The zones of a city

A typical MEDC city has rings of land-use zones that get newer as you move out from the centre:

• CBD (Central Business District) — the centre: shops, offices and high-rise buildings on expensive land with good transport links.
• Inner city — the ring around the CBD: old 19th-century terraced housing and former factories, often the oldest housing.
• Suburbs — newer semi-detached housing with gardens, built as the city spread outwards.
• Rural–urban fringe — the edge of the city where town meets countryside: retail parks, new estates and open land.

Where is the oldest housing?

Why land is expensive in the CBD

The CBD sits at the centre where all the main roads and public transport meet — it is the most accessible place in the city. Because many businesses want to be there, competition pushes land prices up.

• To make money from expensive land, buildings are built upwards — hence high-rise offices and department stores.
• There is little housing and the daytime population is far higher than at night.
• Pedestrianised streets, chain shops and offices are typical.

Problems in the inner city

MEDC inner cities face three groups of issues on the CCEA spec:

• Housing: old, poor-quality terraces. Gentrification — wealthier people renovating and moving in — can improve buildings but push up prices and force out original residents.
• Traffic: congestion, a shortage of parking, and pressure on public transport as narrow old streets carry heavy modern traffic.
• Cultural mix: a rich mix of ethnic and religious groups, but sometimes tensions and language barriers to overcome.

Sort each inner-city issue

Tap an issue, then tap the group it belongs to.

What is gentrification?

Regenerating a run-down area

Cities regenerate old industrial land — often derelict docks or factories — by improving four things:

• Housing — new apartments and homes on brownfield land.
• Employment — offices, studios and tourism creating jobs.
• Transport — better roads, cycle routes and public transport.
• Environment — cleaning up derelict land and adding green space.

Case study flag: CCEA uses an MEDC scheme such as the Titanic Quarter in Belfast, a former shipyard site. Check any specific figures (area regenerated, homes built, jobs created, dates) against your class notes before quoting them.

Aim of urban regeneration

Tackling inner-city congestion

Narrow Victorian streets were never built for modern traffic, so MEDC cities try to reduce congestion in several ways:

• Public transport — trams, bus lanes and park-and-ride schemes to cut car use.
• Pedestrianisation — closing central streets to cars for safer, cleaner shopping areas.
• Ring roads and congestion charges — keeping through-traffic out of the centre.

Why LEDC cities grow so fast

Urbanisation is the growing share of people living in towns and cities. In many LEDCs cities are growing very rapidly for two reasons:

• Rural–urban migration — people move from the countryside to the city hoping for jobs, services and a better life (pull), and to escape rural poverty (push).
• High natural increase — cities have many young adults, so a high birth rate adds to the growth.

Cities often grow faster than housing and jobs can be provided, so newcomers build their own homes on unused land.

Shanty (squatter) settlements

A shanty town (squatter settlement) is an area of self-built housing on land the residents do not own:

• Location: often on the edge of the city, or on poor-quality land nobody else wants — steep slopes, near railways or on rubbish tips.
• Characteristics: homes built from scrap materials, high density, and often a lack of clean water, sewers and electricity at first.
• Change over time: residents gradually improve their homes; some settlements gain services and become established suburbs.

Case study flag: CCEA uses an LEDC city such as Kolkata (Calcutta), India. Check any specific figures (population, growth rate, percentage in squatter housing) against your class notes before quoting them.

Your turn — city growth

Your turn — squatter housing

Match each zone to its feature

Tap a zone on the left, then its matching feature on the right.

Pressure on the city edge

The rural–urban fringe is where the built-up area meets open countryside — attractive for development because land is cheaper and there is room to build:

• New housing estates, retail parks, business parks and out-of-town shopping centres appear here.
• Good road access (often near a ring road or motorway junction) makes it popular for large sites.
• This causes urban sprawl and can eat into greenbelt land protected from building.

Where do shanty towns grow?

The big ideas to know

You've covered all of CCEA Theme B — Changing Urban Areas. Press Finish to see your score.