ESR102 - Lecture 9

http://web.pdx.edu/~rueterj/courses/esr102-201001/lecture8.html

Lecture 9: Land Use, Urbanization, and Sprawl Seccond half of the class time (from 3:10 to 4:20) - Quiz 2 March 4, 2010 Land use Urbanizaiton Sprawl in developing countries Quiz 2
1. Land use review figure for global land use from last lecture image from http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/extinctions-over-population-and-the-profit-paradigm/ Interested in finer scale description and shifts in land use Urban encroachment on arable lands Canada cities are expanding onto prime agricultural land - expanding by 7400 km^2 in 30 years upto to 2001 7% of best ag land and 4% of total ag land USA - urban land only 3% of total 6% of the best class of highly productive soils are under cities World availability of arable land Biomes and Ecoregions - consideration of natural capital ecoregions of the United States World interactive map - that sometimes works freshwater ecoregions have lost a higher proportion of their species than any other category of ecoregion to human population freshwater ecosystems of the world - with human impact parameters
2. Urbanization 2a. Cities are important centers of education, new ideas and exchange of those some comparison between structure of cities and brain emergent structures engines of innovation spread of innovation, usually starts at cities Hagerstrand, Torsten.1967. Innovation Diffusion as a spatial process social structures that promote change "elites" in bureacratic positions of power PSU played a role in this city (needle exchange - Hugo Maynard, other examples) Portland has engagement (from watershed councils) Putnam, R.D. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Traditions in modern Italy.Putnam - Bowling AlonePutnam & Feldstein 2003 Better Together" Restoring the American Community with a chapter on Portland - "Portland: A positive epidemic of civic engagement" trust -> engagement -> democracy 2b. urban growth (positive feedbacks for big cities - jobs, crime in rural areas, closely related to the poverty cycle) megacities proportion of population in large cities 50% now on only 2% of land area (developed, developing) quality of city life improvements densitiy - pollution 2c. Processses in urban areas urban areas as processors of material good aspects - recycling and lower use bad aspects - not self sustaining, density/pollution, poverty urban poor - transportation systems mass vs. individual automobiles and their effect taxes and fees multiple transportation options (why it's good to live in Portland) degree and rate of urbanization Latin America and Caribbean for example into what type of land? Nicaragua - dry tropical forest WWF - interactive map of ecoregions World's Largest Cities
3. Sprawl Multiple factors provided stimulus for sprawl ample land home loans low-cost gas mortgage write-off on taxes zoning - separation of business and residential numerous governments (city, county, etc) Undesirable aspects of sprawl How can we stem or reverse sprawl in the United States? not just the removal of a factor restoration
4. Quiz 2