Urban Planning and Design I

INTRODUCTION

Prepared By Mengistu Mekonnen

January, 2021

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 Contents of the Introduction
Defining
 Urban
 Terms interchangeably used with Urbanization

Settlement History
Functional Specialization theory
Areas of City Origin

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 Urban
“Urban” …Defined
No universally accepted definition about what the word

“Urban” denotes.
Instead different countries uses different parameters to

define it.
 Population density
 Occupation- should be non-agricultural activities.
 Provisions of infrastructure and facilities
 Currently institutionalization is being considered as an additional
parameter
 All or some at the same time
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 Urbanization

Urbanization- it is a process by which a

population becomes concentrated in cities/urban

areas.
It takes place in either of two distinct ways.
 Increase in the number of urban places
 Increase in the size of the population which are
actually engaged in non-agricultural activities.

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 What is Urbanization? cont’d
The degree or level of urbanization (U)
U = Pu * 100
Pt
Where PU= urban pop. & Pt= Total pop.
An increase in the degree to which the proportion
of a nation or regions populations is to be found
concentrated in towns and cities.
It is thus a measure of the relative growth of urban
populations within a given territory
Level of Urbanzn Vs Rate of Urbanzn??
 Terms interchangeably used with Urbanization

Terms that are frequently used, interchangeably with

the word urbanization

1. Urban Growth
Absolute growth of urban population or physical

expansion of urban fabric.

 But the two need not occur together and are separate processes.
For e.g. urban growth may continue while Urbanization declines
if the total of the region’s pop grows at a faster rate than its urban
population.
 Terms interchangeably used with Urbanization

2. Urbanism
Refers to the urban way of life or style.

It is associated with the sociological concept to the rural-

urban dichotomy.
Urbanism ≠ urbanization and urban growth.

Eg. High rate of urban in LDC= ruralization of towns

3. Urbane
Way of life= civilized, sophisticated, modern, elegant

etc.
 Someone from city –town Manship
 Terms interchangeably used with Urbanization

4. Urban Development
It refers to the level of service provided which brings about

better standard of living.

The development may be economical, social, technological

and the physical environment in order to alleviate the urban

problems.
It covers aspects of urbanization, urban growth and urbanism

why?
It involves fundamental changes in the economic structure

and human behavior.

 Settlement History
To analyze and understand factors which contributed to the

present patterns of urban growth and structures = we have to

trace back some historical perspectives.
Development of first villages
 A number of pre-conditions which had to be met before the

emergence of permanent village settlements are:

 There should be a physical environment that should support
plant and animal life. To boost agricultural surplus!!
 The development of relatively advanced technology in
agriculture. E.g. Large irrigation works
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 Settlement History

The Theory of The Origin of Cities

Many theories ! The most of these theories is the

Functional Specialization theory.

This theory mainly attempts to synthesis the
commercial conditions which lead to the rise of
cities.

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 Functional Specialization theory
The theory emphasizes three conditions which must

be present before cities can emerge in any regions .

These are:
1. There must be a surplus of food production.
2. There must be a small group of people who are able

to exercise the power over the group of the producers.

3. There must be a class of traders and merchants

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 Functional Specialization theory
 The importance of the conditions
 1st Condition= to feed for those who are not

engaged in agriculture.
 2nd Condition = to have an administrative and

political group that exercise control over specialist

producers.
 3rd condition= stress the importance of exchange

of specialization

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 Areas of City Origin

No agreement at present among scholars as

whether urban areas originated in single place with

subsequent dispersal to other areas or there was an
independent origin in different areas.
There are two points of argument regarding the

areas of city origin and dispersal of urban life.

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 Areas of City Origin
The first argument is that cities originated in fertile

crescent of Mesopotamia and that the concept of

city formation was diffuse from this area to other
places.
Basis of the argument:
A number of deities, great temples
A central authority and division of labor
The beginning of writing and calendar
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 Areas of City Origin… cont’d

The second argument takes the opposite view.

It argues that cities originated independently in

different regions without external influence.

Basis of this argument
Communication and transportation between

various areas- migration among cities were

impossible.

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 Areas of City Origin… cont’d

So, according to this argument the first cities

were originated in:

MESOPOTAMIA

EGYPT

INDUS VALLEY
HAWANG HO VALLEY
MESOAMERICA

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 THANK YOU!

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