• All towns/cities share four zones: core, inner city, suburban ring, urban fringe — the Burgess Concentric Ring model.
• Land value peaks at the CBD (most accessible point) and generally falls with distance — this is the bid-rent / distance decay theory.
• In LEDCs, the pattern flips: the wealthy live centrally, the poor (in squatter settlements) live at the fringe — the Latin American city model.
• Urban land use constantly changes: CBDs pedestrianise and build malls; inner cities regenerate via UDCs and gentrification; the urban fringe grows through urban sprawl.
• Growth on the edge of cities uses either greenfield (untouched countryside) or brownfield (previously developed) land — each has trade-offs.
• Urban areas face recurring problems: congestion, pollution (air/noise/light/visual/water), inequality, housing shortages, and crime.
• Sustainability — social, economic, environmental — is the modern solution framework, seen in ecotowns, congestion charging, and public transport investment.
• Case Study: Seoul, South Korea — a real megacity showing housing shortages, congestion, pollution, inequality, and sprawl in action.

The Four Zones (Burgess's Concentric Ring Model)

Think of a city like a tree stump's growth rings. The very middle is the oldest part — where the settlement first began — and each ring around it was added later as the city expanded outward. Because each ring was built in a different era, for a different purpose, each one looks and functions differently.

Peak Land Value & Bid-Rent Theory

Imagine every business in the city bidding for the same plot of land — like an auction. Retailers can usually afford the highest bids because a shop in a highly accessible spot can serve huge numbers of customers and make a lot of money from a small area. Industry can't compete with those prices (it needs large amounts of cheap space, not maximum footfall), so it's pushed further out. Housing is outbid everywhere, but competition eases with distance, so more space becomes available at a lower cost.

Peak land values aren't only in the very centre — secondary peaks (PLV2) form where main roads intersect ring roads, because those spots are also highly accessible.

Urban Land Use in LEDCs — The Latin American City Model

Here's the twist: in many LEDC cities, the pattern is almost the opposite of what you might expect from wealth logic. The wealthy live closer to the core (in a "commercial spine" extending from a colonial-era CBD), while the poorest residents — including squatter settlement dwellers — are pushed to the outer edge.

• Colonial core + commercial spine: the CBD grew around a colonial centre; a corridor of open spaces and quality housing for medium/high earners extends outward from it, with good streets, schools and services.
• Squatter settlements at the edge are the newest and roughest housing — but interestingly, older, more established squatter zones that reach closer to the centre tend to have better conditions than the newest ones at the periphery, mainly because they're closer to jobs.
• Industry is scattered along major transport routes, with the newest developments at the edge.
• Segregation happens by wealth, ethnicity, and race — the wealthy occupy the best (central) land, the poor are pushed to the margins.

Changes to the CBD

Cities have to keep adapting the CBD to stay competitive and attractive. Key changes include:

• Pedestrian/car-free zones: traffic banned or restricted to make the area safer and more walkable, boosting footfall for businesses.
• Shopping centres/malls: centralise many businesses in one place with parking — cuts costs for maintenance/advertising and shares a "ready-made" customer base.
• Leisure upgrades: traditional theatres/museums/parks now sit alongside multiplex cinemas, IMAX, waterfront developments, and smart nightspots.
• Brownfield conversion: disused shops/offices turned into residential lofts or trendy workspaces.
• Safety measures: CCTV, traffic management, limited parking — all improve the CBD's appeal.

Changes to the Inner City

Inner cities often go through a boom-bust cycle tied to industry. When a city's core industry (e.g. docks, factories) collapses through deindustrialisation, the inner city is left with poverty, low-cost housing, and derelict buildings — a state called urban blight. As property values rise elsewhere, governments and companies look back to these cheap, central, run-down areas for redevelopment.

Urban Development Corporations (UDCs)

Large-scale regeneration projects funded by a mix of private and public money.

Urban Redevelopment vs. Urban Renewal vs. Gentrification

These three terms sound similar but are not the same — a classic exam trap:

Changes Along the Urban Fringe

The rural-urban fringe is where you see the biggest visible changes in the landscape. Growth here is driven by counter-urbanisation (people moving out of cities), population growth, lack of space in the centre, and rising land costs.

Urban Sprawl

If growth at the fringe isn't controlled, it turns into urban sprawl — the uncontrolled outward spread of a city, usually into low-density suburbs of detached houses with big gardens.

Green belts are used (e.g. around UK cities) to restrict development into the countryside and push development onto brownfield sites instead. But developers sometimes "jump" over the green belt into rural villages, turning them into dormitory villages (places people sleep in but commute long distances from).

Greenfield vs. Brownfield Sites

When a city needs to grow, planners face a choice: build on greenfield land (undeveloped countryside) or brownfield land (previously used, often derelict urban land). Each comes with trade-offs.

