Page 357 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

TABLE 13.1 Metropolitan Areas with 10 Million at the juncture of these two major rivers, and just upriver from
Inhabitants or More where the Columbia flows into the Pacific Ocean, Portland
had a strategic location for trade. The city grew as it received,
City, Country Millions of people
processed, and shipped overseas the produce from farms of
Tokyo, Japan 37.2 the river valleys, and as it imported products shipped in from
Delhi, India 22.7 other ports.
Mexico City, Mexico 20.4 We see such geographic patterns again and again with
New York–Newark, United 20.4 major cities. A prime example is Chicago, which grew with
States extraordinary speed in the 19th and early 20th centuries as
railroads funneled through it the resources from the vast lands
Shanghai, China 20.2 of the Midwest and West on their way to consumers and busi-
Sao Paulo, Brazil 19.9 nesses in the populous cities of the East. Chicago became a
Mumbai (Bombay), India 19.7 center for grain processing, livestock slaughtering, meatpack-
Beijing, China 15.6 ing, and much else.
Dhaka, Bangladesh 15.4 Today, powerful technologies and cheap transportation
Calcutta, India 14.4 enabled by fossil fuels have allowed cities to thrive even in
resource-poor regions. The Dallas–Fort Worth area prospers
Karachi, Pakistan 13.9
from—and relies on—oil-fueled transportation by interstate
Buenos Aires, Argentina 13.5
highways and a major airport. Southwestern cities such as Los
Los Angeles–Long Beach– 13.4 Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix flourish in desert regions by
Santa Ana, United States appropriating water from distant sources. Whether such cities
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 12.0 can sustain themselves as oil and water become increasingly
Manila, Philippines 11.9 scarce in the future is an important question.
Moscow, Russia 11.6
Osaka-Kobe, Japan 11.5
Istanbul, Turkey 11.3
Lagos, Nigeria 11.2
Cairo, Egypt 11.2
Guangzhou, China 10.8
Shenzen, China 10.6
Paris, France 10.6
Source: United Nations Population Division, 2012. World urbanization
prospects: The 2011 revision. New York: UNPD.

Across the world today, 23 “megacities” are each home
to 10 million residents or more (TABLE 13.1). Still, such mega- (a) St. Louis, Missouri
cities are the exception. The majority of urban dwellers live in
smaller cities, such as Portland, Omaha, Winnipeg, Raleigh,
Austin, and their still-smaller suburbs.

Environmental factors influence
the location of urban areas

Real estate agents use the saying, “Location, location, loca-
tion,” to stress how a home’s whereabouts determines its
value. Location is vital for urban centers as well. Environ-
mental variables such as climate, topography, and the con-
figuration of waterways influence whether a city will succeed.
Think of any major city, and chances are it’s situated along a
major river, seacoast, railroad, or highway—some corridor for
trade that has driven economic growth (FIGURE 13.2). (b) Fort Worth, Texas
Many well-located cities have served as linchpins in trad-
ing networks, funneling in resources from agricultural regions, FIGURE 13.2 Cities tend to develop along trade corridors.
St. Louis (a) is situated on the Mississippi River near its confluence
processing them, manufacturing products, and shipping those with the Missouri River, where river trade drove its growth in the
products to other markets. Portland got its start in the mid-19th 19th and early 20th centuries. Fort Worth, Texas (b), grew in the
century as pioneers arriving by the Oregon Trail settled where late 20th century as a result of the interstate highway system and a
356 the Willamette River flowed into the Columbia River. Situated major international airport.

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