Urban Regions : Ecology and Planning Beyond the City

Built systems 175

Distance from city center to nearest major transportation terminals (km)

London

• 
  

Berlin+Rome+Bucharest+Stockholm+Barcelona+Nantes

• 
  

Chicago+San Diego/Tijuana+Philadelphia+Ottawa

• 
  

Edmonton

• 
  

Por

tland

• 
  

Atlanta

• 
  

Mexico City

• 
  

Santiago

• 
  

Brasilia+Tegucigalpa

• 
  

Iquitos

• Cairo

*

Nairobi

+

Bamako+East London

• 
  

Abeche

• 
  

Beijing

**

MoscowSeoul

*

Te h r a n

*

Sapporo+Ulaanbaatar

• 
  

Erzurum

• 
  

Kagoshima

• 
  

Bangkok

• 
  

Kuala Lumpur+Cuttack

• 
  

Samarinda

• 
  

Canberra

• 
  

Rahimyar Khan

• 
  

Europe North

America

Latin

America

Africa West-East

Asia

South Asia-

Australia

Avera

ge

Geographic area, with cities from large to small population

90

70

30

50

10

0

= Shipping/ferryport

= Nearest airport

= Second nearest airport

105 128

Figure 7.6Distance from city center to nearest coastal port and two nearest airports

relative to geography and city size. 10 km = 6.2 mi. See Figure 7.2 caption.

Cropland is the primary land use in most urban regions so land lost to airport
construction, transportation, and associated facilities is normally insignificant
regionally. Typically built areas around an airport grew up around it. Runway
and infrastructure expansion of a major city or military airport is a strong force,
so the airport should be located distant from key natural and cultural resources.