Cities

City is a large settlement, the inhabitants of which are occupied, as a rule, not in agriculture. Has a developed economy and economy complex. It is a cluster of architectural and engineering structures that ensure the livelihoods of the permanent and temporary population of the city.

Historically, the term comes from the presence of a defensive fence around the settlement - a rampart or wall. In ancient Russia, a city was called any large residential place surrounded by such a fence. Cities served as a center for the development of art and crafts, technical achievements.

Expanding, cities form urban agglomerations. Especially important for countries and continents are the capitals, as well as millionaire cities or millionaire agglomerations (with a population of more than 1 million people), including megalopolises and global cities.

The study of the correct structure of the city is engaged in a special discipline - urban planning, which studies the laws and rules of the structure of cities. Urban planning was born in the bowels of architecture, but over time the cities became large, and for their planning they needed additional knowledge - about hygiene, economics, ecology, transport and much more.

The history of all cities and settlements begins with their foundation, from the moment the first people appeared on their territory until the end of continuous residence. By tradition, the history of settlements is often kept from the moment they were first mentioned in written sources (there are no other ways to transmit more reliable information). Over the period of the city’s existence, the status and its name can repeatedly change. Today, thousands of real ancient and medieval cities discovered by archaeologists are known. Some cities have built new cities, and some continue to have a continuity of life. But history is a narrative of what is known, explored. Therefore, the history of cities is mainly from the first written mention.

Megalopolis is an extremely urbanized, as a rule, spontaneously developing form of urban settlement, arising by the coalescence of several urban agglomerations in countries in which there are regions with large scale urbanization. The term comes from the name of the ancient Greek city Megalopol, which arose as a result of the merger of more than 35 settlements of Arcadia. Literally, a megalopolis in Greek means an oversized city, where the megalo- prefix is ​​an exaggerated amount.

For the first time, the term was used by the Scottish sociologist and urban planner Patrick Geddes in 1915 in the book Cities in Evolution, and by the German sociologist and philosopher Oswald Spengler in 1918 in the book Sunset of Europe. In 1938, the American sociologist and urban planner Lewis Mumford, in his book “The Culture of Cities”, described the megalopolis as the first stage of urban overdevelopment and social decline. Later, it was used in 1954 by the French geographer Jean Gottman (English) Russian. to denote a continuous urban development (over 1000 km long and in some places up to 200 km wide) along the Atlantic coast of the USA - interconnected agglomerations of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington (with a population of 40 million people). The latter is sometimes called "BosVash" (Eng. Bos-Wash) or "Northeast megalopolis" (Eng. Northeast megalopolis).

French geographer Jean Gottman defined the population of the megalopolis at 25 million people. Greek architect and urban planner Konstantinos Doksiadis defined small megalopolises as a cluster with a population of about 10 million people. American economist Richard Florida writes that a mega-region should meet three main criteria: a continuous, illuminated area with more than one center-large city, a population of at least 5 million, and total production of goods and services of more than $ 100 billion. By this definition, there are 40 megaregions in the world. “America 2050”, program of the American organization Regional Planning Association (Eng. Regional Plan Association, RPA), lists 11 mega-regions in the US and Canada.

Separate, even very large agglomerations, for example, the metro areas of Madrid, Paris, Milan and Berlin, cannot be classified as megalopolises.

The main features of a megalopolis

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This mark was set on May 31, 2016.

the linear nature of buildings, stretched mainly along highways and railways (sometimes navigable rivers or sea coasts);

the general polycentric structure, due to the interaction of relatively closely located large cities-centers of agglomerations that form a megalopolis;

A side effect of the formation of modern megalopolises: the violation of the ecological balance between human activities and the natural environment.

In the 1990s, there were over 1030 cities in the Russian Federation, in which 73% of the population lived, as of 2012, 106.1 million people (74% of the population) lived in 1092 cities of Russia.

In Russia, the status of a city is determined by the legislation of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. At the same time, two types of cities are distinguished: regional (regional, regional, republican, etc.) and regional significance. So, for example, in the Volgograd region for the recognition of a settlement as a city of regional significance, the following conditions must be met: a population of at least 10 thousand people; of which workers, employees and members of their families should be at least 85 percent (formal criteria); the settlement should be an industrial and cultural center (evaluation criterion. Accordingly, for cities of regional subordination, the requirements are higher. However, these requirements are not strict, and the mismatch of a settlement to any of the criteria (primarily formal, especially in terms of the number of inhabitants) after obtaining the status of a city does not automatically entail a loss of status, since this requires the adoption of an appropriate regulatory legal act ( regional law). Many Russian cities (208 out of 1092 in 2012) retain their status with a population of less than 12 thousand people. For example, the city of Serafimovich of the Volgograd region in 2013 had a population of only about 9,300 people. The status of a city may correspond to the interests of any political forces, for example, Magas, the capital of Ingushetia, the smallest city in Russia, which is the administrative center of the subject of the Federation, is a tribute to the history of the city or its culture, for example, the city of Chekalin, the smallest city in Russia until the city was given the status of Innopolis , Verkhoturye, Verkhoyansk. Their city status is associated with historical factors and population changes. At the same time, Russia has a little less than 200 rural settlements, as well as a little more than 200 urban-type settlements with a population of more than 10 thousand people.

In cities, a special microclimate is forming. The air temperature in cities is always slightly higher than the average temperature of the surrounding area. Heating of the urban atmosphere occurs due to combustion of fuel, heating of buildings and their subsequent heat transfer. Snow melts earlier in cities, plants turn green, often migratory birds, usually wintering in other parts of the world, “forget” their instincts and stay in the city for the winter.

Cities are the most important sources of environmental pollution due to both industrial production and road transport. Residential development reduces wind speed, which contributes to the concentration of pollutants in the air. The growth of urban areas and suburban settlements leads to a reduction in valuable agricultural land and forests.

The Habitat report, the UN Human Settlements Program, published in 2012, called for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in cities. To do this, it is proposed:

carry out energy saving measures;

develop public transportation as opposed to private cars;

to build multi-storey buildings, as the territories with the densest development have a lower level of greenhouse gas emissions per person.

The project of a city located in the Abu Dhabi Emirate of the United Arab Emirates, called the Masdar Initiative, created by the British company Foster and Partners, involves the construction of the world's first city, provided with solar energy, other renewable energy sources and having a sustainable ecological environment with minimal carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, as well as a system for the complete processing of urban waste.

City - this word in the Bible denotes any place of human settlement, both large and small, so there were many cities in ancient Palestine. In Nav 15, in the inheritance of Judah, which from north to south occupied no more than 70 km and from west to east, no more than 60 km, only 92 cities were listed by name except those in Art. 45-47 are simply called cities. Thus, in this inheritance, each city had to defend from another on average no more than 2-3 km. Some cities were apparently very small (Court 9.51) and most of them were not completely protected, but some were very well protected by walls, towers, moats, inaccessible rocks. Such were Jerusalem, Jericho, Lachis, Tire, and others (according to Josephus Flavius ​​Nebuchadnezzar 15 years besieged Tire and could not take it, after which he went to Egypt to rob his tortured troops-Ezek 29.18).

The first cities built by people were intended for the self-glorification of man (Genesis 4.17; 11.4-9). In the cities built by Nimrod (Gen. 10.10-12), idolatry first arose and spread. Cities have always been particularly distinguished by this and their general character has not changed so far. Jews did not live in cities for a long time and did not strive for it (Neh 11.2), but when they settled in them, they became as idolaters as other nations (4C 17.7-8).