Areas+of+economic+activity

Definition: // The CBD is the core of a city’s business and commercial activities and it is regarded as the centre for retailing, office location and service activities ( // Waugh, 2009:426). // The principal commercial streets and main public building are mostly located in the CBD //. • It is the location with the highest land values
 * The Central Business District(CBD) **

Characteristics of the CBD: • Multi-storey dev’t – due to high land values • Concentration of retailing – it attracts shops with high range and threshold x’tics. • Public transport is concentrated – convergence of bus/rail routes • Vertical zoning is apparent - shops occupy ground floor and offices top floors • High day time population and low night population • Functional segregation- different type of land use occupy different part • It changes with time • Traffic restrictions are greatest there. • economic/tertiary activity (shops, offices, entertainment) found here • at the centre of a settlement or at intersection of routes • convenience shops at edges of CBD • “Core and frame” structure • evidence of zones of discard/assimilation

Factors affecting CBD Decline • Poor and ageing nature of infrastructure • Increase in private car ownership • Investors attracted to out-of-town locations • Cost of dev’t and keeping the CBD • Congestion and its associated problems • Planning policies by city authorities • Companies finding edge of city locations attractive.

CBDs are not permanent, and due to a number of factors eventually shift to new locations over time. Factors influencing CBD decline include:


 * Poor and out-dated facilities Infrastructure
 * Increase in Private car ownership makes it easier for people live outside of the city and commute inward to work, shifting the centre of residence
 * Investors are attracted to out-of-town areas: Many business owners desire to escape the traffic congestion and pollution (air, water, noise, visual) in urban areas relocate the centres of their businesses to outside of the city where they can have a serene environment and wide parking spaces
 * Cost of development and maintaining the CBD. It is expensive to maintain the infrastructure or improve the conditions in the CBD due to high day-time traffic, harbouring movements, or the high cost involved in replacing or renewing the existing infrastructure
 * Congestion, both vehicular and human and their associated problems can cause a CBD to decline by reducing the convenience of common movement. Cars get caught in traffic due things like the weather. This lowers productivity.
 * Poor planning by city authorities. Sanitation for example can lead to CBD decline when poorly planned by creating massive pollution.

The causes of rapid urbanisation are often classified under the following areas: Case Studies of shanty towns (informal settlements):
 * Causes of rapid urbanisation**
 * Rural push
 * Urban Pull
 * Economic growth
 * Dharavi in Mumbai, India
 * Rio De Janiero (Case study in The New Wider World pg. 80-82)
 * Kolkata in India (New Wider World pg. 70-81)

Efforts made by the government or city authorities to improve shanty towns or slum dwellings: Case studies:
 * Singapore housing success (Advanced Geography by David Waugh pg. 298)

Factors affecting the locations of residential areas within cites or urban areas
 * Historical factors, ancestral influences etc.: the quality or age of the buildings in which dwellings are established
 * Relief and Drainage.
 * Accessibility and transport links
 * Wealth: richer people can afford to live inside the city
 * Ethnicity
 * City planning
 * Location of industries and areas
 * Relative importance of urban processes such as urbanisation, urban sprawl, gentrification, counter urbanisation
 * Natural population increase

Informal Sector Employment is paid work on a casual basis. Jobs are irregular, and workers are often self-employed without earning pensions and without paying taxes. This sort of employment is common in the urban areas of developing countries; for example, in Mexico City. It may involve service jobs of the lower industrial sector—cleaning shoes or selling bottled water—as well as craft industries. Informal employment also includes illegal activities such as theft, prostitution, and selling drugs.
 * Informal Sectors: **

// Characteristics // • They are self employed • Less capital required • Labour intensive • Low quality standard goods • No gov’t assistance • Not legal • Irregular working hours

• Model of land use in LEDCs Burgess Model Hoyt Model Bid-Rent Theory

• Causes of rapid urbanisation in LEDC