TRANSPORTATION

NETWORKING

Suman Mishra
M Sc. In Civil Engineering ( Transportation Engineering)
University of Calgary, Canada
 Chapter- 2

Theories behind developing Urban

Centers
City
• A city is an urban area with a large population and a particular
administrative, legal, or historical status.
City
• No single definition.
• Wheatley-
Captures social and political changes surrounding the
emergence of cities.
• Sjoberg- definition highlights physical and economic highlights to
define a city.
• Childe- Identifies distinctive features- size , structure of population
,public capital, governance , trade etc.
City
• Cities were built at a time when human society began to
consistently produce more food than they consumed as direct
consumers.
• The emergence of cities is closely associated with a significant
historical change, which we call the Neolithic Revolution (first
agricultural revolution).
• The Neolithic Revolution marked the transition from exploiting
livelihood (hunting and gathering) to production livelihoods
(breeding and cultivating = agriculture).
City or Urban Centre
• As the primary engine of the change is economic, the cities have
developed as central points within various economic system, such
as:
- Agrarian, (agricultural based),
- Merchant (sb who buys/sales goods, wholesalers),
- Capitalist (investor),
- Industrial.
Explanations why Cities originated

1. Agricultural surplus
2. Hydrological factors
3. Population pressures
4. Trading requirements
5. Defense needs
6. Religious causes
None of all 6, offers sufficient explanation, but a combination of
these factors
Agricultural Surplus
(Roots in archaeology – G. Childe, L. Woolley)
• Production of more food than was needed, created necessity for
centralized structures to administer
• New social institutions needed to assign rights over resources
–Created greater degree of occupational specialization in non-agricultural
activities
• Organization needed an urban setting
Hydrological factors
Karl Wittfogel-Early cities emerged in areas of irrigated agriculture.
• Elaborateirrigation practices required new divisions of labor, large
scale cooperation, and more cultivation
• Led to occupational specialization, then centralized social
organization Hence urban development
• Hence urban development .
Population Pressures
• Esther Boserup
– Attributes cities to increasing population densities and growing scarcity
of wild food
• Transition to agricultural production, and urban life.
Trading Requirements
• Emergence of cities – a function of long- distance
• Needfor a system to administer large-scale exchange of goods –
promoted development of centralized structures
• Increasing
occupational specialization would encourage urban
development
• Theory supported by the many urban centers around marketplaces
Defense Needs
Max Weber and others
• Cities a function of need for people to gather together for
protection
• Cities located on strategic places (hills) where enemy could be
spotted at distance
• Wittfogel – argued that valuable irrigation systems need protection
from attack
• Evidence: Most cities had walls (fortified)
Religious Causes and others
Sjoberg and others
• Control of Alter offerings by the religious elite – gave them
economic and political power
• Power was used to influence social organization
-initiated urban development.
Theories of Origins of Town
• No consistent spatial model of transport development and the
developed theories are based on certain regularities.
• Carter, 1983, summarizes four primary factors related to the
emergence of towns and cities in his book ‘An Introduction to
Urban Historical Geography’.
Theories of Origins of Town
• Four explanations for the emergence of early towns (Harold Carter,
1983)
1.Hydraulic theories
Environmental bases to urbanism
2.Economic theories
Growth of markets
3. Military theories
Growth about defensive strong points
4. Religious theories
Growth about shrines (place of worship)
Hydraulic Theories
• Afterthe agricultural revolution, there was a need for large scale
water management which required centralized co-ordination and
direction, which required concentrated settlement.
• Agricultural
concentration allows for a concentration of population
and co-operation leads to the need for managers and bureaucrats,
exerting control over other.
• Characteristics of Hydraulic Society. It
• Permits an intensification of agriculture.
• Involves a particular division of labor.
• Necessitates co-operation on a large scale.
Hydraulic Theories
• First cities develop on the bank of rivers
– relating to the character of soil (fertile) and climate
– surplus production possible and
– easy procured of goods from others by means of barter
(exchange goods or services without involving money) that
were not grown in their own land.
• Exchange goods or services were required over an area large
enough to maintain not only a small group of individuals but a
population sufficiently numerous to encourage occupation
specialization and social development, so does the civilization
began.
Hydraulic Theories
• The division of labor, centralization of power and administrative
structure all promote concentrated settlement , and hence the
emergence of a town.
• Irrigation was a key factor in growth of pre- industrial cities but with
cause and effect- urbanization didn’t follow development of
irrigation.
• More likely scenario was that institutions of centralized urban
government and large scale irrigation grew side by side.
Hydraulic Theories
• At first , small –scale irrigation schemes would have required a
certain amount of administration, which would have expanded the
irrigation system.
• This in turn would have required greater administration and so on.
• Eventually leading to large scale irrigation works and an urban
political organization with a monopoly of power.
• In Kathmandu valley, the earlier agricultural system was intensive

