Stage 5 Changing Places

Governements around the world are slowly but surely creating new plans to ensure the safety of the people. They have already worked on evacuation plans and tranportation for getting people out but, they also need to think about where would people go and how will they adapt to their new enviornment. I'm glad that some places started working on plans to build houses, highways, and churches at a higher elevation, but other countries also need help figuring this stuff out. They need a solution to better secure homes and lives. Everyone needs to work together to prepare for climate change and natural disasters, especially those places where are most likely to hit.

Very cool!

World cities and megacities - Presently , the mega cities of the world have to have a population of at least 10,000. Many cities are very near the minimum to be considered a mega city, but are not quite there. By 2025, the developing world, as we understand it now, is estimated to be home to 29 megacities.

Unit VII

These images of the favelas are both breathtaking and heartbreaking. Breathtaking in the sense that these aerial images show the scale of the entire neighborhood. You begin to get an appreciation for how large these favelas actually are. The amount of people living in this area is remarkable. The image is also extremely heartbreaking. I can only imagine the everyday problems and issue that the residents of these slums face. In the nations so called festive city, I see little reason for these people to celebrate. These are the forgotten people of the brazilin economic boom. They are the ones who the government would not like anyone to know about. Sadness and aw some up my reaction to this photo.

This is an incredible favela village in South America. It shows how densely the population of slums are and how they are built up on the hillside. Most favelas are built on the side if the hills which are the most unstable portions because they can't afford to have a better place in the valley and away from the mudslide and avalanche areas. Great depiction of the slums.

Here's somehing to "Swett" over for those who live along the coast:

"Coastal cities are now living in what Brian Swett calls a “post-Sandy environment.” In this new reality, there is no more denying the specter of sea-level rise or punting on plans to prepare for it. And there is no more need to talk of climate change in abstract predictions and science-speak. We now know exactly what it could look like."

Keep in mind that as globalization expands, urbanizaion does as well, putting more and more people at this type of risk.

Because of china’s one child policy the pool of available women had gone down, this leads many rural women to wish to marry up in economic circumstances leaving many rural men unmarried and once they pass the age of 30 less likely to ever marry.  China’s quandary with unbalanced sexes is a graphic example of what happens when one gender is preferred above anther leading to a reversal within a generation when scarcity of the other sex sets in.  Hopefully this experience will teach China to value both men and women in the future.

The one child policy coupled with a traditionally patriarchal society has created a major problem in China in regards to men finding a wife. The preference towards having a baby boy over having a baby girl has led to abortions and infanticide in order to secure a male child. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a severely larger male population. In China's growing economically aware society, women have all the power to ultimately chose their spouse, often times considering wealth and status over any other characteristics. In a way, the power and fate of China has shifted to the women of marrying age while millions of poorer, working class men are left to live their lives unmarried and alone.  

The more well off Chinese males are more apt to get with woman. Due to the gender imbalance caused by the one child policy of China, it is harder for the men who are born into less fortunate families to get married and that will cause them to lose out on love.

To be a megacity like this, you have to conform to urbanization. There is no possible way to have such a populated and crowed city with farmlands around. This is a place of business yet residential areas, it also is where the marketplaces are and where kids go to school. Megacities need to be a part of an urban society in order for them to stay afloat.

This is a great introduction to the demographic explosion of the slums within megacities.  This is applicable to many themes within geography.   

I can't image or even relate to the experience of living in a place like this. With rivers polluted right outside your house. And those rivers are what people bathe in and wash their clothes. I can't imagine not being able to access clean drinking water or lacking food. The people in Dhaka endure so much their whole lives, a good percentage of them will always live in poverty.

I was very exited by the work being done by Bimal Mendis and Joyce Hsiang.  I hear to much on the news and in conversation about over population, energy shortages and brutal living conditions.  Creating a digital interactive medium is the most efficient way to educate the internet consuming public about issues and developments all over the world.  It reminds me of the blue marble picture taken from Apollo 17, the first full color image of our planet.  This image is considered to be the defining moment that awoke the conservation movement and understanding that the earth is our home and should be treated as such.  I cant help hoping a program like “the city of seven billion” will help people to relies we are all one species and from that develop a move beneficial way of coexisting.

This TED Talk presents some very forward-thinking ideas on urban planning. With cities becoming more and more packed it is important to rethink the way we live and work in cities. Space saving technologies like the fold-up cars and small, changeable apartments seem futuristic but doable. This video challenges the viewer to think about the form and function of cities in new ways. Moving into the future it is important to adapt to the growing congestion in cities by applying new technologies with flexible designs that make cities more livable. I think that the smart apartments are an innovative solution but unlikely to catch on any time soon. I think that the folding cars are more likely to catch on because so many people already use the tiny smart cars and car-sharing services like zip-car are gaining in popularity. 

This video is about how we can design a city that is less crowded. What Kent Larson thinks should happen to a city is basically minimize certain aspects of the city. What that means is adding these new ideas of folding cars,quick-change apartments and other innovations that will lessen the cities population and crowdedness. 

The best energy is the one we don´t consumpt!!

The plight of Chinese workers today is incredibly great. This TED talks explains the situations many in China find themselves in the terrible conditions they must work in. While us in the west see this as unthinkable China's model for success and expansion comes at the cost of their workforce who are subjugated to poor working conditions as very low pay. The real hope for this to change is for the nation as a whole to become wealthy enough that these workers will be able to demand fair wages and work environments. 

These workers do see their jobs as opportunities. This video is a great eye opener for people who tend to fall into the trap of looking at globalization as a system of haves and have nots. 

Migration is what is need in order for the human race to relate to one another and survive. This shows us how we can learn form Migration from a geographical stand point. If you look at the Geography of how and where people move you will it will help you to develop a sense of what is next to come or what is needed to survive.

A very interesting article on changes in landscape, while looking though this I came aross so many little things i never noticed about the topical layout of housing. The main thing that is apparent is density, how closely each house is put together, the amount of land each has as well as the view from the property. Its aslo interesting to see how the design of the area can be made for easy access or be desigend to keep people out with only one enctancte and exit. All of these charasticts make up how the land is desired as well as econimcly priced, which then determins who will be able to live there.

Having the streets interconnected allows for easy  traveling throughout the area.  when there is more density in an area it means there are more houses , more people.  The sprawl has the center on the place and the streets go out around it. The way the streets are made are for different reasons,.

Es un grafic molt atractiu. Interessant per muntar treballs de grup, investigants païssos concrets

The most surprising piece of information in this article is that white Britons are leaving London because of the minorities that are moving in. As of 2013 only 59.9% of London was white, meaning that the miniorities are taking over Ethnic part of London much faster then first anticipated.   

Since immigrants have flocked into London, it appears some of the White population has left the city because of it. The ethnic change is happening very quickly in London and White British population is no longer the majority. As large numbers of immigrants enter London, large numbers of White people leave the city. London is becoming a melting pot rather quickly. 

If white flight is happening in Europe, where are all of its native migrating to? I know for years, there has been a large migrant population from the continent of Africa migrating to Europe, more specifically London, but where in the world could Britain's native be migrating to? Its common to hear of people migrating from rural areas to better neighborhoods, but with the influx of people looking for a better livelihood resemble that of the people living in countries such as India, China and Japan?

Is this the future for the sustainable urban area? Can this be overlaid on our exisiting urban areas? Does it only have relevance in new Ecocities?