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Housing Class - Problems of False Urbanization

The document discusses present-day problems of human settlements caused by hyper-urbanization, false urbanization, and premature urbanization, leading to urban blight characterized by slums, economic polarization, and visual pollution. It highlights the negative impacts of suburbanization and amorphic sprawl, including increased dependence on automobiles, loss of biodiversity, and economic decline in urban cores. The document emphasizes the challenges faced by urban poor populations who remain in inner cities while wealthier individuals move to suburbs, exacerbating spatial mismatches and urban blight.

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LEONIL MATA
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7 views16 pages

Housing Class - Problems of False Urbanization

The document discusses present-day problems of human settlements caused by hyper-urbanization, false urbanization, and premature urbanization, leading to urban blight characterized by slums, economic polarization, and visual pollution. It highlights the negative impacts of suburbanization and amorphic sprawl, including increased dependence on automobiles, loss of biodiversity, and economic decline in urban cores. The document emphasizes the challenges faced by urban poor populations who remain in inner cities while wealthier individuals move to suburbs, exacerbating spatial mismatches and urban blight.

Uploaded by

LEONIL MATA
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Present-Day Problems of

Human Settlements
arising from
hyper-urbanization,
false urbanization,
premature urbanization
Urban Blight
Urban Blight
•Urban blight is hastened by uncontrolled
rural-to-urban migration which is driven by
desperation. As rural supply systems collapse,
people flock to the cities in search of a better
life.

•Urban blight also results from economic


polarization

•When business and traditional elites leave


urban core due to excessive pollution and
congestion, lower classes tend to invade
abandoned and idle spaces, including
government open spaces.
Urban Blight
.
•Slums and shanty towns usually surround old industrial
districts; heightening criminality, deviance. Child labor
proliferates in urban areas

•Jobs that relocate to new areas leave the urban poor more
impoverished in inner cities, thus aggravating urban blight.

•When taxes are not paid by inner city residents, LGUs do


not have the resources nor the incentives to improve urban
cores, they do not upgrade public services or expand utility
systems

•Because employment is unreliable, urban poor families


construct more extensive family support systems that
increase the chances of someone getting work.
Visual Blight – the clutter of cities
Visual Blight – the clutter of cities
•Oversized Billboards, Superfluous Signages,
Political Banners, and disorderly utility lines
constitute visual pollution
•They undermine the overall beauty of the city
and the magnificent architecture of buildings
•Pose serious hazards to life, limb, and property
during storms, strong winds, earthquakes, and
fires
Visual Blight – the clutter of cities
Visual Blight – the clutter of cities
•Distract the attention of motorists with images
of sensualism, eroticism, and hedonism;
•Billboards contain messages of conspicuous
consumption antithetical to Sustainable
Development.
•Rise in blood pressure of motorists can cause
accidents on fast lanes.
•Consumerist billboards highlight the
socio-economic and cultural gaps between the
rich and the poor.
Suburbanization and Amorphic Sprawl
-- “what an awful waste of space!”
Amorphic Sprawl
• “Scattered development”
refers to the “low-density
fragmented use of land for
consumptive urban purposes
at a scale expanded faster
than what population growth
requires and occurring along
the margins of existing
metropolitan areas in a
generally amorphic
(formless) manner.
Amorphic Sprawl
• Over time, this pattern means more
and more houses are built farther
away from the urban core that
require more energy use per person
and that need to be supported by
piecemeal extensions of urban
infrastructure such as roads, sewer,
power and water.”
• Amorphic Sprawl: Distances
become too great for walking and
this forces dependence on the
automobile; hard for old people
when they can no longer drive; hard
for young people who aren’t yet old
enough to drive
Impacts of Amorphic Sprawl

Water Human Health


Land and Biodiversity Economic Effects
Increased runoff and Aesthetics
Loss of cropland Increased surface water Higher taxes
Loss of forests & & groundwater pollution Contaminated Decline of
grasslands Increased use of surface drinking water &
downtown
Loss & fragmentation water & groundwater air
Decreased storage of Noise pollution business districts
of wildlife habitats Increased
Loss of wetlands Surface water & Sky illumination
groundwater at night unemployment
Increased wildlife Increased flooding Traffic in central city
roadkill Decreased natural congestion Loss of tax base in
Increased soil erosion Sewage treatment central city

Energy,
Air, and
Increased energy use and waste
Climate Increased air pollution
Increased greenhouse gas emissions
Enhanced global warming
Warmer microclimate (heat island effect)
Problems with
Suburbanization
• Suburbanization represents a desire of
people to escape perceived ills and
problems in the central city. Cincinnati
• It is also related to changes in employment
patterns that resulted from changes in
production and transport technology.
Transportation has become more flexible
and individualized. Dispersion of urban
population emerged in tandem with
improvements in transport technology.
• Companies moved out of
downtowns/inner-cities, together with their
employees and educated middle-class.
Problems with Suburbanization
• But the urban poor people in North America and Europe
could not move to the suburbs with the high-paying jobs;
they are stuck in inner-cities thus causing “spatial mismatch”
and further “urban blight” Cincinnati

• Suburbanization consumes more land resources and


expands human ecological footprint more than what is
necessary.
• Suburbanization forces dependence on automobiles as
distances become too great to walk.
• As suburban families hire nannies, househelp, drivers, and
guards, the number of urban poor slums or shanty towns
multiply near the subdivisions.
“Leapfrog Development” or
“Checkerboard
Development”
• “Leapfrog
Development” is
discontinuous pattern of
urbanization, with
patches of developed
lands that are widely
separated from each
other and from the
boundaries of
recognized urbanized
areas. This form of
development is the
costliest with respect to
providing urban
services such as water,
power, sanitation, and
sewerage.
THANK YOU!

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