Revision sheet: Urban Growth and Landscape Dynamics

📋 Course Outline

1. Urbanisation and urban growth
2. Urban structure and functions
3. Urban challenges and solutions
4. Weathering and karst processes
5. Coastal landscapes
6. Fluvial landscapes

📖 1. Urbanisation and urban growth

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Urbanisation : Urbanisation is the increasing number and concentration of urban areas over time.
• Urban growth : Urban growth is the increase in the size of urban populations driven by population growth and migration.
• Settlement types : Settlement types are categories of where people live, used to compare urban areas over time and space.
• Population increase : Population increase is the rise in the number of people living in urban areas from natural growth and migration.

📝 Essential Points

• Urbanisation can be studied by comparing the number and the location of urban areas over time.
• Population growth in urban areas comes from natural increase and in-migration.
• Migration into cities is a direct driver of urban population increase.
• Different settlement types are used to describe how urban areas develop across regions.

💡 Memory Hook

Think of Urbanisation as a map getting more “urban dots” over time.

📖 2. Urban structure and functions

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Metropolis : A metropolis is a very large city with strong regional influence and extensive functions.
• Megalopolis : A megalopolis is a very large urban area formed by the growth and linking of multiple cities.
• CBD : The CBD is the central business district, where central economic activities concentrate.
• Sphere of influence : The sphere of influence is the area affected by a city’s services and activities.

📝 Essential Points

• Urban functions can be grouped into residential areas, industrial areas, and CBD activities.
• An urban case study should analyse physical and spatial evidence such as skylines, districts, and infrastructure.
• Urban hierarchy describes how cities rank by their size and service influence.
• For one city, services affect its influence through the extent of its sphere of influence.

💡 Memory Hook

CBD sits at the core of services, so influence spreads outward from it.

📖 3. Urban challenges and solutions

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Sustainable development : Sustainable development is managing urban growth so needs are met while limiting harm to the future.
• Urban renewal : Urban renewal is restructuring and improving existing built-up areas to address urban problems.
• Urban regeneration : Urban regeneration is wider redevelopment intended to improve an area’s economic, social, and environmental outcomes.
• Public transport : Public transport is shared transport provided for large numbers of people to reduce congestion and improve access.

📝 Essential Points

• Urban challenges can be studied using at least two problems such as transport, pollution, housing, water and sewage, waste, energy, and deprivation.
• Solutions can be linked to sustainable development by selecting approaches like town planning, urban renewal or regeneration, public transport, and green measures.
• Town planning is used to guide how land use and growth are organised in cities.
• Public transport and green approaches target accessibility and environmental impacts in urban areas.

💡 Memory Hook

Choose two problems, then match each to a sustainable-solution tool: plan, renew, regenerate, transport, green.

📖 4. Weathering and karst processes

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Rock cycle : The rock cycle describes how rocks are weathered, eroded, transported, deposited, and eventually reformed over geologic time.
• Weathering : Weathering is the breakdown of rock at or near Earth’s surface into smaller materials.
• Karst : Karst is a landscape formed by chemical weathering of soluble rocks, producing caves and drainage features.
• Sinkhole : A sinkhole is a ground depression linked to karst processes, often related to cave development and collapse.

📝 Essential Points

• Weathering includes chemical, biological, and mechanical types as part of landscape evolution.
• Karst is used as an example of weathering and landscape creation and evolution.
• Karst features include caves, dry valleys, and sinkholes as landform outcomes.
• Chemical and mechanical processes work with erosion, transportation, and deposition to form landscapes.

💡 Memory Hook

Karst sounds like “caves underground,” so expect caves, dry valleys, and sinkholes.

📖 5. Coastal landscapes

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Constructive wave : A constructive wave is a wave type that builds coastal material through swash-dominant processes.
• Destructive wave : A destructive wave is a wave type that removes coastal material through backwash-dominant processes.
• Longshore drift : Longshore drift is the movement of sediment along a coast caused by waves approaching at an angle.
• Coastal management : Coastal management is human action to reduce erosion and flooding and to protect coastal landforms.

📝 Essential Points

• Coastal erosion and landform change involve wave processes such as swash and backwash.
• Coastal landforms include cliffs, caves, arches, stacks, and spits as examples of wave action outcomes.
• Longshore drift contributes to sediment transfer along the shoreline and helps form features like bars and tombolos.
• Coastal management is used to address coastal erosion and flooding, including shoreline retreat.

💡 Memory Hook

Constructive = build; Destructive = destroy, linked to swash vs backwash.

📖 6. Fluvial landscapes

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Drainage basin : A drainage basin is the land area that collects rainfall and channels it to a river system.
• Meander : A meander is a bend in a river caused by erosion and deposition on opposite banks.
• Delta : A delta is a depositional landform at a river mouth formed when sediment accumulates.
• Oxbow lake : An oxbow lake is a crescent-shaped waterbody formed when a meander becomes cut off.

📝 Essential Points

• Fluvial systems include upper course and middle/other parts described through processes and landform development.
• A river system can be described using measures such as drainage density and features like tributaries and confluences.
• Typical fluvial landforms include V-shaped valleys, meanders, deltas, estuaries, and oxbow lakes.
• Erosion, transportation, and deposition produce fluvial features such as undercutting, slip-off slopes, and cliff-like bank erosion.

💡 Memory Hook

Upper course cuts (V-shape), middle meanders, lower course deposits (delta/estuary).

⚠️ Common Pitfalls & Confusions

1. Confusing weathering with erosion, because weathering breaks rock in place while erosion removes material from its original location.
2. Mixing up constructive and destructive waves, since one builds via more deposition while the other removes via more erosion.
3. Using CBD as a city function in general, when CBD specifically refers to the central business district where activities concentrate.
4. Thinking urban renewal and urban regeneration are identical, since regeneration is wider and includes broader economic, social, and environmental outcomes.
5. For fluvial processes, swapping drainage basin with drainage density, because one is an area and the other is a measure of how dense the drainage network is.
6. Calling any city growth “urbanisation,” when urbanisation is the spread/increase of urban areas over space and time, not just population change in one place.

✅ Exam Checklist

1. Explain urbanisation by describing how the number and location of urban areas change over time.
2. State two drivers of urban population increase in urban areas.
3. Use settlement types to describe patterns in urban development across regions.
4. Describe key urban functions using examples such as residential areas, industries, and CBD activities.
5. Identify what to analyse in a named city: skyline, districts, infrastructure, and urban functions.
6. Explain what CBD and sphere of influence mean in relation to a city’s services.
7. Choose two urban problems from the given list and link each to a solution.
8. Evaluate solutions by explicitly relating them to sustainable development outcomes.
9. Explain weathering as including chemical, biological, and mechanical types.
10. Describe karst as a landscape formed by weathering, and name karst landforms such as caves, dry valleys, and sinkholes.
11. For coasts, distinguish constructive vs destructive waves in terms of building vs removing material.
12. Name coastal landforms and processes including longshore drift and key spit/bar/tombolo outcomes.
13. For coasts, state how coastal management is used to reduce erosion and flooding.
14. For rivers, define a drainage basin and use drainage density to describe the drainage network.