Q.1) Explain the concept of Megalopolis and Exopolis with regard to the growth of cities indicating whether the two can and do overlap. (10 marks)
Answer
A megalopolis is typically defined as a chain of roughly adjacent metropolitan areas. A cluster of well-networked cities is called a megalopolis, a term first used in the early 20th century. These can occur for a variety of reasons since certain areas tend to attract more growth than others. Geography can play a large role in the location of megalopolises, as can good international and regional transport links. The subsequent economic growth of one city can have a positive impact on neighbouring locations.
One of the first examples of a megalopolis was the north-eastern coast of the USA from Boston to Washington—the Bos-Wash Megalopolis. Much like megacities, however, there are more of these regions developing in Asia than anywhere else right now, such as the Pearl River Delta in China, and the Unified Jakarta-Bandung metro area in Indonesia.
Exopolis is a term coined by urban theorist and geographer Edward Soja in his search for new spatial categories capable of analysing the changing urban formations of postmodern Los Angeles.
An exopolis on the other hand refers to outward expansion of an urban centre towards its periphery. Here, the core of the city shifts to the fringe areas or hinterland. This term was coined by Soja. It leads to the development of the ‘city outside a city’ for example in Los Angeles.
The exopolis and megalopolis do overlap, as megalopolis indicates the spatial integration of two or more distinct centres while exopolis denotes the outward expansion. Thus, the two urban centres will begin to interact as and when their periphery start interacting. This happens when the exopolis develops and thus aids in the formation of the megalopolis as it leads to blurring of distinct boundaries between different urban centres. For example, along the cities of the North Atlantic Seaboard of the USA.
Q.2) Social capital – ‘those voluntary means and processes developed within civil society which promote development for the collective whole’ – Thomas(1996). Elaborate (15 marks)
Answer
Social capital refers to the institutions, relationships, and norms that shape the quality and quantity of a society’s social interactions. Increasing evidence shows that social cohesion is critical for societies to prosper economically and for development to be sustainable. Social capital is not just the sum of the institutions which underpin a society – it is the glue that holds them together.
Some of the most pertinent topics for social capital as it relates to development.
Crime/violence: Shared values and norms can reduce or keep low the level of community violence. People who have informal relations with their neighbours can look out for each other and ‘police’ their neighbourhoods
Economics & trade: There is increasing evidence that trade at the macro level is influenced by social capital a common property resource whose value depends on the level of interaction between people.
Education: Considerable evidence shows that family, community and state involvement in education improves outcomes.
Environment: “Common property resource management entails cooperation with a view to ensure the sustainability of resources for the benefit of all community members, in the present and in the future.”
Finance: A stable, secure and equitable financial system is a precursor for sustainable growth.
Health, nutrition & population: Recent research shows that the lower the trust among citizens, the higher the average mortality rate.
Information technology: information technology has the potential to increase social capital – and in particular bridging social capital which connects actors to resources, relationships and information beyond their immediate environment.
Poverty reduction and economic development: development and growth specialists are uncovering the importance of social cohesion for societies to prosper economically and for development to be sustainable.
Rural development: Social capital is significant because it affects rural people’s capacity to organize for development. Social capital helps groups to perform the following key development tasks effectively and efficiently.
Urban development: Urban areas, with their anonymity and fast pace, can be unconducive to societal cooperation. Social capital and trust are more difficult to develop and sustain in large groups.
Water supply & sanitation: Social capital contributes to the sharing of information about sanitation as well as the building of community infrastructure.
Q.3) Discuss the environmental issues prevalent in Indian rural settlements. (15 marks)
Answer
Most rural environments have a number of environmental resources: land used for agriculture and food production, grazing land for animals, forest or woodland, natural areas with native vegetation and animals, perhaps some freshwater features such as streams, a river or lake, and for some a coastal area along the ocean or sea. There are also the villages or towns where human activities are concentrated. Each of these may have some particular environmental problems or management challenges.
Domestic Waste – The most widespread environmental problem, affecting almost all rural areas with populations of any size, is the safe disposal of liquid domestic wastes, particularly human wastes and urban sewage.
Forest cover – Another major environmental concern for the future of developing countries is the steady reduction in forest cover in almost every country (except those that already have no forest left). Forests are logged for local use or export; shifting cultivation and clearing for agriculture are constant pressures on the forest resource; and frequent uncontrolled fires eat into the forest margins in some countries.
Human Habitat and Infrastructure – There are also problems of the human habitat in most rural areas, particularly involving housing and sanitation. In countries where cyclonic storms, hurricanes or typhoons are common, many houses are unable to resist hurricane force winds, or are in areas subject to flooding or landslides.
Soil Loss – The soil resource, essential for agriculture, is the fundamental basis of rural prosperity. Developing countries are subject to the same problems of soil erosion and loss of fertility as most other parts of the world.
Solid Waste Disposal – Traditionally where all the materials people used were produced locally, wastes also could be absorbed by the natural system. Today with more and more imported materials, there is a growing problem with solid waste disposal even in rural areas.
Toxic Chemicals – There is widespread concern about the potential dangers of the toxic chemicals being used in rural areas in increasing amounts. Most developing country governments lack adequate legislation controlling toxic chemicals. Pesticides or herbicides may be imported in bulk and then repackaged without adequate labeling, resulting in accidental poisonings.
