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Scooped by Seth Dixon onto Geography Education |
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Divers on Australia's Great Barrier Reef recently snapped rare pictures of a wobbegong, or carpet shark, swallowing a bamboo shark whole.
The diversity of life on this planet and the ecosystems which such creatures live in is something that continually leaves me in awe at the wonders of the natural world.
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"Schools used to be the heart of a neighborhood or community. Children and not a few teachers could walk to class, or to the playground or ball field on the weekend. This was relatively easy to do, because the schools were placed within, not separated from, their neighborhoods. They were human-scaled and their architecture was not just utilitarian, but signaled their importance in the community. Now it has become hard to tell one from a Walmart or Target." What better way to demonstrate the concepts of urban sprawl, automobile-dependent city planning and economies of scale than by analyzing the very geographic context of our schools themselves? This is a very nicely arranged photo essay that most could spark conversation and would foster some discussion on how best to plan neighborhoods and spatially arrange the city. Tags: transportation, planning, sprawl, education, scale. Delete the scoop?
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A new study suggests vehicular travel affects children's ability to navigate their neighborhood and connect to their community.
We learn about the places around us by exploring. Literally our mental map is formed by making choices (in part through trial and error) and that process strengthens our spatial perception of the neighborhood. Research is showing that kids with a 'windshield perspective' from being driven everywhere are not able to draw as accurate maps as children for who walk and bike their neighborhood. The built environment and the transportation infrastructure in place play a role in developing spatial thinking skills for young minds.
This is a compelling article with some important implications. What are the ramifications for geographers? City planners? Educators? Families moving to a new neighborhood? Delete the scoop?
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In this feature length film Gary Burns, Canada's king of surreal comedy, joins journalist Jim Brown on an outing to the suburbs.
This 2006 documentary is a critical look at suburbia that has comments from suburbanites interspersed with planners, real estate agents, experts and urban academics. 
Chris St. Clair's comment,
April 27, 2012 2:03 PM
I've showed this movie once in a while during the Urban unit and the kids enjoy it. "Edutainment"
Seth Dixon's comment,
April 27, 2012 7:09 PM
It seems a mixture of vignettes, with some academic founding mixed in. Warning: There was one F-bomb in the movie.
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The past century has been defined by an epic migration of people from rural areas to the city. In 2008, for the first time in history, more of the Earth's population was living in cities than in the countryside.
This image gallery is designed "to present images from space [that] track the relentless spread of humanity." The 'slide bar' in the middle allows the viewer to scroll between before and after images of major metropolitan areas that have experienced dramatic growth in the last 10-30 years. The attached images is on Dubai, UAE. Notice the man-made islands, especially the 'archipelago' in the shape of the world that is 2.5 miles off the coast of Dubai. Delete the scoop?
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"If you think American cities are sprawling now, just wait until 2025. In that time, the U.S. population will grow by 18 percent but the amount of developed land will increase 57 percent. Up to 9.2 percent of the lower 48 could be urbanized by then. And while that number includes cities and the infrastructure to support them—roads, rail, power lines, and so on—that number does not include land impacted by farming, logging, mining, or mineral extraction." 
's comment, February 19, 2012 5:16 PM
The US has already fallen behind most other first world nations in public transportation. The reliance on the automobile, which enabled the growth of our suburbs, needs to be slowly phased out, and major rail lines need to be laid to serve as the backbone for our future urban/suburban transportation network. Rail is FAR cheaper than cars. Cars, in a sensible future, will be thought of as transport for short trips. Hopefully we will be mainly electric with those 50 years from now as well. It is good for the environment and good for our pocketbook. Classic win/win.
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We're often told that Detroit has been abandoned—but the metro area is stable, and addressing sprawl is still a challenge...
Population size and physical size...not always as correlated as one might assume in this age of urban sprawl. This details some of the difficulties in revitalizing abandoned sections of a city when the economic motive to expand outward is so easy. Delete the scoop?
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This is an amusing, but still insightful way to discuss habitat encroachment, development, conservation and the economic utility of expansion. Delete the scoop?
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Projections of urban growth indicate areas where biodiversity is at high risk. The AAG Smart Brief is a fantastic source of geographic news. This is what they said about this article: "Areas such as tropical Africa and eastern China are expected to be hot spots of urbanization during the next several years, according to researchers, who used satellite imagery and other data to project future urban expansion through 2030. 'We're not forecasting population, we're forecasting the expansion of urban space,' said Yale University geographer Karen Seto. Their efforts could be used to assist conservation initiatives, Seto noted." Tags: AAG, urban, sprawl, land use, urban ecology, biogeography, unit 7 cities, environment. Delete the scoop?
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Three years after the recession officially ended, Census county population estimates show Americans are staying put or moving to cities.
The recession and foreclosure crisis really hurt many suburban families and the values of suburban homes. This interactive map is helps students to notice the patterns that shape the changing demographic patterns connected to urbanization. Delete the scoop?
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In The Wall Street Journal, Wendell Cox writes that government planners intend to herd millions of new state residents into densely packed urban corridors. It won't save the planet but will make traffic even worse.
This is a article/video against many of the regulations that embody the 'Smart Growth' movement that would serve as a good ideological counterweight to many of the other sources that are available. Would more dense neighborhoods create transit problems? Delete the scoop?
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This NASA-produced timelapse video of Landsat data shows the spatial spread of the Las Vegas metropolitan area from 1975-2010. These are not true color images, but false color that shows the near infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum as red in the image. Geospatial technologies are once again, shown as invaluable in our analysis of the urban environment. 
Nicholas Rose's comment,
September 4, 2012 12:06 PM
As I look at this video, I noticed that as the years go by there is more urban sprawl in Las Vegas. The reason is because more rich people live in Las Vegas and more hotels and casinos are built to increase the city's economic development. According to the NASA timelapse, the City of Las Vegas is increasing in size and population.
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More than 1 million of Delhi’s residents have been displaced through demolition of slum neighborhoods over the last 10 years.
www.thisbigcity.net is a great source for information on urban geography, but this particular post was selected because it highlights two merging issues in today's megacities: the rise of automobile culture dictating urban planning policies as well as the dilemma surrounding squatter settlements around the globe. Delete the scoop?
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The Beginning of the End for Suburban America...
A provocative title, but are our cities and urban settlement patterns shifting? Is sprawl going to be curtailed by cultural, environmental and economic forces?
Seth Dixon's comment,
September 15, 2011 1:18 PM
Thanks for "re-scooping." I think that while cities will continue to expand, the size of homes cannot continue to expand indefinitely.
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Not only is the ocean full of diverse wildlife but the fact they have been able to camoflouge with their enviroment is amazing. Australia seems to be the home of many different types of wildlife on land and in the ocean. It would be interesting if there could be a google earth view of australias coral reefs and wildlife. - M. Carvajal
The diversity in the ocean is amazing. The sharks are just beautiful and it is amazing the can blend in with their enviroment