Importance of Geography in

urban planning issues

Geography to understand Urban issues

Study of earth’s of or relating to cities • Environment

features, their and the people who • Social
similarities and live in them • Political
dissimarities, as • Economical
man’s environment Latin words : urb
(City) anus (An)
1619

“concentrates on those parts of the Earth's

surface that have a high concentration
of buildings and infrastructure”
Elements of Geography
• The world in spatial term
• Places and regions
• Physical systems
• Human systems
• Environment and society
• The uses of geography
The world in spatial term
(Where: Location)

“to study the relationships between people,

places, and environments by mapping
information spatially”

Relative and absolute

The world in temporal terms
to show how the knowledge of geography enables
people to develop an understanding of the
relationships between people, places, and
environments over time -- that is, of Earth as it
was, is, and might be.

Past Present Future

Places and regions
to show Why identities and lives of
individuals and peoples are rooted in
particular places and Regions
Physical systems
To identify:
how physical processes shape the Earth’s
surface
how physical processes interact with plant
and animal life to create, sustain, and
modify ecosystems
Human systems
to show how people are central to geography
that human activities help shape the Earth’s
surface, human settlements and structures

Land Use
Environment and society
to show how the physical environment is
modified by human activities, largely as a
consequence of the ways in which human
societies value and use Earth’s natural resources
Different Ways to define URBAN
• By administrative status
• Absolute No. of population
• Population density measurement
• A concept of contiguity to include or exclude
under suburban area or loosely scattered
settlement;
• Proportion engaged in non-agricultural
occupations; and
• A functional character.
Characteristics of urban areas
• Modernization
• Secularization
• Formal social control
• Rationality
• Individualism
• Materialism
• Mobility
• Social distance
• Social heterogeneity…………