Congestion

Congestion isn't just an annoyance — it has real knock-on effects: delayed journeys, increased fuel consumption, higher greenhouse gas emissions, and negative health effects from stress and poor air quality (diesel fumes are carcinogenic).

Pollution — Five Types

A great way to remember this: pollution in cities isn't just about dirty air — it affects almost every one of your senses and the environment around you.

Inequality, Housing & Crime

Inequality

• The rich live in "nice" neighbourhoods; the poor are pushed to the edges (or into high-rise flats).
• In LEDCs, rural migrants arriving in cities face a shortage of affordable housing → growth of informal settlements.
• Many can't access formal jobs → high unemployment/underemployment or reliance on the informal economy; new formal jobs are often too far from where newcomers live.
• Wealthier families can support their children with education and healthcare access; poorer families often need children to work, reducing education/literacy — literacy and numeracy rates are lowest in LEDCs.

Housing

• High costs relative to wages → families share single houses or rooms; enables exploitative "slum landlords" who charge high rent with no maintenance.
• Poor transport links make inner-city housing (which is closer to jobs) the most desirable and expensive.
• Many LEDC houses lack adequate space, running water or sanitation; inadequate waste removal spreads disease; lack of electricity forces reliance on fuelwood/coal/paraffin.

Crime

• Concentrated in high-density, congested areas, often linked to unemployment.
• Poorer areas (slums): drug/human trafficking, drug abuse, violence, robbery, gang activity.
• Wealthier areas: car theft, kidnapping, property damage.

Solutions: Sustainable Urban Living

Sustainability means managing social, economic, and environmental factors together so people can have a better quality of life — without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same.

Practical Strategies

• Shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy; energy-efficient buildings and appliances.
• Public transport investment over private car use → reduces pollution and congestion.
• Green spaces ("greening the city") for community wellbeing.
• Water recycling to conserve supplies; conserving cultural/historical sites.
• Prioritising brownfield over greenfield development.
• Congestion charging: London's scheme cut pollution by ~25% and stopped 13,500 cars/day entering the city centre.
• Cycling investment: Bristol was the UK's first city to heavily promote cycling with dedicated lanes.
• Park and Ride schemes reduce car usage in city centres.
• Ecotowns: purpose-built with community biomass boilers, free wi-fi (to reduce commuting), triple glazing, solar panels, low-energy lighting, and protected green spaces for wildlife.

Seoul is South Korea's capital and has been for over 600 years. It's a textbook example of a global megacity that grew explosively — GDP per capita grew over 400 times, from $84 to $34,000, in the last 50 years.

Problems Caused by Rapid Growth

• Housing shortage: caused by inward migration and shrinking household sizes (2 generations per house rather than 3). Apartment blocks built to ease this — mostly in poorer areas north of the river — but this destroyed existing neighbourhoods. Wealthy residents built satellite towns south of the river, deepening the north-south divide. Historical/cultural sites (2,000+ years of heritage) have also been damaged by development.
• Congestion & pollution: despite network improvements, the number of cars keeps rising and old central roads can't cope. A striking example: the Cheong Gye Cheon River was so polluted it was covered by an elevated road — but after the road was removed and the river restored, it became a green public space.
• Inequality: youth unemployment and an ageing population widen the rich-poor gap. The high-tech industrial area south of the river has good schools and high incomes; poorer, traditional manufacturing areas sit north and west of the Han River.
• Urban sprawl: new towns are being built up to 45 km from central Seoul (e.g. Dongtan New Town, ~40 km / about an hour away).

Key Terms

Core Models to Sketch From Memory

1. Burgess Concentric Ring Model: Core → Inner-city → Suburban → Fringe.
2. Bid-Rent Graph: Price of land (y-axis) falling with distance from CBD (x-axis), three lines for shops/offices, industry, residential.
3. Latin American City Model: Colonial core + commercial spine (wealthy) surrounded by rings that get poorer toward the edge (squatter settlements).

• I can name and describe the four zones of Burgess's Concentric Ring model
• I can explain why land value peaks at the CBD and falls with distance (bid-rent theory)
• I can explain why industry, retail and housing locate where they do based on affordability
• I can describe and sketch the Latin American city model and explain how it differs from MEDC patterns
• I can list changes happening in the CBD (pedestrianisation, malls, leisure, brownfield conversion)
• I can distinguish between redevelopment, renewal, and gentrification
• I can give a real example of a UDC (e.g. LDDC / Canary Wharf) with specific detail
• I can explain what drives growth at the urban fringe and list land uses found there
• I can explain the causes and problems of urban sprawl, and how green belts try to limit it
• I can compare the advantages/disadvantages of brownfield vs greenfield development
• I can name and describe all five types of urban pollution (air, noise, light, visual, water)
• I can explain causes of inequality, housing problems, and crime in urban areas
• I can explain the three pillars of urban sustainability with real examples (e.g. ecotowns, congestion charging)
• I can recall at least 4 specific facts from the Seoul case study