GRMD 3305 Transport Geography

Lecture 2
Transportation and
Economic Development
Fieldtrip
Cainiao Smart Gateway
“Relying on the world’s busiest airport HKIA, Cainiao Hong Kong
Smart Gateway is a mega logistics infrastructure facility which will
be Asia’s regional e-Commerce transportation hub for all SMEs in
the world, and become a frontier of Hong Kong's smart logistics
sector.”

 Location: Cainiao Smart Gateway, 8 Chun Yue Road,

Hong Kong International Airport
 Duration: 2.5 hours, including a brief presentation, site
walk, Q & A sessions
 Voluntary participation with a fee of HK$15 per person
 Transportation to and from campus will be provided
 Today’s Plan

01 Development & 02 Transport & Economic

Economic Development Opportunities

03 Geographic 04 Global Level:

Perspectives Development Theories

05 Regional Level: 05 BRI Case Study

Location Theories
 What is Development?
“Development can be defined as improving the welfare of a
society through appropriate social, political, and economic
conditions. The expected outcomes are quantitative and
qualitative improvements in human capital (e.g., income and
education levels) as well as physical capital such as
infrastructures (utilities, transport, telecommunications).”

- Textbook (Rodrigue, 2020)

 What is Economic Development?
 Development refers to a broader
and multidimensional process of
societal progress that
encompasses economic, social,
Development

political, and environmental

aspects.
 Economic development Economic
specifically focuses on the Development

economic aspects of
development.
Transportation &
Economic Opportunities
Transportation Innovation & Economic Cycles

Source: Textbook (Rodrigue, 2020)

Transportation Innovation & Economic Cycles

Source: Textbook (Rodrigue, 2020)

Transportation Innovation & Economic Cycles

Source: Textbook (Rodrigue, 2020)

Transportation Innovation & Economic Cycles

“Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-

Lazare”, Claude Monet, 1877

Source: Textbook (Rodrigue, 2020)

Transportation Innovation & Economic Cycles

Completed Model Ts coming off the assembly line at the

Ford Motor Company, Detroit, c. 1917.
Source: Britannica

Source: Textbook (Rodrigue, 2020)

Transportation Innovation & Economic Cycles

Source: Textbook (Rodrigue, 2020)

Transportation Innovation & Economic Cycles

Source: Textbook (Rodrigue, 2020)

 San Francisco’s Downtown Exodus
 Watch this video:
https://youtu.be/BphbLthD3Ek?si=lOSfJEJqVYuuJEnk
 Find answers to these questions:
 What are the reasons behind the closure of retail stores and
small businesses in San Francisco?
 What factors contribute to San Francisco having the highest
office vacancy rate among US cities?
 What strategies has the city government implemented to
facilitate a turnaround?
Space/Time Convergence (STC)
Days Required to Circumnavigate the Globe

Source: Textbook (Rodrigue, 2020)

Space/Time Convergence (STC)

Source: Textbook (Rodrigue, 2020)

Transportation & Economic Development

Where is Geography?
 Where is Geography?
 Histories and theories are NOT placeless

Europe U.S.

Source: Textbook (Rodrigue, 2020)

 A Geographic Perspective
 The importance of location, place, region, and spatial
relationships in understanding various phenomena.
 The interconnections and interdependencies between
different places and regions
 Theories at different spatial scales
o Global level: Development Theories
o Regional level: Location Theories
Global Level
Development Theory
Modernization
Dependency
Globalization
 Modernization Theory
 Modernization theory in the
1950s and 1960s
 Understand economic and social
development
 Create policies to assist economic
and social transitions in poorer
countries
 Great influence on policy making in
the 1950s to the 1970s
 Modernization Theory
 Walt Rostow’s five stages
of economic growth

Walt Rostow
1916-2003
American Economist

Source: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/rostow-model-modernisation-theory-geography-12655095
 Dependency Theory
Capital could have been used to
 Dependency theory is an upgrade their productive capacity

approach to understanding
Manufactured goods
economic underdevelopment.
Under-
 Underdevelopment is mainly developed Developed
countries countries
caused by the international (Periphery) (Core)
division of labor created by
colonization. Raw materials & cheap labor

 Main argument: The periphery is Result: a vicious cycle that perpetuates

being economically exploited by the division of the world economy
the center. between a rich core and a poor periphery.
 Globalization
 Cambridge Dictionary:
o “The increase of trade around the world, especially by large
companies producing and trading goods in many different
countries.”
o “The development of closer economic, cultural, and political relations
among all the countries of the world as a result of travel and
communication becoming easy.”

