Urban Abbreviations

What is Urban?

Urban comes from the Latin “ urbanus ” which means “ belonging to the city ”. Urban is everything that is related to life in the city and to the individuals who inhabit it, as opposed to rural, which is related to the countryside and the countryside.

The urban environment has specific characteristics that contrast with the rural environment, such as: population density, modern infrastructure (public roads, transport, schools, hospitals, etc.), residential, commercial and industrial areas, leisure and entertainment options, cultural offerings, particular habits of life and the hustle and bustle of cities.

The urban way of life is also marked by agitation, stress, food based on fast food and some sociocultural problems such as crime, racial conflicts, poverty, unemployment, among others.

An urban individual has a city lifestyle. In the figurative sense, he is characterized as courteous, affable, well-mannered and civilized.

The urban style of being and living is represented by urban, active, modern people with a good level of education, who are aware of the latest in technology and fashion, and generally consume luxury brands.

What is Urban Zone?

Urban zone is the space occupied by a city, characterized by continuous construction and the existence of urban infrastructure, which comprises the set of public services that enable the population to live.

Urban infrastructure is made up of various elements such as water supply, sewage services, electricity supply, schools, hospitals, road system, policing, leisure facilities, etc.

Cities normally develop from a nucleus that forms the center of the city. In addition, residential neighborhoods, industrial areas, etc. The urban area is not the same in all cities. Each one has its own appearance and differs from the others in terms of size, relief, street layout, activities performed, progress achieved, number of people residing there, etc.

Some urban areas appeared next to seaports, marking the beginning of the exploration of an area. In Brazil, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Recife and other ancient cities marked the places where the Portuguese began to explore Brazilian territory.

In planned cities, the main sectors are clearly separated, as happened in Brasília, which was built on the shores of an artificial lake, to be the administrative center of the country. Administrative activities occupy a central area. Residences, commerce and industry, banks and services are located in special sectors, following the plan that gave rise to the city.

What is an urban network?

Urban network is the set of cities or urban centers that are territorially articulated and that establish different relationships with each other.

Urban networks are formed by cities of different sizes and levels of development and are interconnected due to the flow of people, goods and services.

The concept of urban network can be understood as a mesh of interconnected cities, organized according to an urban hierarchy. At the top of this hierarchy are the cities that have the greatest power of influence over the others.

Urban networks are the result of society’s transformations in the occupation of the territory and the process of demographic growth.

Understanding the dynamics and processes of an urban network is important for governmental, social and economic management and for the elaboration of public policies.

Urban network and urban hierarchy

The hierarchy of cities or urban centers is determined by the order of importance and degree of influence they exert in a given region of the territory. At the highest level of the urban hierarchy will be the largest and most developed cities in a country.

This development is represented by the provision of services – public and private -, by the evolution of economic activities, and by the transport and communication infrastructure.

The configuration of an urban network is what determines the hierarchy between cities and the more the exchanges between them grow, the more they rise in this hierarchy. This means that the importance of cities is given by the number of connections they make with others.

Brazilian urban hierarchy

The IBGE’s methodology for classifying urban centers according to the “City Influence Network” survey, published in 2007, divides cities as follows:

Metropolises

The metropolises are the 12 largest urban centers in the country, exerting a strong influence on each other and on their regions. Metropolises are divided into three hierarchies.

• Great national metropolis:São Paulo
• National metropolis:Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia
• Metropolis:Belém, Fortaleza, Manaus, Salvador, Recife, Curitiba, Goiânia, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre

Regional capital

They are cities with an area of regional influence, they are the destination of the population of other cities in the region for various activities. In this classification are 70 urban centers, divided into three levels of hierarchy.

Sub-regional center

These are cities with a smaller area of operation and less complex management activities. Their external relationships, in general, happen only with the national metropolises. This classification comprises 169 centers, divided into two subcategories.

Zone center

Cities with elementary management functions, operating only in their area and small. In this category there are 556 cities, subdivided into two levels.

Local center

Cities that have influence only within their boundaries and that provide services only to their inhabitants. Correspond to the remaining 4473 cities.

Urban network and urbanization

The formation of an urban network is the result of the urbanization process of a country, which occurs when the urban population grows more than the rural population.

As cities grow, so does the demand for services such as health, education, transport and energy. In this process, both public and private capital will be invested in order to meet these demands.

The places that receive more investments have a better offer of services and better infrastructure.

Brazilian urban network

In Brazil, urbanization began to intensify in the 1930s. With the development of industry and the mechanization of the countryside, a good part of the rural population was forced to migrate to cities in search of employment – this phenomenon is called exodus. rural.

Over the following decades, the economic and political dynamics in the Brazilian territory determined the spatial occupation and the development of cities.

The urban centers that had more prosperous economic activities developed faster and the accumulation of capital in these regions allowed them to become richer.

As Brazil’s urbanization took place in an accelerated and unplanned manner, many regional imbalances were reproduced and intensified over the decades.

Today, the country is configured with an urban network that concentrates the most developed and economically influential cities in the Southeast. While other regions such as the North and Northeast present more precarious conditions of supply of goods and services and infrastructure.

Global cities

There are also global cities, which are represented by the main economic centers of the world, such as Paris, New York, Tokyo and São Paulo.

Global cities, by exerting influence outside the borders of their countries, create urban networks on a global scale. This configuration and interconnection between urban centers at an international level was made possible by the phenomenon of globalization.

Urban network and the spatial division of labor

The urban network reflects the spatial division of labor, that is, the division between functions that different cities perform in a given region of the territory.

More influential cities and higher positions in the urban hierarchy tend to be technological hubs and important financial centers. The more peripheral cities, on the other hand, tend to perform more primary activities, such as agriculture or livestock.

This configuration is the result of the historical process of construction of cities, therefore, in order to understand it, it is necessary to consider the political, economic and social aspects throughout its formation.

In summary, we can conclude that the spatial division of labor portrays how economic activities are distributed in space.

List of Acronyms Related to Urban