Title:

Concrete jungle

Your name:

Duncan Hawley

Institution:
Sheffield U.K.

The

Geographical

Association,

Description
If the human occupation of planet Earth is geographys object of
study then Cities and Urbanisation are core topics in geography.
The city is sometimes referred to as a concrete jungle. This is not
surprising as almost all infrastructure of cities, that is the built
environment from skyscrapers to sewers and housing estates to
storm water drains, is constructed using concrete.
Concrete is produced from cement. As a consequence, rapid
urbanisation calls for the manufacture of cement in large volume.
To make cement requires the supply of vast quantities of limestone
rock together with huge energy inputs to roast the crushed
limestone. The resulting chemical reaction creates lime - the core
component of cement - by driving off carbon dioxide. This escapes
into the atmosphere.
Cement manufacture in recent years has contributed approximately
14% of Chinas annual carbon emissions. These impacts of concrete
jungle construction are easily overshadowed by the everyday
experience of living in a city - which may even take the built
environment for granted (it is just there). Geographical thinking
can help develop a way of thinking that deepens understand of the
built environment and the wider relationships and impacts on
external (global) environments.

Infographic illustrating the use of

concrete in rapidly urbanising China
Source: Smil, V. (2014). Making the Modern World:
Materials and Dematerialization. Chichester: Wiley.

Rapidly-built apartment blocks in Shenzen,

China. The buildings in the foreground have been
abandoned due to the poor quality of the cement.
Image credit: tomislav_domes / Flickr

Discussion
The majority of young peoples experiences of cities are internal.
Their experiences are lived from within the city itself, so thinking
about urbanisation and the path of urban development can become
normalised and difficult to think critically about. Geography
provides a way to think about and understand the built environment
(concrete jungle) and the challenge of rapid urbanisation from a
wider perspective.

A powerful geographical idea is to consider how cities are open

systems that are created by flows, both in and out. This is often
applied to the flows and interactions of people in cities but it is
equally useful for thinking about the impact(s) of constructing the
physical infrastructure. Thinking in this way begs the question
where does all the concrete needed to build a rapidly urbanised
environment come from? and leads to costing the concrete jungle
in terms of impacts on the limestone environments in concrete
production. This may, or may not, be developed by teachers as a
means to assess and judge whether the costs of this style of urban
development is justifiable or sustainable. However, the main point is
that geographical thinking encourages a connected thinking, in this
case connecting the physical and human environment. Thus,
geographical thinking can enable understanding that looks beyond
one that is just lived in.