• It
becomes clear from the great attention paid to irrigation channels
called Rajkulos during the Malla period (circa 1200-1769 AD)

• Elaborate arrangements existed for the maintenance and repair of such

irrigation channels, and rights to utilize irrigation facilities were carefully
regulated
 Economic Theories
▪ Two closely interrelated interpretations can be given to economic theories of
urban origin

▪ They are mercantile and market - the first views that the city as the product of
long distance trade whilst the second interprets that the city as the center created
by a region to focus its internal process of exchange

▪ The Egyptian earliest towns had a cross within a circle that symbolized two
dominant functions. The cross represented the meeting of routes at the market
place, while the circle stands for the defensive walls, so that the city as a
protected market place
▪ In Europe long distance trade was a life blood of making origin & development
of medieval towns

▪ The earliest settlements in Kathmandu Valley are believed to have taken place
as early as 600 BC and later they grew up particularly at the sites of elevated
plain above the flood level of the rivers during the Lichhavi period (200-1200
AD)

▪ During the Malla period (1200-1769 AD), most of the prominent settlements in
the valley appear to have enlarged and consolidated into a compact form
▪ The fundamental impulses for the growth and development of large and
compact settlements were intensive agricultural system and long distance
trading activities. The former made possible to support sufficient food
supply to the settlements while the latter provided revenue for a strong
economic base.

▪ These two activities together further led to flourish small scale production
of textiles and metal ware, which entered as major export items in the
foreign trade.
▪ By adopting these, the valley flourished in the field of all sorts of art, culture
and civilization

▪ The large consolidated and compact form of early settlements seems to have
related to three fundamental tenets:

1. Necessity for defense - the historical evidence indicates that there were
several attempts for many parts of India to invade the valley. Likewise,
there were many internecine conflicts between valley people and their
mountain neighbors. These two factors called for defense to lead to the
concentration of houses in villages and towns with narrow streets and
small courtyards
2. The other two tenets were basically related to agriculture land –

• Need for proximity to cultivated fields but some distance from the
flood and hence the settlements were mostly located on upland plains
with terrace fields on either side to avoid floods.

• Need of the compact form of vertically oriented houses, which appears

to have motivated by a strong concern for preserving the rich
agricultural land in order to avoid its inefficient use .
▪ Throughout the period between 13th and mid-18th centuries, the Kathmandu
valley effectively controlled the entrepot trade between India and Tibet

▪ Major items exported to Tibet from India were cotton goods, brass, pearls, sugar,
spices, tobacco, etc. and those from Tibet to India were gold, musk, silk, woolen,
yak tails, tea

▪ The trading activities were carried on through trading centers developed along
the major trail routes leading from the valley to both India & Tibet. The exchange
was taken basically through barter trade – Tibetan salt and the food-grains of the
hills
Military Theories: City as strong-point

▪ Note that the circular element in the Egyptian hieroglyph for town symbolized
a wall for a set of external defenses, which meant that the origin of cities lay in
the need for people to gather together in search of protection.

▪ Military necessity might have been a cause for the origin of towns.

▪ Warfaremay often have made a development by inducing a concentration of

settlement for purpose of defense and by stimulating craft specialization.
▪ Theearlier towns developed at the ridge of hills and mountains during the
22-24 principalities in Nepal evidence the fact that they were basically for
security reason form the possible attacks from the neighboring states

▪ Gorkha, Kirtipur, Tansen etc. were some of the historical towns with defence
wall

▪ Other major factor of the growth & development of the historical towns was
related to environment, i.e. climate and protection of valuable scarce
agricultural land located at the foot-hills and river basins
Religious Theories

▪ Earlier cities were the centers of temples, shrines, churches, or masjids that
provided as essential element of urban condition of folk, for attachment to a
certain locality and deference to the rights to others

▪ To change from nomadic culture to civilized urban culture that required social
organization

▪ Religion became the highly effective force which created new loyalties and
provided a social solidarity superior to and more lasting than that based on
natural kinship, so that Islam provided the most effective instrument for the
use and development of urbanization
▪ There is a clear association of shrines and temples with
excavated cities

