Session 1: Introducation to Urban Environmental Geography

Urban Environmental Geography - Session Intro01 - January 11, 2010 Lecture Plan

Geog3330, Urban Environmental Geography

How physical environment affects urbanization

And

How urbanization affects the physical environment.

an Earth Systems Approach

By the end of this session you should:

(1) Have a good sense what this course is about and be headed toward the goal of evaluating urban environmental geographies anywhere, anytime.

(2) Be able to launch Google Earth..

FIRST PART OF TODAY'S SESSION ... welcome and why we're meeting in Marriott 1110

SECOND PART... Exhortations (goals, importance, mission, why take this course)

THIRD PART... Urban Environmental Geography - trends of 20th and 21st centuries

FOURTH PART… Logistics

FIFTH PART… Google Earth... find Marriott Library

SIXTH... make sure you turn in the three sheets of HW01 -- turn in by January 15 for full credit, just to turn them in, not graded.

FIRST PART: welcome

Introductions -- GA on UofU LINK

Your... name, major, a city you might like to live in when you're 35 years old; -or- a city that interests you and why.

I'll personalize concepts and use Salt Lake, Moab, and Park City in lectures.

We'll use Google Earth... and that's why we're meeting in this room.

SECOND PART: Exhortations

This course should increase your knowledge and skills to better prepare you to make a difference. Meaning it should empower you with respect to all issues concerning the environment. LINK

THIRD PART: Urban Environmental Geography trends

A debate  is raging… raging… about rates of environmental change. How much, how fast, what consequences, what causes.

You’re the generation that it will impact the most, probably… and you’re the generation that can influence the trajectory the most. Caveat… my generation has messed up.

Mackenzie:  (Population Increases) LINK x (Increased per capita consumption) LINK = detrimental impact to environment

DESIRES FOR PER CAPITA CONSUPTION ... According to the Minerals Information Institute ... Every American Born in 20xx will consume: Source: www.mii.org ... COURSE LINK: MMI-baby

Earth is a system. Everything impacts everything. And that’s the theme and approach of this course.

McNeill (LINK to e-reserve Marriott library) relates the history of environmental effects of urbanization during the 20th Century. GA summary of McNeill

1. Energy is hard to store.
2. Stored energy limited human’s impact on the world until the 19th Century.
3. Fossil fuels are abundant.
4. The costs of energy consumption are (a) pollution; (b) social inequalities
5. Population migrations have had as much impact to the environment as population growth
6. Population growth and migrations have resulted in bigger cities (and vice versa, feedback loop).
7. The footprint of cities goes way beyond their physical boundaries.

GA summary of environmental impacts on urbanizatin on subsystems of Earth sytems

SUPPORTING littany of graphics of trends

POPULATION INCREASES… Source: MacKenzie, chapter 8, figure 1 LINK: Mac8.01_HumanPopGrowth

RATE of INCREASE … world population, number of years to add a billion, Source: http:/www.prb.org/Content/NavigationMenu/ …LINK: EngPRB-Web-TimeToAddBillion

 POPULATION DENSITY GLOBALLY ... Source: WRI LINK: WRI-Web-WorldPopDen

 DEVELOPED and LESS DEVELOPED NATIONS ... Source: PRB_Library/World_Population_More_Than_Just_Numbers …LINK EngPRB-Web-WorldPopGrow

UNEVEN DISTRIBUTIONS... by age and sex Source: http://www.prb.org/Content/NavigationMenu/PRB/PRB_Library?World_Population_More_Than_Just_Numbers …LINK EngPRB-Web-PopPyramids

 UNEVEN DISTRIBUTION ... by location. World population within 100km of the coasts…Source: WRI... LINK: WRI-Web-WorldPopWithin100

 UNEVEN DISTRIBUTION of population, energy production, energy consumption... Source: http://www.prb.org/ContentNavigation... MoreThanJustNumbers... LINK EngPRP-PatternsWorldEnerj

  URBANIZATION… Percentage urban population by world region. Source: http://www.prb.org/Content/NavigationMenu/PRB/PRB_Library/ …LINK EngPRP-WorldUrbanIncrease

 LARGEST CITIES in the world http://www.prb.org/Content/NavigationMenu LINK EngPRP-WorldsLargestCity

 RURAL vs URBAN of US ... CensusBureau U.S. Population 1790-1990. LINK CensusUrbanRural

 UTAH is a highly urban state in spite of open country. Source: From USCensus webpage, no key for densities. LINK: UT-Pop-FromCensusNoKey

 VEHICLE ownership per household 1970-1995... Source Gillham,2002 from USDoT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 1995 LINK: Gillham2002-Fig403

 ROADWAY and TRANSIT Annual expenditures in US ... Source Gillham, 2002, adaped from McCann, Kienitz, DeLille ...LINK: Gillham2002-Fig305

METABOLIMS of a city...  What a US city of a million people takes in and puts out. Source: 2001 BrooksCole Publishing – Peach Web ... LINK: PeachWeb-CityOfAMillion

FOURTH PART: COURSE LOGISTICS ... how to understand diversities of urban settings... how physical environments affect urban settings and how urban settings affect environment = Urban Environmental Geography

GEOG3330 takes an EARTH SYSTEMS APPROACH… more on that next time.

HANDOUTS - logistics

Course syllabus (also on this web site and will be on WebCT Blackboard);

Table of assignments (also in syllabus and on this web site LINK and will be on WebCT /Blackboard); and

Detailed course schedule (abbreviated in syllabus and on this web site LINK and will be on WebCT / Blackboard)

NOTE! Make sure you know how to visit this web site. Its url is on your syllabus and here it is again: http://www.earthscienceeducation.org

AND know how to find course information on WebCT/Blackboard. If you're new to WebCT/Blackboard, first go to this site and set up your computer

https://online.uen.org/webct/entryPage.dowebct?insId=257461621151&insName=University%20of%20Utah&glcid=URN:X-WEBCT-VISTA-V1:ca7be239-cd7f-e253-01ab-a779aaa87069

FIFTH PART: Google Earth

HW01 - hand in the three sheets (yellow = pre-course self assessment; white = about cities; green = feedback on lecture)

CONSIDER -- signing up for your lab leadership session (sign up sheet is with me).

{Problems viewing this site? Please contact genevieve.atwood@geog.utah.edu}

{This page modified on January 8, 2008 - Modifications will continue through Spring semester}