Geography of Canada

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Urban and Rural Landscapes

• Geography of Canada
• www.CraigMarlatt.com/school

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Urban and Rural Landscapes

• Settlement Patterns
• Provinces and Territories
• Where Do You Want to Live?

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Urban and Rural Interactions

• There has been significant movement of people in
  Canada between urban and rural areas over time.
  In most cases, people in rural areas live in a
  hamlet, village, or town. People in urban areas
  live in a suburb, city, or metropolis. These
  different types of places to live are known as
  the urban hierarchy (each one is a larger
  settlement going up the line than the one before
  it).

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Urban Hierarchy

• hamlet village town suburb city
  metropolis

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Urban Hierarchy

• Why are large cities generally located far apart?
• Why are small towns generally located close
  together?
• German geographer Walter Christaller created the
  central place theory, based on the number of
  people needed to keep a store in business.
• The minimum number of customers is known as a
  threshold population.

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Urban Hierarchy

• Does Christallers theory work in the real
  world?
• Lets take a look at a map of southcentral
  Ontario and see if we can apply his theory to the
  settlements that exist here.
• Draw lines on the base map according to this
  legend

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Lake Huron
Lake Ontario
Lake Erie
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Lake Huron
Mississauga
Kitchener-Waterloo
Oakville
Burlington
Cambridge
Lake Ontario
Hamilton
London
Lake Erie
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Urbanization

• Urbanization is the movement of people UP the
  urban hierarchy. This has been the main
  migration pattern of Canadians since the creation
  of our country.
• The chart below illustrates the overall
  percentage of Canadas population living in rural
  and urban areas.

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Urbanization

• Why did people leave the countryside to live in
  the big cities?

• reduced need for farm labour due to farm
  modernization (e.g. tractors)
• improvements in mobility (better transportation
  systems reduces need for local stores)
• consolidation of goods services (most things
  one needs has relocated to urban areas)

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Counter-Urbanization

• Counter-urbanization is the movement of people
  DOWN the urban hierarchy (metropolis? hamlet).
  While our cities are still getting larger, some
  people are choosing to move away from cities.
• In general, there are now three categories of
  people living in rural areas.
• Newcomers - retain ties to urban core, younger,
  well educated, well off, managers/professionals
• Homecomers - young families returning to provide
  rural upbringing to children
• Ruralites have never lived in an urban core

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Counter-Urbanization

• Why are people leaving the cities to live in
  smaller towns and villages?

• health issues, security, community
• back to nature movement (desire to live in the
  country)
• increase in telecommuting (less need to be at an
  office)
• cheaper land and house prices