 National Geographic:
o “Globalization is a term used to describe how trade and technology
have made the world into a more connected and interdependent
place.”
 Globalization
 First globalization: 1870 – 1914
o New technologies made travel and communication easier

 Second globalization: 1944 – 1971

o International monetary system based on US$ facilitated trade
between capitalist countries

 Third globalization: 1989 – 1990

o The communist Eastern bloc opened to the flow of capital
o The creation of the World Wide Web

 Fourth globalization: ?
 Anti-Globalization Movements
 Labor unions:
o Job displacement as multinational companies move
operations to countries with cheaper labor
 Leftists:
o Economic inequality both within and between countries
o Transform every aspect of life into a commodity
 Right-wing:
o Threatens national economies and national identity
 Concerns on Globalization
 Public health:
o The spread of diseases
 Undesired trade:
o Human trafficking
o Poaching
 Environment:
o Overexploitation of natural resources
o Global warming and climate change
Regional Level
Location Theory
 Location Theory
 The geographic location of economic activities
 Answers the questions: what economic activities are
located where and why
Model of Theory of Central place Bit rent theory
Agricultural industrial theory
Land Use location

Johann
Heinrich von
Thünen Alfred Weber Walter Christaller William Alonso
1783-1850 1868-1958 1893-1969 1933-1999
Prussian German German American
Economist Economist Geographer Economist
 Central Place Theory
 Purpose of settlements: provide
goods and services for the
surrounding market area
 Central places (settlements) and
hinterlands (market areas)
 Hinterland size and shape
determined by the threshold and
range of the central place
 A hierarchical order of central
places (i.e., cities, towns, Source: Textbook

villages) Walter Christaller (1933)

Central Places in Southern Germany
 Central Place Theory
Assumptions:
 Central places are distributed
over a uniform plane of constant
population density and
purchasing power
 Movement across the plane is
uniformly easy in any direction
 Transportation costs have a
linear relationship with distance
 Consumers act rationally to Source: Textbook
Walter Christaller (1933)
minimize transportation costs Central Places in Southern Germany
 In Reality: Urban Primacy
Paris
2.14M

2.7x Bangkok
5.10M

13.1x
Samut Prakan
389K
Marseille
795K
Note: The scales of these two maps
are different (not comparable).
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/cities/france https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/cities/thailand
In Reality: Uneven Regional Economic Development

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/map/US/INC110222
 In Reality: Transportation Costs

Transport Time Cost

mode
Hong Kong to Train
Shanghai
Non-stop flight

Hong Kong to Train

Wenzhou
Non-stop flight
 New Economic Geography (NEG)
 NEG challenges the traditional assumption of perfect
competition and the uniform distribution of economic
activities across space.
 Agglomeration economies
 Transportation costs
 Institutions
Case study
The Belt & Road Initiative (BRI)
 The BRI
 Introduction on the BRI
 From Vox: https://youtu.be/EvXROXiIpvQ?si=gUJnkVUdK_k0ObHm
 Skews left but
not extreme
 Facts & analysis
 Clear
explanatory of
contemporary
issues
 Mostly reliable
 The BRI
 Introduction on the BRI
 From Vox: https://youtu.be/EvXROXiIpvQ?si=gUJnkVUdK_k0ObHm

 Questions to think about:

o How can you apply the theories we learned today to understand
the BRI?
o What is the purpose of the BRI?
o How will the BRI affect the economic development of China and
other BRI countries?
Montenegro’s Highway Project
 Background of Montenegro
 Form into groups of 3-4 people, find out:
1. Where is Montenegro (relative to China and Europe)? Where does
the BRI propose to build the highway? Draw a map on the
whiteboard.

2. What is the basic info of Montenegro? Size, Population, Income,

GDP, per capita GDP, etc. (in comparison to China)

3. What are the pillar industries of Montenegro?

4. What cities are the core cities of Montenegro? Where are they?
Briefly introduce these cities and draw a map on the whiteboard
to illustrate the location of these cities.
Montenegro’s Highway Project

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/ng-interactive/2018/jul/30/what-china-belt-road-initiative-silk-road-explainer
 Montenegro’s Highway Project
 Debate: A “bridge to nowhere” project?
 From DW: https://youtu.be/ntMuc-z2KEk?si=1j7Y6nFluHSgMS-H
 From CGTN: https://youtu.be/XWZOgbrYhsw?si=r0TPzfwz4REfK90n

 Questions to think about:

o What are the pros and cons of this project laid out by the two videos?
o Can transport investment always generate economic returns or boost regional
development?
o How to decide whether a project is a “bridge to nowhere” project?
o What are the social, political, and environmental costs and benefits of transport
projects that need to be taken into consideration?
o Whose perspective are we taking? Montenegro or China? Will there be a win-win
situation?
End of Lecture