Unit 6 addresses the origins and influences, particularly site and situation, of urban settlements as students explore cities across the world and the role of those cities in globalization. They examine the spatial distribution of the world’s largest cities, comparing them across regions and analyzing patterns of connectivity and accessibility. Within cities, students identify patterns of development and make inferences about their economic and political influences at regional, national, and international levels of scale.
Students examine the hierarchy of urban settlements on the landscape, applying the rank-size rule and central place theory at regional and national scales to evaluate mobility patterns and economic and political relationships. Statistics such as census data are used to reveal the challenges of urban places, including density, sprawl, demands of infrastructure, and mobility. Students examine patterns of change over time and modern challenges to sustainability from urban growth. On both local and global scales, they look at the ways that cities are improving sustainability through new approaches to growth, such as mixed-landuse zoning, smart growth policies, and public transportation–oriented development at local and international scales.
This unit reinforces what students learned in the units on politics and culture as they consider the role cities play as key centers of global markets, culture, and politics and contrast the roles of urban and rural areas.