What is urban geography?

We explain what urban geography is and the main aspects of the cities it studies. Also, what is the urban landscape.

1. What is urban geography?

Urban geography is a branch of geography dedicated to the study of cities , understood as a type of landscape : the urban landscape . For this, he is interested in the structure of cities, their distribution, classification, functions and the urbanization process itself , since the so-called Urban Revolution took place in the world.

The study of the city as a system is one of the foundations of urban geography. From there, this discipline extracts concepts that allow us to understand how different cities operate or what their general trends are, such as urban hierarchies, urban environment, urban location, etc.

Broadly speaking, any analysis of this type is based on two main perspectives:

• The spatial distribution of cities , that is, how they are organized in 
  geographical space .
• The dynamics of behavior, flows and spatial unions in its interior , that is, the forces that determine its internal structure and the human movements that characterize it.

Urban geography is part of the disciplines attached to human geography , although sometimes their interests penetrate the field of anthropology , urban planning and even physical geography.

2. Urban landscape

It is understood cityscape or urban space to the inner landscape of cities, ie to the space inhabited structured and organized composing urban centers . There the secondary or tertiary economic sector predominates .

The urban landscape is characterized by a high population density , a large extension and provision of complex infrastructures , which distinguish it from agriculture and its open, depopulated and green spaces. In other words, it exists in contrast to rural landscapes or primary economic sectors.