Urban geography
Scholars, activists, and the public have participated in, studied, and critiqued flows of economic and natural resources, human and non-human bodies, patterns of development and infrastructure, political and institutional activities, governance, decay and renewal, and notions of socio-spatial inclusions, exclusions, and everyday life.
To combat the negative environmental effects of urban development, green infrastructure such as community gardens and parks, sewage and waste systems, and the use of solar energy have been implemented in many cities.
[2] Green infrastructure, such as home and urban gardens, have been found to not only improve air quality but also promote mental well-being.
For instance, soft infrastructure can promote economic growth through allowing its residents to specialize in different areas of expertise.
For instance, humans can clear land or agriculture in order to develop urbanized buildings such as commercial skyscrapers and public housing.
The clearing of land to pave the way for urbanization can lead to negative environmental impacts such as deforestation, decreased air quality, and wild life displacement.
For instance, the influence of local and state political dynamics plays an important role in how actions are taken place to combat climate change and housing issues.
The push factors include the increasingly high growth of rural areas which leads many people to migrate to the cities in search of better livelihood opportunities, a good quality of life, and a higher standard of living.
People are forced to leave their rural homes and move to various cities because of various factors such as low agricultural productivity, poverty, and food insecurity.
The gentrification of urban environments leads to an increase in income gaps, racial inequality, and displacement within metropolitan areas.
[8] Cities are a key contributor to climate change because urban activities are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.
It was estimated that cities are responsible for about 75% of global carbon dioxide emissions, with the inclusion of transportation and buildings being the largest contributor.
As cities develop, vital habitats are destroyed or fragmented into patches which leads to them not being big enough to support complex ecological communities.
As urban areas grow from increasing human population and from migration, this can result in deforestation, habitat loss, and extraction of freshwater from the environment which can decrease biodiversity and alter the species ranges and interaction.
Manufacturing is found in nearly all cities, but its importance is measured by the proportion of total earnings received by the inhabitants of an urban area.
[13] Urban geography arrived as a critical sub-discipline with the 1973 publication of David Harvey's Social Justice and the City, which was heavily influenced by previous work by Anne Buttimer.
[14] Prior to its emergence as its own discipline, urban geography served as the academic extension of what was otherwise a professional development and planning practice.
[15] At the turn of the 19th century, urban planning began as a profession charged with mitigating the negative consequences of industrialization as documented by Friedrich Engels in his geographic analysis of the condition of the working class in England, 1844.
[20] Geographic information science, using digital processing of large data sets, has become widely used since the 1980s, with major applications for urban geography.