Fisheries – The damage or destruction of productive coastal resources and fisheries is a nearly universal problem. Coral reefs are destroyed by construction or dredging, pollution, siltation and dynamiting or poisoning for fish. Mangroves are killed off by dredging or filling, or by changing essential patterns of water circulation and salinity. Seagrass beds are dredged or silted over.
Mining – Mining is a significant economic activity in some rural areas of developing countries, and it is inevitably accompanied by serious environmental problems. These include the disposal of mine wastes, tailings and processing wastes, erosion problems and the pollution of rivers in mined areas, loss of natural habitat or of land with agricultural potential, and the abandonment of unusable wastelands once the mining has ended.
If the people in rural areas are to ensure for themselves a satisfactory environmental future, they must take measures to reverse the steady erosion in their resource base and to stabilize their populations within the carrying capacity of their local area, even if this means modifying what they see as deeply held cultural values.
Q.4) “Urban Geography is nothing but city “in” areas and city “as” areas”. Elaborate (20 marks)
Answer
Urban geography is the study of spatial pattern of urbanisation in a region or area and also the study of internal morphology of the cities/urbans.
Urban geography is nothing but city “in” areas.
This approach talks about the study of spatial pattern of urbanisation over a region/area. Following works envisages the above concept of city in areas.
The primate city propounded by M. Jefferson states that “a primate city is an extensive urban environment that is disproportionately the larger city in the country or the region. Primate cities brag of dominance over other cities, they are unrivalled political and economic hubs, and in most cases, they are the capital and the administrative centres of the country”.
Here he made an attempt to study the urbanisation over the vast region i.e country and propounded the primate city concept.
Rank size rule attempts to study of the distribution of urban centres in the region according to their size. The theory states that “if all the urban settlements in an area are ranked in descending order of population, the population of nth town will be 1/n that of the largest town”.
The theory tries to explain that in any large region there are many small towns, a smaller number of medium sized towns and relatively few large cities.
The functional classification of cities as envisaged by the Nelson is based on the major activities and specialisation of urbans in an area/region.
The central place theory (CPT) as propounded by Christellar and later modified by Losch talks about “discovery of order in size and spacing of population clusters and settlements in the landscape”.
CPT envisages a hierarchical structure of settlements with seven or more levels in a meso region with metropolitan city at its apex.
All the above-mentioned theories studied the cities in a area or region.
Urban geography is nothing but city “as” areas.
This approach talks about the study of internal structure and morphology of urban centres.
E W Burgess devised the concentric model of urban land use. The theory states that development of city takes place from its central area from outward in a series of concentric circles to form zones.
This model has been modified by Homer and Hoyt and advanced the sector theory. This new theory incorporates the role of transportation lines in the expansion of cities.
Harris and Ullman later suggested the multiple nuclei theory of urban settlements. The theory states that “as city represents intermingling of various functions like commercial, industrial, cultural, administrative and social. As a result morphology of city cannot be unicentric rather there are multiple nuclei which enable a city to grow”.
The central business district is the nucleus of an urban area containing commercial land use. The study of CBD also comes under this approach.
Both these approach helps the planners for regional development of the nation and also provision of basic civic amenities.
Q.5) Discuss the applicability of primate city and rank-size rule to Indian cities. (15 marks)
Answer
Rank size rule attempts to study of the distribution of urban centres in the region according to their size. The theory states that “if all the urban settlements in an area are ranked in descending order of population, the population of ‘n’th town will be 1/n that of the largest town”.
Rank-Size Relationship in India
The rank-size relationship is absent in India at the national level as the population size of Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi is very close to each other. Moreover, a great majority of states in India also do not conform to the rank-size rule. In fact, primacy exists in at least 15 out of the 28 states of India and in another eight states (Bihar, Kerala, M.P., Punjab, Orissa, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland) the leading city is only just larger than the second city. In Kerala, the three cities of Cochin, Calicut and Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) have nearly the same population size; this is also the case with cities of Indore, Jabalpur and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, and Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar in Punjab. Rank-size relationships appear to hold good in the state of Rajasthan. In brief, rank-size rule in India is an exception rather than a rule.
The primate city propounded by M. Jefferson states that “a primate city is an extensive urban environment that is disproportionately the larger city in the country or the region. Primate cities brag of dominance over other cities, they are unrivalled political and economic hubs, and in most cases, they are the capital and the administrative centres of the country”.
Primacy in India
There is no primate city in India at the national level at present. The absence of primate city is partly explained by the large size of the country, its colonial heritage, and weakness in the nationalist forces in the country. no city in the country exercises the dominance in the country.
At the state level however, there are primate cities in fifteen out of the twenty-nine states. Several large states, such as West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat have primate cities, which have population at least three times the population of the second-ranking city. Among the smaller states, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura show a distinct tendency towards city primacy. In the Valley of Kashmir, the city of Srinagar has the status of a primate city. Primate city characteristics are absent in the northern states, from Orissa, and Bihar in the east to Rajasthan and Punjab in the west.
After independence, in India, there has been a distinct tendency, for primacy to increase. This has been because of growing imbalances and increasing concentration of development activities in state capitals. The state capitals, as a matter of fact, provide more employment opportunities
The law of primate city is still relevant, though the sequence that Jefferson identified is now largely ignored.