▪ Shrines& cultural elements are one of the essential components

of urbanism and attractive elements as well

Source: Carter (1986), Urban Geography

URBAN ORIGINS: REGIONS
5 Regions credited with the earliest development of cities:
• Mesopotamia (the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates),
• Egypt (the valley of Nile),
• The Indus Valley (Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa ),
• Northern China (capital city of the Shan Dynasty ), and
• Mesoamerica
URBAN ORIGINS: REGIONS
Urban Origins- Mesopotamia

• Mesopotamia
– Land between the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates
– area of modern day Iraq
• Earliest evidence for urbanization
– approx. 3500BC
• The Fertile Crescent (crescent-shaped region in the Middle East
where agriculture and early human civilizations flourished)
• City States (type of small independent country)
Urban Origins- Egypt
• Egypt - Along Nile valley Around 3100 BC
• Agriculture – Irrigation
• Short lifespan for cities
• Cities usually abandoned after the death of a Pharaoh (political and
religious leader of Egyptian people)
• 2000-1400BC – founding of Capital Cities – Thebes, Tanis, etc.
Urban Origins- Indus Valley,
Northern China and Mesoamerica
• Indus Valley – 2500BC
• Modern day Pakistan
• Agriculture and trade

• Northern China – Along the fertile plains of R. Huang He – 1800BC

• Supported by irrigated agriculture

• Mesoamerica – 500BC
• Based on agriculture
• Modern day Mexico
 Early Urbanization Characteristics

▪ Civilizedpre-industrial, or feudal society, surplus of food because of selective

cultivation of grains – high in yield, rich in biological energy and suited to
long-term storage, & rearing of animal husbandry
▪ The food surplus permits both specialization of labour and the kind of class
structure that can provide the leadership and command the manpower to
develop and maintain extensive irrigation systems, construction of public
buildings, city walls; plow and wheel devices that multiplied both production
& distribution of agriculture surpluses
▪ Harnessed wind force to sail the seas and grind grain, & made use of water
power. Wheat and barely were the cereal crops, bronze was the metal, oxen
plows. The city’s leader was both king and high priest; the peasants’ tribute
to the city god was stored in the temples granaries
Early Urbanization: Characteristics
▪ Technological change and social organization – coastal traders, ship
buildings - far reaching commercial ties
▪ Great silk road (China – Turkmenistan along Oasis)
▪ Expansionism (empires) or colonization
▪ Industrial revolution (1750-1850) in western Europe - improvements
in Agri-implements, farming technique, food preservation, transport
& communication
▪ Improved water supply, effective methods of sewage disposal
allowed more people to congregate in cities
▪ Invention
of the steam engine – key to provide a new and much
more bountiful source of energy, and an impetus to city evolution
Structure of earlier cities-
Mesopotamia
Structure of earlier cities-
Mohenjo daro- planned city
The Silk road- Long Distance trade
and Urban Expansion
Change & Development in Urban
Linkage in Nepal
▪ Traditionally,the mountain ridges were the seats of government
and settlements because for defense, health & preservation of scare
agricultural land
▪ Tarai was uninhabitable due to dense forest and malaria prevalence,
e.g. Chitwan valley was inhabited by local indigenous people (Tharu,
Chepang and Danuwar) they had adjusted to malaria climate
Change & Development in Urban
Linkage in Nepal
▪ Spread of Newar traders and small manufacturers outside the
Kathmandu Valley across the country during the latter half of the
20th century contributed to the growth of a number of towns &
settlements, e.g Newars from Kathmandu immigrated to Pokhara in
1752 at the invitation of the rulers of Kaski to develop trade & build
houses typical of KTM Valley
▪ Early 19th century saw an improvement in transport &
communication based on the administration of the hulak system of
locally organized porterage and the establishment of a series of
staging posts manned by locals and operating under the supervision
of administrative offices situated at strategic points along the trails
Change & Development in Urban
Linkage in Nepal
▪ The early towns were administrative strategic garrisons as well as
staging posts & crucial nodes along the transport network whose
major function was to move arms and ammunitions efficiently & as
swiftly as possible in the difficult hill county to where they were
needed.
▪ Extension of the Indian railway network north to the border of
Nepal around the turn of the 20th century resulted in the further
growth of trading centers and an increasing volume of trade – as a
result, several Tarai border towns established as an important
entrepots for long-distance salt/grain trade & for the export of local
grain surpluses using Indian rail heads.
Change & Development in Urban
Linkage in Nepal
▪ However, the Tarai remained inhospitable, largely due to prevalence
of malaria, cholera, smallpox etc. and most of the trading took place
on the seasonal basis with maximum activity during the winter
when the dangers of infection were least.
▪ The year 1954 marks the beginning of human settlement in
Chitwan, for instance, when the Rapti Valley scheme was launched
and a number of Newars from Bandipur moved down to establish
businesses in Naryangarh, and then the Tarai became attractive for
land hungry hill people for its abundant and productive agricultural
land.
Change & Development in Urban
Linkage in Nepal
▪ The construction of the first highway -Tribhuvan Rajpath in 1956,
followed by east-west trunk highway in the Tarai and many other
roads made people move to different parts, mostly to Tarai areas,
from ridge to valley, particularly along the road to derive advantage
of road facility.
▪ Allthis described the movement of people and change and
development of urban rural linkages in Nepal, and varied impacts on
rural & regional development.
Migration trend in Nepal
Urban Sprawl

