Urban Landscapes

The Urban Landscape

The Canadian urban landscape has changed dramatically since Confederation.

In 1867, 18% of Canadians lived in Cities.

Today, approximately 85% of Canadians live in cities.

Why the change?1) Farming and Forestry became mechanized

2) Unemployed people moved to cities for work

3) Urban areas became centers of manufacturing

4) Due to higher populations, service industries arose in cities. (e.g. travel agencies, marketing firms)

Five Important Terms

1) Hinterland: areas in the countryside that trade products for goods and services produced in the city. (area that surrounds the city)

2) Basic Industries: industries that bring money into a community.

(e.g. forestry, tourism)

3) Non-basic Industries: industries that set-up around basic industries. Meant to serve the needs of those who work in basic industries. (e.g. restaurants, malls, grocery stores)

4) Economic Base: the combination of a communities' basic industries.

5) Multiplier Effect: the loss or gain of three non-basic jobs as a result of the loss or gain of one basic industry job.

e.g. local auto manufacturing plant closes. 300 jobs are lost in the basic industry of auto manufacturing. 900 jobs are lost in local non-basic

industries, for a total job loss of 1200.

Urban and Rural Interactions

• There has been significant movement of people in Canada between urban and rural areas over time. In most cases, people in rural areas live in a hamlet, village, or town. People in urban areas live in a suburb, city, or metropolis. These different types of places to live are known as the urban hierarchy (each one is a larger settlement going up the line than the one before it).

Urban Hierarchy

hamlet village town suburb city metropolis

Urban Hierarchy

German geographer Walter Christaller created the central place theory, based on the number of people needed to keep a store in business.

The minimum number of customers is known as a threshold population.

There are three orders of “goods (products)”:Type Description

High-Order Available only in cities: children’s hospital, professional sports team, national news agency

Middle-Order Available in larger towns and smaller cities: clothing store, doctor’s office

Low-Order Available even in very small towns: post office, restaurant

Urban Hierarchy

• Does Christaller’s theory work in the “real world”?

• Let’s take a look at a map of southcentral Ontario and see if we can apply his theory to the settlements that exist here. (p.66 in Atlas)

• Draw lines on the base map according to this legend:

Lake Huron

Lake Ontario

Lake Erie

Lake Erie

Lake Huron

Lake Ontario

London

Hamilton

Burlington

Oakville

Mississauga

Cambridge

Kitchener-Waterloo

Urbanization

• Urbanization is the movement of people UP the urban hierarchy. This has been the main migration pattern of Canadians since the creation of our country.

• The chart below illustrates the overall percentage of Canada’s population living in rural and urban areas.

Year % Urban % Rural

1853 15 85

1908 50 50

2001 85 15

Types of Urban Places

p.239-244 in Text

i) Outline each type of urban place

ii) For each type, provide an example