban areas, all nucleated settlements
Distinct residential and non-residential areas
Central Business District (CBD)
o downtown or main street
o institutional, industrial, residential primarily economic
Suburb
A specialized and peripheral area of a nucleated settlement
o Neighboring urban areas
o Residential, industrial, commercial specialization
Metropolitan area
An agglomeration (cluster) of discontinuously built-up areas acting
as an integrated economic unit
o GTA/GTAH/New York-New Jersey
Canadas approach
o Census Metropolitan Areas(CMAs)
o One or more adjacent urban areas/municipalities
o Total population>100,000
o Population of urban core>50,000
Census Agglomerations, CAs
o Same as CMA but the urban core population>10,000
CMAs or CAs(urban areas):81%
Largest CMAs(cities):>50%

Urban Growth versus Urbanization-VERY IMPORTANT

Urban Growth
An increase in the absolute size of a city
o Number of people
o Area of land
Urbanization
The transformation of population from rural to urban status
o Decrease in rural population, increase in urban
Fundamental re-organization of human society
Proportion of the population
De-urbanization
Time Period 1

Time Period 2

Lecture 14

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

Variations in level of urbanization

Percent of the population living in urban areas
o C.1800 (prior to Industrial revolution):
~3%(world) vs. 10% in the MDW
o 1900
~14% vs ~50% in much of the MDW
MDW undergoing industrial revolution
o 2008
50% (world) vs ~50% in much of the MDW
~77% in the MDW
~41% in the LDW
Urbanization: mirrors industrialization and economic development

Exception in Brazil and some other sections of South America,

where LEDCs have levels of urbanization more common with the
MDW
o Result of colonization patterns within Latin America
MDW: Typically more industrialized, therefore more urbanized

MDW and Latin America>70% urbanized

o Consistent over time
Africa and Asia are less than 40% urbanized

In terms of the rate of urban growth

1975-2000
MDW 0.83%
LDW 3.5%
Explanations?
o Existing levels of urbanization
o Levels of economic development
o Differential demographic trends
o Urbanized countries have slow population growth therefore
urban growth can only result from further urbanization, but
they are already highly urbanized

Level of urbanization are higher in the MDW, but the majority of

very large cities are in the LDW

How many large cities are there, and how large are they?

o
million+

o
million+

o
million +

10

o
million+

20

171

55

22

4 largest cities
o New York, Tokyo, Seoul and Jakarta
Various sources give different sizes
o Many suggest Tokyo as largest, but not widely accepted
Others include New York, Seoul, Shanghai, Dehli,
Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Chongqing
Uncertainty arises from the matter of definition

These can be base dupon

o Political/legal definition
o Urban agglomeration
o Sphere of influence
Eg Toronto
o City of Toronto~2.6 m(640 km^2)
o Toronto CMA~5.1 m(5,5000km^2)
o GTA ~5.6 m(7,000 km^2)
Megacities
o 10 million+
o Economic attraction in to the city
Perceived and real opportunities
o Expanding population
Rural-Urban migration
Natural increase

MDW is urbanized
LDW is urbanizing

Lecture 15

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

Citiies are consumers of other goods and services

Cities are the producers and producers of materials
Cities are distributors of services
Therefore, cities are functionally connected to other cities and to
surrounding non-urban(rural) areas
Efficiency of location
Central(strategic)
Remote
Site
o Absolute
Situation
o Relative location
Given the fact of the importance and the situational location of
cities, we can see that citoes are interconnected and do not function
independently

Central Place Theory

Explains how cities in an urban system are spatially distributed
Cities compete with one another via the range of goods and
services that each of them provide
Located so that accessibility is maximized to the largest possible
range of consumers
City:Hinterland
Hinterland the area(or region) served by an urban center and where
its goods and services are available
o Hamlet
Gas
Food
General store
Greater the range of goods and services (and more specialized) a
city provides=greater the size of its hinterland
o Consider NY vs. Hamilton

Urban Hierarchy
Ranking of cities based on population size and range of functions
Pyramid
o Bottom
Many small cities serving small areas
Small number of goods and services available
o Top
Few large cities serving large areas
Wide range of services available
Hierarchy
Interdependence
Southern Ontario

