The World City: overview

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The World City overview
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Urban Geography Urban Systems
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Ranking of Census MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical
Areas) of U.S., 2005 MSAs with populations over 2
million (right) 24 more MSAs have pops between 1
and 2 million 47 more between 500,000 and 1
million 74 more between 250,000 and 500,000 169
more between 100,000 and 250,000
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Primate City

• One dominate city in a country or region.
• There is usually not an obvious second city
• Example - Paris France - 8.7 million next city
  Marseille - 1.2 million

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World Urban System
Plot these cities to see where the worlds ten
largest cities were located in 1950. Symbolize
each with a circle ?.
Top Ten Cities,1950 (estimated from various
sources) City
Pop (in millions) Lat Long New York,
USA 12.3 40 N 74 W London, UK 8.7 52 N
0 Tokyo, Japan 6.9 35 N 135 E Paris,
France 5.4 49 N 2 E Moscow, USSR 5.4 56 N
37 E Shanghai, China 5.3 31 N 121 E Essen (Ruhr),
Germany 5.3 51 N 7 E Buenos Aires,
Argentina 5.0 34 S 58 W Chicago, USA 4.9 41 N
87 W Calcutta (Kolkata), India 4.4 22 N 88 E
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Plot these cities on the world map to see where
the ten worlds most populated cities will be in
2015. Symbolize each with a square ?.
Top Ten Cities, 2015 (estimated from various
sources) City
Pop (in millions) Lat Long Tokyo,
Japan 28.9 35 N 135 E Mumbai (Bombay),
India 26.2 19 N 73 E Lagos, Nigeria 24.6 6 N
3 E São Paulo, Brazil 20.3 23 S 46 W Dhaka,
Bangladesh 19.5 23 N 90 E Karachi,
Pakistan 19.4 25 N 69 E Mexico City,
Mexico 19.2 19 N 99 W Shanghai, China 18.0 31
N 121 E New York, USA 17.6 40 N 74 W Kolkata
(Calcutta), India 17.3 22 N 88 E
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Place an X on each city as it is named on the
following 12 lists. Each list identifies the top
5 cities as ranked according to its provision of
certain services (Taylor 2005). As cities are
named more than once, just keep adding more Xs.
Banking
London New York Tokyo Hong Kong Singapore
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Producer Services

• London
• New York
• Hong Kong
• Paris
• Tokyo

9
Management ?

• New York
• London
• Paris
• Madrid
• Stockholm

10
Law ?

• London
• New York
• Frankfurt
• Hong Kong
• Washington DC

11
Insurance ?

• London
• New York
• Hong Kong
• Los Angeles
• Paris

12
Advertising ?

• New York
• London
• Hong Kong
• Toronto
• Sydney

13
Media ?

• London
• New York
• Paris
• Los Angeles
• Milan

14
Architecture/Engineering ?

• London
• New York
• Beijing
• Singapore
• Shanghai

15
United Nations Agencies ?

• Geneva
• Brussels
• Addis Ababa
• Cairo
• Bangkok

16
National Diplomatic Missions ?

• Washington DC
• New York
• London
• Tokyo
• Paris

17
Humanitarian Environmental NGOs ?

• Nairobi
• Brussels
• Bangkok
• London
• New Delhi

18
Scientific Research ?

• London
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco
• Boston
• Basel
• Geneva
• New York

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World cities are not simply the worlds largest
cities. Rather, they are the control centers
for the global economy, places where critical
decision making and interaction take place with
regard to global economic, cultural, and
political issues (Knox and Marston 2001, p.
426).
WORLD CITIES
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World Dominant Cities
21
US Dominant Cities