Places have changed their function and characteristics over time (Edexcel A-Level Geography): Revision Notes

Places have changed their function and characteristics over time

🔗 Places change their function and characteristics over time. Very few places are static through time. The main functions of places are:

• Administrative → Council offices, schools, clinics and hospitals (eg. organising waste disposal)
• Commercial → Offices of services industries, legal services, accountants
• Retail → Shops that range in size from grocery stores to malls
• Industrial → Factories, warehouses and distribution centres Demographic changes can also occur:
• Age structure: Rural areas in the UK are increasingly elderly, while urban areas often have an increasingly youthful population
• Ethnic composition: Migrants often cluster together in major cities
• Gentrification: The process of improving an area to make it more acceptable and attractive to higher income groups into formerly poorer urban areas

Costs	Benefits
● People on low incomes cannot afford the higher property prices/rent ● Higher car ownership may ↑ congestion ● Potential loss of business for traditional, local, low-order shops ● May be seen as a threat to the traditional community and friction may occur between newcomers and original residents	● Rise in general level of prosperity and ↑ number & range of services and businesses ● ↑ local tax income for the local authority ● Physical environment of the area improved ● Greater employment opportunities created

Reasons for Change

Physical Factors

• Coastal erosion
• Increasing flood risk
• Concern about climate change

The Role of Local and National Planning

• National government policies to ↑ housing, improve accessibility and connectedness, HS2
• National government policies to conserve culturally or environmentally important places
• Local planning grants or refuses permission for changes to places

Accessibility & Connectedness

• Developing motorway and railway networks
• ↑ Migration
• Access to fibre-optic broadband

Historical Development

• The primary, historic functions of places are no longer important
• Changes to residents needs and priorities
• Repurposing of historic buildings

Globalisation

• Deindustrialisation as manufacturing companies are moving to cheaper places
• Migration into the UK
• Changes to retail (Amazon)
• Footloose industries

Measuring Changes

Demographic Changes

• Census
• ONS: Neighbourhood statistics
• Local government association

Land-Use Changes

• OS maps
• Goad maps
• Photographs of change over time

Levels of Deprivation

• IMD
• CDRC maps
• Crime data
• School performance
• Public health outcomes framework