Book Description

Urban geography forms the theoretical basis for a number of professions including urban planning, site selection, real estate development, crime pattern analysis and logistical analysis. There are essentially two approaches to urban geography. The study of problems relating to the spatial distribution of cities themselves and the complex patterns of movement, flows and linkages that bind them in space. Studies in this category are concerned with the city system. Secondly, there is the study of patterns of distribution and interaction within cities, essentially the study of their inner structure. Studies in this category are concerned with the city as a system. A succinct way to define urban geography that recognizes the link between these two approaches within the subject is then, that “urban geography is the study of cities as systems within a system of cities. Cities differ in their economic makeup, their social and demographic characteristics and the roles they play within the city system. These differences can be traced back to regional variations in the local resources on which growth was based during the early development of the urban pattern and in part, the subsequent shifts in the competitive advantage of regions brought about by changing locational forces affecting regional specialization within the framework of the market economy. Recognition of different city types necessitates their classification, and it is to this important aspect of urban geography that we now turn. The book covers basic aspects of the subject, provides an example of a student research report. This book provides a separate chapter for each aspect of the subject. Contents: • Human Migration • Housing and Slums • Urban Ecology • Urban Housing • Architecture of Housing • Geographic Information System • Geography and Three Space Dimensions • Cultural Environmentalism • The Issue of Environmentalism • Ecological Issues of Farming