• Urban sprawl, also called sprawl or suburban sprawl, the rapid

expansion of the geographic extent of cities and towns, often
characterized by low-density residential housing, single-
use zoning, and increased reliance on the private automobile for
transportation.
• Urban sprawl is caused in part by the need to accommodate a rising
urban population; however, in many metropolitan areas it results
from a desire for increased living space and other residential
amenities.
Urban Sprawl
• Urban sprawl has been correlated with
increased energy use, pollution, and traffic congestion and a
decline in community distinctiveness and cohesiveness.
• In addition, by increasing the physical and environmental
“footprints” of metropolitan areas, the phenomenon leads to the
destruction of wildlife habitat and to the fragmentation of
remaining natural areas.
Effects of Urban Sprawl
• Increase in Public Expenditure
• Increased Traffic
• Health Issues
• Environmental Issues
• Impact on Social Lives
Alternatives To Urban Sprawl
• Uncontrolled sprawling development does not occur in all
communities.
• Several communities in Europe and North America have
been proactive in combating the effects of urban sprawl.
• Some have developed urban growth boundaries beyond which
construction is prohibited or severely restricted, whereas others
limit the influence of urban sprawl through innovative land-use
planning techniques or community cooperation.
Alternatives To Urban Sprawl
Smart Growth
• Among the many alternatives to urban sprawl, nearly all can be
placed under the umbrella of “smart growth” or “New Urbanism.”
• Smartgrowth is a management strategy designed to direct the
growth of urban areas.
• New Urbanism focuses on the physical design of communities to
create livable and walkable neighborhoods
• Onekey tool used by officials of cities and towns employing smart
growth principles are urban growth boundaries
Alternatives To Urban Sprawl
• The most well-known use of the urban growth boundary occurs
in Portland, Oregon.

• Portland’s population increased by 50 percent between 1973 and

2008, new construction was contained within the urban growth
boundary.

• Since that time the city center has undergone extensive renovation
and revitalization, and most areas within the boundary are served
by an efficient mass transit system and bicycle trails.
Alternatives To Urban Sprawl
Transit villages
• Transit villages, whose residential and commercial areas are built
around and served by mass transit networks, might also be linked
with the smart growth movement.
Ecovillages and conservation developments
• Ecovillages are similar to transit villages. However, they may or
may not be served by mass transit. Instead, residents needing to
commute to nearby towns and suburbs participate in carpool and
ride-share programs.
Urban Sprawl
Presentation Topics
1. Mass Transit System – The necessity of today in context of
Kathmandu
2. The role of Intelligent Transport System in developing countries
3. Development of Strategic road networks in Nepal
4. Transportation in Nepal-Roadways, Airways, Railways,
Waterways, Ropeways
5. Issues of urban transport management in Nepal
6. Use of gravity model for describing urban travel
7.Urban Transportation Planning Process
8.Co-ordination between different modes of transportation
9.Rural roads development in Nepal
10. Vehicle routing problems on networks
Model Questions
1. What are the factors related to the emergence of towns or cities
summarized by Harold Carter, 1983? Does these factors holds
good for our context in Nepal? Explain with appropriate
examples.
2. Give a brief explanation on why cities were originated.
Assignment
1. If the government of Nepal decides to develop five new cities,
where would it be more suitable and on what basis? Explain how
these cities should be developed? What would be the effect on travel
pattern ?
Thank You!!