Urban Land Use
Land Use: how urban, suburban, or rural land is and can be used (parks, housing, industry, commercial, agriculture etc)
- Cities must be able to accommodate all the needs and desires of citizens, since they spend 80% of their time there
- There are 6 different major land-use groups: residential, transportation, institutional and public buildings (schools, hospitals, government offices, religious buildings etc), open space (wood lot or cemetery) and recreational land (parks, playgrounds, playing fields, golf courses, fair grounds, community centres, arenas etc), industrial, and commercial
Residential Land Use
Residential Land Use: includes all the places where people live (largest land use in most cities)
Census Tract: small districts within urban areas for which information about people, industries/businesses, and land use is gathered
- Residential Density: the number of housing units per hectare, and is influenced by 2 factors:
- Cost of land: low cost of land means larger lots, which results in a lower residential density (single family housing). High cost of land (downtown) results in smaller lots, which means a higher residential density (high-rise apartments)
- Age of the neighbourhood: areas built pre-WWII have higher densities then those built post-WWII
- Older neighbourhoods didn’t rely on cars, so smaller lots and areas made sense
- Newer neighbourhoods have to factor in multiple cars per family, and therefore lots need to be bigger
Census Tract: small districts within urban areas for which information about people, industries/businesses, and land use is gathered
- Can be used by governments, businesses, planners, developers, and social agencies to study population patterns, living conditions, and economic characteristics of different parts of a city
- Pg. 224-225 questions 1-4
Transportation Land Use
Transportation Land Use: area of land that is dedicated to transportation, and made up of 3 different parts (vehicles, travel paths, terminal facilities)
- Vehicles: a mode of transportation that can range from bicycles, to motorbikes, to automobiles
- Travel Paths: urban roads and highways, which are classified into 3 types:
- Expressways: largest capacity roads, which are designed to carry huge amounts of traffic quickly over distances (401 highway etc)
- Arterial Roads: carry moderate amounts of traffic over shorter distances (major transportation routes within a city)
- Local Roads: smaller and narrower then arterial roads, they take people from their homes to the arterial roads
- Terminal Facilities: the end of a transit or journey line, like a parking lot, train station, bus station, airports, docks, and other mass-transit stations
Commercial Land Use
Commercial Land Use: refers to areas that are used for commercial activities, like buying and selling of goods and services in retail businesses, wholesale buying and selling, financial establishments etc (Local Service Centres, Neighbourhood Plazas and Ribbons, Community Shopping Centres [malls], Regional Shopping Centres [malls] The Central Business District)
- Low-Order Product: cheap commodities that are sold, like candy bars, newspapers, milk, bread, lottery-tickets etc that require a lower threshold population (convenience stores)
- Middle-Order Product: slightly more expensive commodities like cd’s, calculators, or clothing (malls) (require larger threshold populations to remain in business)
- High-Order Product: specialty or expensive commodities like rock climbing equipment, live theatre, multi-screen movie theatres etc (require a very large threshold population, tens of thousands of people)
- Local Service Centres: street-corner shops providing low-order goods
- Neighbourhood Plazas and Ribbons: businesses located along a major arterial road (long strips or ribbons)
- Attracts local residents and random people passing by
- Community Shopping Centres: most shopping needs can be satisfied in these malls
- Designed around major department stores and supermarkets, located at each corner of the mall
- Regional Shopping Centre: larger than community shopping centres, regional shopping centres usually also contain specialized stores which require high threshold populations
- Located in the suburbs of large cities, away from downtown areas
- High- and medium-order products
- Central Business District: downtown area of a city or town, where most of the important commercial and government activities take place
- identifiable as the greatest concentration of the tallest buildings
- both the retail district and the financial district are usually located in this area