Hierarchal structure: size and function

Urban systems follow one of two distributions
o Rank-Size
Population of an urban settlement is inversely
proportional to its rank in the hierarchy
In general
o The nth largest city will be 1/n the size of the largest city
Primate City distribution
o Urban systems which are dominated by a city that is
significantly larger than all other cities, and dominates the
surrounding area in terms of social, economic, political and
social lfe of the country
More than twice the size of the next largest
o Typically found less developed countries, with a relaticvely
short history of urbanization

Lecture 16

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

Urban Morphology and Land Uses

What are the hey elements of cities?
Parks/green spaces
Infrastructure
Airports roads
These elements are divided into 6 land use categories
Residential
o Great diversity of different types of residential landscapes
o Inner-city to suburban, rich to poor, middle-class etc.
Commercial
o Office
Head office(downtown),back offices(suburbs), regional
offices(edge cities)
o Retail
Storefront, suburban shopping malls, retail power
centers, flagship downtown stores
Industrial
o Heavy industrial production
o Light (innovative) production
Bottling Coke
Institutional
o Universities, hospitals, schools, churches
Transportation/Infrastructure
o Roads, rail lines, ports, airports, parking lots, warehousing,
electricity lines etc
Public land uses
o Parks, civic plazas, government buildings, arenas/stadiums
Organization of urban space into these land uses known as urban structure
or urban morphology
How are these land uses organized in space?
Structure/morphology is shaped primarily by competition for
territory and location

Competition for the most desirable location

Desirability is most often determined by accessibility
o Greater accessibility translates into greater into greater
desirability
o Desirability equals ability/willingness to pay for land

Land use is the most dense and most expensive downtown, with the highest
demand
As such only certain developments can locate there
Bid rent curves!

How do these principles play out in the real world?

Example 1: Residential development
o Consider the spatial patterns of places of residence
Downtown
Midtown
Suburban
Distant suburban
Example 2: Commercial Development
o Consider the spatial patterns of commercial developments
o Offices
Downtown
Making these accessible can be tricky-parking
Suburban
o Retail
Downtown

Suburban Malls

Cities or North America reflect commonalities n their urban

structure/morphology
Three influential models
Collectively known as the Chicago School
Each model describes a slightly different dimension to the
process(see chapter 12)
Sector Model: Homer Hoyt
City sectors differentiated by price of land
o Land prices are determined by distance from CBD AND
proximity to other sectors
o Urban functions, once established are relatively permanent

Mutliple Nuclei Model

Activities: Attract and repel
Functional clusters or nuclei
o Every city has multiple nuclei
Agglomeration :manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing
o Attract: blue-collar

Lecture 17

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

GIS: Economic & Urban Applications

Patrick DeLucas
Code Red- a health mapping project
Impact on health Care
Mac elected to locate its new health campus downtown primarily
because of the Code Red findings
Impact on Education
Mohawk is using Code Red to ensure they are adequately servicing
people in need, 1.5 million donated for scholarships for code red
residents
City offered money for a grocery store downtown
Poverty related curriculum for high school students
Nursing faculty received money to study maternal health
GIS Facts
Estimated revenues of @274 billion globally
Growing at a rate at 30%/year

Geography of Primary Economic Activities9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

The Primary Sector
Agriculture
Early North American economic Success can be attributed to
agriculture
o Agricultural land, timber, fish stocks, etc.
o Essential products for food, clothing and shelter

Spatial and temporal changes to these key primary economic

activities
o Agriculture, forestry, mining, fishing, etc.

