Tim Jones' Geo Blog: Urban Renew and Decay

Define the following terms and include an example of each and explain how your example relates the word:
Aesthetics -
Aesthetics are the way in which something looks and/or is perceived.
The Beijing Opera House (also known as 'the egg')
The Beijing Opera House is an example of something that was designed for aesthetics. They made the opera house with the lake around it so it would look whole and egg shaped.
Safety -
Having a reduced risk of injury, illness, danger or loss of life.
The Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan
This building was made as a safe structure to withstand the frequent earthquakes that occur in Taiwan. Buildings like these have begun to be made in countries vulnerable to earthquakes such as New Zealand.
Slums -
A slum is a thickly populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, inhabited by poor people.
One of the largest slums in the world, located in Mumbai
The amount of decay and terrible conditions that people who live in slums live with is practically equal to living on the street. Their houses run next to sewers and the people inside the places are often exposed to vicious diseases.

Decay -
Urban decay is a process by which a city, or a part of a city, falls into a state of disrepair and neglect. It is characterized by depopulation, economic reconstructing, property abandonment, high unemployment fragmented families, political disenfranchisement, crime, and desolate urban landscapes.
An example of urban decay.
This picture, showing an example of urban decay, portrays the amount of waste can be produced from it. After being abandoned, parts begin to weather and infestations and creatures take over.
Reconstruction and renewal -
Areas devastated by war or invasion challenge urban planners. Resources are scarce. The existing population has needs; buildings, roads, services and basic infrastructure like power, water and sewerage.
A city plan for Kabul (post-war)
After the wreckage of war, many towns needed to re-established lost homes and resources. Kabul is an example of the planning of the rebuilding of a city area.
Transport -
Transport is to carry, move, or convey from one place to another.
A busy train station.
With a growing population, transport becomes more and more necessary in society's day to day lives, but is the Australian government doing enough to control the influx of people travelling by public transport?
Suburbanization -
To suburbanize is to make a place look more like suburbia as well as being used as a suburb.
By planning an area, suburbanization can be controlled and specified to a particular area. This picture shows the plan of a suburb created away from urban areas.
Environmental factors -
Environment protection and conservation are of utmost importance to many planning systems across the world.
Even though urbanization is almost inevitable with the amount of population increase, by keeping certain environmental factors, area and city planners can control and lessen the amount of pollution and environmental impact they cause.
Light and sound -
Light and sound can affect the distance from houses and their neighbours as well as the distance in width of the street.
They flight path of airplanes can affect where a house might be built as well as how the house would be built. For example; including double glazed windows to reduce noise pollution into the house.