Classification
of Cities
I
am a student of Gadjah Mada University at Faculty of Geography. My major is
Regional Development. I learn about urban area, rural area, rural-urban
linkage, settlements, and so on. So, I have learnt about several
classifications of cities in the world. Cities can be divided into several
categories, and each category has several characteristics. Based on the
function, cities can be divided into four main categories: centre of production
cities, centre of trade and commerce cities, political capital cities, and
cultural centre cities.
The centre of production cities has some
characteristics, for example they have many big factories such as food factories,
dairy factories, or automotive factories. Because there are many factories in
the centre of production cities, pollution in those cities can not be avoided.
The centre of production cities usually have much pollution, like air
pollution, soil pollution, and water pollution. There are also many workers who
live in the city. They work as factory workers and they live near the factory.
The examples of this category are Surabaya, Gresik, and Bontang.
Centre
of trade and commerce cities are a bussy cities. There is a market centre in a
centre of trade and commerce city. The function of the market is to trade many
products to other cities in local or international scope. Centre of trade and
commerce cities always have a strategic location so that the products are easy
to be sold. They also have a good transportation in order to facilitate the transport of goods to other places. The cities in this category
for example Hongkong and Singapore.
Political
capital city is a central government city. In political capital cities, there are
many administrative affairs that have to be managed by the government. In
general, there are many political problems that arise in the cities for example
the controversy between government and politicians. Cities in this category for
example Jakarta, London, and Brazil.
The
cultural centre cities usually have many kinds of original culture. They also
have many cultural recreation place. Many tourists are attracted to come to
those cities because of the original culture. For example, Jogjakarta that has
many cultural recreation place such as “Kraton Yogyakarta” and
“Taman Sari”.
Classification
of cities based on the functions are centre of production cities,
centre of trade and commerce cities, political capital cities, and cultural
centre cities.