Decline since industrialization in the 19th century

Agriculture is a major food production economy

o Major exporter of wheat, corn, rice and hundreds of other
agricultural goods

Technological advances and increased productivity=fewer

agricultural workers
North America is the worlds bread basket and meat bin
North America is a net exporter
o Export more than they import

Agriculture
o Pressures to increase productivity via investment in
technology=> rise of agribusinesses (recall TNCs)
o Agricultural specialization has created distinct geographies of
agriculture

Mining, Forestry and Fisheries

o Declining reserves/stocks
Overfishing
Clear-cutting and lack of replanting
Exhausted all easy-access mining
o Mining
Northern Canada
Western North America
Western North America
Eastern North America
Southern Us
Great Plains/Praries
o Fishing
Over-fishing have reduced fishable stocks in most areas
Fishing is still a key industries for some areas

Forestry
o Key resource for extraction in certain parts of North America
o Not a major part of national economy, but very important to
certain areas
Agriculture: most important human activity for the past 12,000
years
o 45% of the worlds working population
o 30% of the worlds landmass
o In parts of Asia and Africa >80%
o In North America-only 2%
Agriculture is a system of food production
o A system is a set of interacting components that work
together as a unit
o A food producing system includes

Land and climate

A series of input(labor, fertilizers and machinery)
Outputs (products and commodities)
Consumers
Subsistence (traditional)
o Low technological inputs
o Small scale
o Food for local consumption
Very labor intensive
o Shifting cultivation
Commercial
o High technological inputs
o Large scale
o Food for regional and or global trade
o Typically found in MDW

Secondary Economic Activities

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

Transition within the economies of the MDW

From agriculture to industry to services
Continuing to shift from secondary activities to tertiary and
quaternary activities, the so-called service sector

Industry
o Key to economic vitality within these MDW economies.
o Newly industrializing countries, the industry is still key, and
secondary activities are required for these countries to grow

Pre-industrial production
o Localized and rudimentary production
o Driven by skill set of people on a local level on a small scale
The Industrial revolution-18th and 19th century

o
o
o
o

A revolution in the way goods were produced

The steam engine developed by James Watt-yay!
Machines replaced skilled laborers
Early industrial centers
Northern England
Europe(Ruhr Valley)
Pennsylvania and Ohio
All near coal supplies

Components of the revolution

o Large-scale factory production
o Highly capitalized mechanization
o Agglomeration of industries near sources of energy
o Rural to urban migration

The post industrial world

o Declining industrial activity
o Transition from industrial to services
o Transition is uneven and abrupt- recession
Newly Industrialized World
o South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, China etc
Containerization

Branch plants
Domestic market
Tradiotnal Manufacturing areas
o North America, Europe and Japan
o Mahoriy of global output
Newly Emerging
o South and South Eats asia

Us Manufacturing
o Northeast to the south
Lower wages

Japan
o High quality consumer goods post WWII

Export processing zones (epz)

No duties

Theories of Industrial Location

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

Industrial Location Theory

Webers Least Cost Theory of Industrial Location
Criticisms and Interpretation
Site and situational factors influencing Plant(industrial) locations
Markets
Raw Materials
Labor
Transportation
Where does industry/manufacturing locate?
Location is bound by particular constraints
Consider: Steel Plant
Located near key inputs
o Coal and iron ore are heavy/bulky to transport
Locate near key markets?
o Steel is heavy/bulky to transport
Today: Principles of location theory-Webers Least Cost industrial
location theory
Spatial organization of production: The tyranny of distance
Transportation costs money: location-decisions minimize
transportation
General theory of plant/factory location: Alfred Weber
Primary emphasis:
Role of transport costs
Industrial location: Trade off based on distance
Minimize transportation costs
Location tends to be material oriented either material oriented or
market oriented
o These are two extremes, but typically there is balance.
Observe: Locate a plant so as to maximize profits by minimizing
transport costs

o Find a location (p:processing plant) along a line between S:

source of raw materials and M: market for finished products
What happens if more than one raw material is used? Where does
manufacturing occur?

