Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mr. Marsh and I'm here today to teach you all about Liverpool structure and functions.

So grab everything that you need for today's lesson and let's get going.

So by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to use a model of city structure to describe characteristics of different areas of Liverpool.

There are four key terms for today's lesson, and those are Central Business District or the CBD, inner city, suburbs and the rural-urban fringe.

Now the CBD refers to commonly the centrally located commercial and business district in a city with a dominance of offices and shops.

The inner city refers to an area which is located between the city centre and the suburbs, and often an area of high density terraced housing.

Suburbs refers to housing areas located at the edge of the city centre reflecting the outward growth of the city.

And finally, the rural-urban fringe refers to the outer edge of a city where it merges with the countryside.

There are two learning cycles for today's lesson, and we're gonna start with the first learning cycle, which is all about the city structure and characteristics.

Now, cities can seem extremely chaotic, especially when walking through them, but they're actually very structured places and you tend to pass through defined areas as you move from the city centre towards the edges.

For example, at the very centre of a city, we have the CBD, the Central Business District.

Following this we have the inner city.

After this, we tend to have the suburbs, and then finally the rural-urban fringe, which then moves out into the countryside after.

A model though is not an exact representation of reality, but a simplification designed to really help us understand the sort of functionality and structure of an urban environment.

Now a transect, which you can see on the image in front of you, is a straight line which cuts through an environment and has identified points in different areas which are selected for observation.

And you can see those selected points in each of those different areas.

Now, we are really looking for different things here, like what is the average age of the buildings, what is the dominant land use, is it retail, is it industrial, is it housing? We're also looking at what is the building density like.

And finally, what is the environmental quality like along that transect.

It's a time now for a learning check.

And this one says, "Starting in the CBD and moving towards the edge of a city, what is the correct sequence of the areas normally found in cities?" Now you have four options on the screen in front of you.

What I'd like you to do is pause the video here whilst you read through those four options and select what you consider to be the correct answer.

And the correct answer was D.

That's right.

We start at the very centre of the city, which is the CBD, then we move into the inner city, then suburbs, and finally the rural-urban fringe.

So really, really well done if you were able to select D as the correct answer.

Another learning check says, "True or false? A model is an exact representation of reality." Once again, pause the video here whilst you consider as to whether the statement is true or false.

And the statement is false.

Now, once again, can you please pause the video whilst you consider as to why this statement is false? And the reason it's false is because yes, a model is not an exact representation of reality, but it is just a simplification designed to help us understanding the structure.

So really well done if you were able to get those two correct answers.

Now, the modal building age tells us the most common age of buildings in an area.

From this geographers can tell how long ago an area was developed.

So the expected pattern along a city transect that you saw before is this, that in the CBD we will find mainly modern, but also some very historical buildings, perhaps dating back to the time when the settlement was first built.

We'll also find significant pre 1900 buildings in the inner city.

In the suburbs we would find significant post 1900 buildings.

And then finally, in the rural-urban fringe, we would expect to find significant post-war development buildings.

In terms of the building density, this again is what we're looking at.

Building density tells us how closely buildings are built, how high they may be.

Geographers can infer from this how busy an area is likely to be.

Now what we can see from the diagram in front of you is the steady, steady decrease in height of the buildings from the very centre in the CBD to the very outskirts of the city at the rural-urban fringe.

In terms of the dominant land use then, dominant land use helps geographers understand what are the main functions or activities that are going on in that area.

And again, the expected pattern along a city transect is typically something like this.

In the CBD, we tend to expect more transport.

For example, perhaps like a railway station, a main railway station and other bus stations and bus terminals heading towards that CBD, that main business district.

We'll also perhaps find more leisure and recreational places, perhaps like restaurants and cafes, et cetera.

And finally, business and commerce.

So for example, office and areas of business as well.

In the inner city, we tend to find more residential areas as well as transport networks as well with people needing to get from one place to another, perhaps moving into the CBD for work each day, and also different types of industry.

Now this may be more factory work or other types of industry as well.

In the suburbs, this is much more residential.

Again, there's gonna be transport networks for people to commute perhaps in and outta the city.

And then finally, there's also going to be leisure and recreational activities for those people who are living there.

So the suburbs are really a residential area.

Finally, the rural-urban fringe very much matches the features of a suburb area.

For example, there'll be residential area for people to live.

There'll be transport connectivity as well.

And finally, there'll be leisure and recreation services and activities for the people living there.

But what is the environmental quality like? Well, we can do assessments really of each and every one of these areas.

And we're looking at things like pollution, litter, as well as the built environment.

And it allows geographers to consider how rundown or well maintained an area is.

Now you can see that we have sort of four different traffic lights here from red, hazardous all the way up to green, good.

And the environmental quality generally improves the further you move away from the CBD out towards the suburbs and the rural-urban fringe as we tend to find more environmental quality, less pollution, less traffic, less people, but more greenery instead.

