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The City of Leeds boundary is denoted by the dotted white dashed line, while Leeds 'proper' is within the red area.
The City of Leeds has a density of 3,574/sq mi, but the actual city itself (i.e excluding rural/semi-rural areas/villages) has a density of 10,530/sq mi.
Why do they make such strange city limits I wonder?
Here in Minsk where I live, official city limits more or less coincide with the actual built-up territory. And for the most part, though not completely, they coincide with the so-called MKAD -- Minsk Ring Road.
So it's easy to see where the actual city ends and countryside starts. Easy to get oriented.
If they decide to build up the territory adjacent to the existing city boundaries, they normally incorporate this territory into the city.
But I don't really understand why forests and rural lands surrounding the built-up territory should be within city limits.
And there is an opposite example: when the city proper officially takes up just a ridiculously small part of the "real" city, as is the case with Paris, Athens, Barcelona or some North-American cities.
I've always wondered why they can't broaden the city limits by incorporating the inner suburbs which in fact are NOT suburbs, but simply outskirts, outer parts of the city?
Maybe, it was quite some time ago, it was some language one might not expect to be related with it, that much I remember. Thought it was Turkish...
Turku is a Old East Slavic word for marketplace, and it's the basis also for the Swedish word torg, meaning the same thing. It has nothing to do with Turkey. Here is also a district called Kupittaa, from the Old East Slavic word kupets, merchant. In prehistoric times this was probably a marketplace where Novgorodian merchants came to do business. Also the Italian city of Trieste and the German town of Torgau are based on this same word.
The real thing that the comparative maps show is not the compactness of the european cities but the sprawl of the North American cities, especially in the USA.
European cities when compared with the rest of the world (South America, Africa, Asia) are not especially compact.
Indeed, but the OP was comparing only with Canada and the USA, where cities are less compact than in Europe.
Quote:
Obviously I don't speak of inner suburbs like Montrouge in your link, those kind of area are only suburbs in name because of the too small size of Paris city limits.
In Germany or UK where cities have larger city limits, this would be considered as inner city area.
I would also avoid to take Paris as the rule for French suburbs, Paris is the French metropolitan area with the lowest ratio of single familly house along with Nice.
Yes, I was just giving this example to point out the absurdity of using city limits to compare the actual footprint of cities.
Why do they make such strange city limits I wonder?
Here in Minsk where I live, official city limits more or less coincide with the actual built-up territory. And for the most part, though not completely, they coincide with the so-called MKAD -- Minsk Ring Road.
So it's easy to see where the actual city ends and countryside starts. Easy to get oriented.
If they decide to build up the territory adjacent to the existing city boundaries, they normally incorporate this territory into the city.
But I don't really understand why forests and rural lands surrounding the built-up territory should be within city limits.
And there is an opposite example: when the city proper officially takes up just a ridiculously small part of the "real" city, as is the case with Paris, Athens, Barcelona or some North-American cities.
I've always wondered why they can't broaden the city limits by incorporating the inner suburbs which in fact are NOT suburbs, but simply outskirts, outer parts of the city?
I'm not sure. The city boundaries used to be a lot tighter than they are now, but everything changed in 1974.
One further reason: the built up area of suburbs is sometimes not directly connected with the proper city because suburbs developed from former self-contained small towns and villages. Therefore are many single family houses not adjacent to the downtown area.
Take this example - many single detached homes, but they don't reduce Frankfurt's compactness that much as the real city ends on the other side of the forest. https://maps.google.de/maps?q=Neu-Is...t,+Hessen&z=14
Turku is a Old East Slavic word for marketplace, and it's the basis also for the Swedish word torg, meaning the same thing. It has nothing to do with Turkey. Here is also a district called Kupittaa, from the Old East Slavic word kupets, merchant. In prehistoric times this was probably a marketplace where Novgorodian merchants came to do business. Also the Italian city of Trieste and the German town of Torgau are based on this same word.
Yes, Slavic used to be more widespread than today, there still are native Slavic people in East Germany, the Sorbs.
Checked on Wiki, seems it was Hungary, not Turkey, well at least the languages...
I added the residents from the 2007 census from the numbered quarters in Turku (I-IX), and came with up with a number of 7060 inhabitants /sq km from the farthest points of both x and y. This is of course not very accurate, and as some "wastleand" is included (the river, parks, my miscalculations).
Still denser than Houston
Here's the approximate area:
eidt: whoops, I did measure the sq km from the widthest and widest location, but whatever... But you can still see it's very green and reasonably dense with short distances. You can also see the neat grid layout that isn't that common in old European cities.
Why do they make such strange city limits I wonder?
Here in Minsk where I live, official city limits more or less coincide with the actual built-up territory. And for the most part, though not completely, they coincide with the so-called MKAD -- Minsk Ring Road.
So it's easy to see where the actual city ends and countryside starts. Easy to get oriented.
If they decide to build up the territory adjacent to the existing city boundaries, they normally incorporate this territory into the city.
But I don't really understand why forests and rural lands surrounding the built-up territory should be within city limits.
And there is an opposite example: when the city proper officially takes up just a ridiculously small part of the "real" city, as is the case with Paris, Athens, Barcelona or some North-American cities.
I've always wondered why they can't broaden the city limits by incorporating the inner suburbs which in fact are NOT suburbs, but simply outskirts, outer parts of the city?
It can be done in some places but there are usually legal reasons against annexation -- regardless of how few people live in those outskirts, they have the right to decide whether they want to be a part of the city or not. So unilateral decisions for annexation are likely to be met with legal challenges (or at the very least there could be a political backlash).
There is no fundamental economic reason why central cities should be able to unilaterally incorporate suburbs or exurbs into their land -- it all depends on fiscal systems and decision-making bodies, i.e. who pays for the services provided by the central cities to all of the region's inhabitants (roads, commercial/office infrastructure, etc) and who makes the strategic planning (state/regional government, etc).
I added the residents from the 2007 census from the numbered quarters in Turku (I-IX), and came with up with a number of 7060 inhabitants /sq km from the farthest points of both x and y. This is of course not very accurate, and as some "wastleand" is included (the river, parks, my miscalculations).
Parks/vacant lots/etc are always included in density calculations. As for rivers, I don't know, but that likely doesn't make much of a difference in Turku's case.
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