Weber: Least cost tendencies were the norm

Today model must be modified to account for other factors of production
such as
Footloose industries and TNCs
o No loyalties to locations
Transport costs
o Containerization
Labor costs
What do we make of industrial location theory?
Industrial location decision-making today: Complex
Why do manufacturing plants locate in particular places?

o One vs. Multiple factors

o Maximize advantages minimize disadvantages
Forecasting

Situation: Markets
Market oriented
Transport rates-fast
Weight gain in production of materials
o Bottling
Perishable products
Raw Materials and intermediate goods
Raw materials
o Ore, coal
Intermediate goods
o Multiple stages of processing, are still the raw materials to a
finished product
Transportation Costs
Terminal costs are fixed
Line haul costs are variable
Terminal costs are distributes over the length of haul
Transport costs differ between modes-rail/truck/sea
Labor

Higher skilled workforce>higher wages>fewer options to locate

Labor intensive-low cost areas
o Globalization: labor vs transportation

Infrastructure
Transportation facilities, communications, utilities and other
services
Energy
Not a big issue for MDW
o Energy availability is ubiquitous

o Notable Exceptions:
Industrializing countries

Agglomeration
Clustering of plants in one place
o Production and trabsport costs can be reduced
Auto industry
Site and situation: Other factors
Political stability, tax incentives, environmental conditions,
availability if land, access to capital, etc
Consider: EPX

Geography of Tertiary Activities

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

Canada, like other more developed economices are going through economic
transitions
Secondary to tertiary /quaternary: post-industrial
o Uneven transitions
o Re-shaped what people do every day
Comes with some significant challenges
Presented some opportunities
Deindustrialization
o A recution in manufacturing employment and output
o Spatially concentrated
o Consequences are uneven
Some benefit more, some suffer more
Deindustrialization occurs rapidly
Flint, Micigan, Detroit

Reindustrialization:
o Small, niche-market producers

Secondary to Tertiary
Shift to a post-industrial Society: Economic restructuring
o Manufacturing to services
o Production to consumption
Eg. Converting factory to casino
o What does the shift look like?
People are employed to provide services to others
Modeling the transition in terms of food
o Primary/Pre-Industrial/Subsistence
Food produced and consumed at home
o Secondary/Industrial
Food made locally, purchased in a grocery
o Tertiary/Post-Industrial/Service Society
going out to eat
What are the different types of services? Are all these services
alike?
o Consumer Services
Retail, education, health and leisure/hospitality

o Business Services
Professional,financial, clerical, information and
transportation
o Public Services
Government, police, fire, etc

These differences are nto absolute

o Consumers use lawyers, banks, etc
o Businesses use retail stores, hospitality, etc

Transition
o One type of activity to another

Canada: Industrial to Post-Industrial-as measured by employment

and GDP

Employment:
o Primary 5%
o Secondary 20%
o Tertiary 75%

GDP
o Primary 8%
o Secondary 23%
o Tertiary 68%

What about global patterns, has he same transition occurred

elsewhere?
o Services-40% LDW to 70% MDW of GDP
GDP all economies have expanded their service activities in the era
of globalization
o The recent growth/expansion has been greatest among less
developed countries
Spatial variations in terms of employment (compare with
agriculture & industry)

Globally 31% of employment is in service activities

o Gender differences
Canada 87% women 64% men
Bangladesh 12% women 30% men
Service are market oriented
o Revisit central place theory
Market research to locate new stores
Global cities: very high concentration of business services
o Professional financial and information
Outsourcing
o Business services can now be provided far away
Remember last year

Course Conclusion

9/9/2013 11:30:00 AM

What is where, why there and why care?

Description of spatial patterns of people, places and phenomena
Explanation of the processes that create these patterns
Interpretation, or finding the significance of these patterns
Local AND Global issues
Population And Migration
Consequences of 7 billion+ population
How will societies address global migration?
Cities And Urbanization
Optimal population
Inequalities of social and economic development affecting people
globally
Crises of the 21st century

Issues have spatial dimension

1/3 from course 2/3 since midterms

50-75 multiple choice
5 definitions
10-20 Short answers, diagrams, calculations and maps
Definitions
o Define and give a good example
Differentiate
o Identify/Define and explain the difference
Explain or explain the significance of
List
Short Answer questions
o Interpret a map, or identify things
o Sketch/draw and label diagrams
Review key maps
o Locate key locations

Definitions gifts
5 of these 10 will be in concepts, and all will likely will be in the rest
of the exam
Geography
GIS
Distance Decay
Industrial Revolution
Megacity
Development
Agri business
TNC
Primate City
Total Fertility Rate

Global Awareness? Maps?

2013-09-09 11:30:00 AM