Now pulling all of these different characteristics together, we can actually create a fact card for a place on a transect.

And this allows us to see all the characteristics together.

Now what I'm showing you right now is an example of a fact card of an area within a city.

So for example, an area might score poorly on the environmental quality.

Its modal building gate might be pre 1900.

The building density might be somewhere between extremely high and low.

And finally, this might be an example of its different types of land use.

Now looking at this fact card in front of you, which zone do you think this fact card may be from? You may like to pause the video here whilst you look at that fact card in front of you and consider your own answer to this or even discuss it with a person next to you.

Time now for a learning check.

It says, "Who is describing the likely characteristics of the CBD?" You have three statements on the screen in front of you, one by Sam, one by Sofia, and one by Alex.

What I'd like you to do then is pause the video whilst you read through those three statements and then decide who you think is describing the CBD.

And the correct answer is Sam.

Sam is absolutely correct in describing the CBD in the following way.

"Building density is high, environmental quality is low and land use is dominated by business and commerce." Remember, the CBD stands for the Central Business District.

So Sam is absolutely correct.

It's found at the very centre of the city where those buildings are very tall and very densely packed together and the environmental quality would be the lowest in terms of those four different areas.

So Sam is absolutely correct, and I'm sure you are too.

We have three practise questions from the first learning cycle.

And the first one says to, "Complete the fact card for a transect point with moderate environmental quality, very low building density, modal building age of 2008 and dominant land uses of residential, leisure and recreation." The second practise question then says, "Which zone of a city do you think the fact card that you just created represents?" And the third question says, "Justify your response using data from each section on that fact card." So please now pause the video whilst you attempt these three practise questions.

Best of luck.

So in terms of the feedback then for the first question, this is what your fact card needed to look like.

You have the moderate environmental quality, the modal building age of 2008, it has a low building density, and finally in terms of land use, then you have residential and leisure and recreation.

Which zone do you think that that fact card represented? Well, it represented the rural-urban fringe.

Now you needed to justify your response using data from each section on that fact card.

Your answer may have included something like this.

It says that, "The modal building age 2008 suggesting very recent development, which is more likely in the rural-urban fringe than other areas.

The building density is also very low as there are likely to be lots of green spaces and bigger housing plots, and few, if any high rise buildings.

The land use will be dominated by residential, but there will be areas of leisure and recreation such as parks.

The environmental quality will be moderate as whilst the area is well maintained, there may be lots of cars reducing air quality." So really, really well done if you were able to include anything like that in your own answer.

Moving now to our second and final learning cycle, which is all about Liverpool structure and characteristics.

So a transect through Liverpool identifies a location within each of the city zones.

So once again, if we compare the map on the left of Liverpool to our model on the right, we can begin to see which areas of Liverpool that we are actually talking about, starting with the CBD in the Liverpool city centre.

In Toxteth then we are talking about inner city area.

Calderstones is our suburban area.

And finally Halewood is our rural-urban fringe.

So which of the following is an inner city area of Liverpool? You have the four options in front of you.

Can you please pause the video whilst you try to recall that piece of information and select the correct answer? And the correct answer was Toxteth.

Toxteth is going to be our inner city area of Liverpool, which we're going to explore in today's lesson.

So Liverpool city centre or CBD is characterised by a wide range of commercial and retail businesses, including the regenerated Albert Dock.

With an emphasis on shopping and tourism, much of the newly regenerated area has a good environmental quality, although some areas do still require regeneration.

The historic docklands in the city centre retain some industrial land use.

Regenerated dock areas are now characterised by mixed residential and commercial areas.

The characteristics are summarised on the fact card in the slide deck.

So once again, those characteristics of the CBD that I just mentioned can be seen on this fact file in front of you.

So we have a moderate environmental quality score.

We're talking about modal building age of between 2000 and 2008.

It has a very high building density and then we can also see those different land uses that are now synonymous with Liverpool CBD.

Liverpool's inner city is a mix of residential, some older terraced housing and more modern apartments, retail and commercial.

There is considerable poverty and urban deprivation in some areas.

In Toxteth, for example, many residents live in council housing, experience poor health and have low incomes.

Many of the high density terraced homes, which you can see on the left image were constructed for dock workers during the industrial revolution.

Some of the poorest quality housing has been replaced and the area is being regenerated with the creation of retail outlets and restaurants.

Once again, those characteristics can be summarised in this fact file where we can see a poor environmental quality score.

The buildings are built pre 1900.

The building density is still on the high spectrum on the high end there, and the land use is split between residential as well as business and commerce.

Liverpool suburbs mostly consist of detached and semi-detached low density housing as you can see in that left hand image and are located towards the outskirts of the city in the wide Liverpool city region.

Calderstones to the southeast of the city centre is one of Liverpool's most desirable suburbs with its tree lined streets and excellent schools.

