Good, bad, and interesting patterns in urban regions 305friend picks a different type which promptly squirts you in the eye. Then the
person behind you chooses a third unusual ball, and begins pondering it. The
hostess knew all along which balls were good, bad, and interesting -- and now
you dotoo.
So it is with urban regions. The beneficial patterns, the detrimental ones,
and those still worth evaluating for pros vs. cons are reasonably clear. There is
no need for society to rediscover wheels around every city.
The selected patterns listed below are mainly grounded in the Color Figures
of Chapter5,the nature--food--water graphs of Chapter6,the built-systems--built-
areas graphs of Chapter7,the urbanization attributes and analyses of Chapter
8,theprinciples laid out in Chapter9,the case study results of Chapter 10 ,and
many broader concepts of other chapters. Further patterns crowd the pages of
this book. The astute reader will enjoy exploring these foundations and discov-
ering more patterns of the good, the bad, and the interesting.
Good patterns
Benefits seem to clearly outweigh shortcomings for the following char-
acteristics, which are grouped in several categories for convenience. Cities listed
are illustrative, and more representative or more extreme examples can normally
be found in the rich mixture of cities around the globe.
Metro area characteristics, city, and urban regionUrban-region area correlated rather closely with a province, state, or nation.
Berlin, Singapore
City relatively close to several major landscape types that provide diverse
resources.Abeche, Denver (USA), Kota (India), Kuala Lumpur,
Madrid, Rahimyar Khan, San Diego/Tijuana, Santiago, Seville
(Spain)
City on border of, rather than within, large valuable land-cover types.Beijing,
Ottawa, Nairobi, Salt Lake City (USA)
City located by storm-protected coastal bay.Bandar Lampung (Indonesia),
Boston, Buenos Aires, Edinburgh, Kagoshima, Lagos, Lisbon, San
Diego/Tijuana, Seattle (USA), Sydney, Tunis
Relatively compact metropolitan area.Bucharest, Birmingham (UK),
Christchurch (New Zealand), Edmonton, Manado (Indonesia),
Nantes, Santiago, Winnipeg (Canada)
Planned city that has retained most key characteristics despite extensive growth.
Canberra
Numerous small greenspaces in metro area.Atlanta, London, Portland,
Philadelphia, Seoul