🏙️ Exam Summary: Urban systems & planning (8.2)
Key Idea: Urbanisation is driven by push–pull factors and creates both risks and opportunities. Sustainability depends on planning.
🚚 Urbanisation drivers
- Drivers: rural→urban migration, natural increase, reclassification
- Push: lack of jobs/services, land degradation/climate stress, conflict
- Pull: jobs, better services, higher wages, opportunities
🗺️ Land use + sprawl
- CBD: highest accessibility + land values (offices/retail/services)
- Sprawl = low density + car dependence + outward expansion
- Sprawl impacts: habitat loss, higher emissions, runoff/impervious surfaces, heat island, high infrastructure costs, social isolation
✅ Sustainable urban planning (how to score in essays)
- Use the 3 Es: Environment, Economy, Equity
- Best strategies: compact + mixed-use + public transport (TOD), green infrastructure, green buildings, SUDS
- Named examples help: Curitiba (BRT), Copenhagen (cycling), Singapore (water/transport pricing), Freiburg (energy/green building)
Evaluation structure: define → compare 2–3 strategies → judge using 3 Es → conclude with a justified recommendation.