Environmental quality is generally higher in the suburbs compared to the inner city.

And again, we have our fact file, which helpfully summarises that description.

So again, now the environmental quality has improved up to moderate.

The modal building age is between 1930 and 1939.

Because the buildings now are more detached, the building density has decreased and become much lower.

And then in terms of its land use, we see much more residential, but no leisure and recreation.

Liverpool's rural-urban fringe extends eastward from the city into the surrounding countryside.

Some parts of the rural-urban fringe are characterised by outta town retail parks such as the New Mersey Shopping Park, motorways and commuter villages such as Halewood as you can see on the image on the left.

There are a number of green spaces in the rural-urban fringe.

And again, our fact file really helpfully shows these different characteristics.

So now in the rural-urban fringe, we have the best environmental quality.

The modal building age is much more recent between 1973 and 1982.

It has the lowest building density.

And once again, we see a residential and leisure and recreation land use with many more green parks and open areas for people.

So time now for a learning check.

And it says, "Which of the following has the most recent modal building?" You have four options on the screen in front of you.

So what I'd like you to do is pause the video here whilst you read through those four options and try to select the correct answer.

And the correct answer is Halewood located in the rural-urban fringe, which means it has the most recent modal building age.

Really, really well done if you're able to select that as the correct answer.

Our next learning check says, "Which of the following has the highest density buildings?" Once again, you have the same four options, and once again, I'd like you to pause the video whilst you consider and then select your answer.

And the correct answer is the city centre.

So the CBD has the highest concentration or the highest density of buildings.

And our final learning check says, "Which of the following has the poorest environmental quality?" Once again, we have the same four options, and once again, I'd like you to pause the video whilst you read through those four options and then select what you consider to be the correct answer.

And the correct answer was Toxteth.

Toxteth located in the inner city has the poorest environmental quality.

Really, really well done if you were able to get that answer correct.

So we have just one practise question for the second and final learning cycle, and it says to complete the table with characteristics of each place in Liverpool.

So you can see you have the different areas, the CBD, the inner city, the suburbs, and the rural-urban fringe.

And then you have our different characteristics such as modal building age, building density, environmental quality, and finally, land use.

What I'd like you to do then is pause the video whilst you attempt to recall this information and complete the table.

Best of luck.

In terms of feedback then this is what the completed table needed to look like.

So in terms of the modal building age, the CBD is between 2000 and 2008.

The inner city is pre 1900, the suburbs between 1930 and 1939 and the rural-urban fringe in Halewood is between 1973 and 1982.

Building density in the CBD is very high.

It is high in Toxteth in the inner city.

It is moderate in the suburbs in Calderstones.

And finally it is low in Halewood at the rural-urban fringe.

In terms of the environmental quality, it is moderate in the CBD, it is poor in Toxteth, it is moderate once again in the suburbs in Calderstones.

And finally it is good in Halewood out towards the countryside in the rural-urban fringe.

The final one is land use, and in the CBD we tend to find residential, transport, business and commerce and industry.

In the inner city, it slightly changes to more residential, business and commerce.

In the suburbs, we only find residential, leisure and recreation.

And then finally, in the rural-urban fringe, we once again find residential, leisure and recreation.

So really, really well done if you are able to get a table, which looks something similar to that on the screen in front of you.

In terms of our learning summary then, we need to know that cities normally follow a zonal pattern as you move outwards, starting with the CBD at the middle, then the inner city, then the suburbs, and finally the rural-urban fringe before moving out into the countryside.

In terms of the different characteristics, well there they are on the screen in front of you.

You can see there are four different areas such as CBD, the Toxteth is an area within Liverpool in the inner city, Calderstones in the suburbs, and finally Halewood in the rural-urban fringe.

In terms of the modal building age, you can see that the CBD has much more modern buildings in the CBD in Liverpool built between 2000 and 2008.

In Toxteth, those buildings were typically built pre 1900.

In Calderstones in the suburbs, they're built generally between 1930 and 1939, and finally out towards the rural-urban fringe in Halewood, they're built between 1973 and 1982.

In terms of the building density, the building density in the CBD is very high.

In Toxteth, it is high.

In Calderstones, it is moderate.

And finally it decreases in Halewood down to a low building density.

In terms of environmental quality, we can see that in the CBD it is moderate.

In terms of Toxteth it is poor.

Calderstones once again, it is moderate.

But finally, in Halewood out towards the rural-urban fringe, the environmental quality becomes good.

And the land use then it is residential business and commerce and industry is found in the CBD.

In Toxteth, in the inner city, we find residential, business and commerce.

In the suburbs we find residential, leisure and recreation, and once again the same in the rural-urban fringe in Halewood, residential, leisure, and recreation.

So it was a pleasure teaching you today.

You did an excellent job during today's lesson, and I will see you again on the next lesson.

Goodbye.