E. Liveable Communities · Liveable Communities: Land Use and Sustainability in Canada

Where Things Go: Land-Use Patterns and Their Effects on Communities

E1.1 A1.5About 70 minutes

Learning goals

I can describe how land uses are usually arranged in Canadian cities, from downtown to the rural fringe.
I can calculate and compare residential density.
I can explain how the location of land uses affects people's daily lives, such as access to food, services, jobs and transit.
I can compare land use in different kinds of Canadian communities, including rural, northern and First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities.
I can use the concepts of geographic thinking to analyse a pattern.

Words to know

central business district (CBD)
The downtown core of a city, with the highest concentration of offices, stores and tall buildings, and usually the highest land values.

suburb
A mostly residential area outside the central city, often lower in density.

rural–urban fringe
The zone at the edge of a city where urban land uses (new subdivisions, big-box stores) meet farmland and natural areas.

residential density
The number of dwellings (homes) per hectare, or people per square kilometre.

accessibility
How easy it is for people to reach jobs, services and places they need, by any mode of travel.

food desert
An area where it is hard to get affordable, healthy food nearby, often because there is no grocery store within walking distance and transit is poor.

spatial distribution
The way something is spread out over an area: clustered, dispersed, linear or random.

reserve
Land set apart by the federal government for the use and benefit of a First Nation, under the Indian Act. Many First Nations now manage their own land through their own land codes or community plans.

Hook: two Grade 9 students, two Saturdays

Amira lives in a mid-rise apartment near a subway station. On Saturday she walks 5 minutes to the library, takes the subway to her part-time job, and picks up groceries on the way home. She never needs a ride.

Ben lives in a new subdivision on the edge of the same city. The nearest store is 3 km away along a busy road with no sidewalk for part of the way, and the bus comes once an hour. On Saturday he waits for a parent to drive him to practice.

Both students live in the same city. What makes their days so different? The spatial distribution of land use: where homes are placed compared with everything else.

The four concepts of geographic thinking

Your geography course uses four big ideas to analyse any issue:

Spatial significance: Why is this here? Why does location matter?
Patterns and trends: What repeats across space (patterns) or changes over time (trends)?
Interrelationships: How are the natural environment and human activities connected?
Geographic perspective: How do environmental, economic, social and political points of view see the issue differently?

In this lesson you will use them to explain Amira's and Ben's different Saturdays.

How land use is arranged in a typical Canadian city

No two cities are the same, but many Canadian cities follow a similar general pattern:

Downtown (CBD): the oldest part of many cities, with offices, government buildings, hotels, entertainment, and more and more condo towers. Land is very expensive, so buildings go up.
Inner city: older neighbourhoods built before most people had cars, with row houses, corner stores and streetcar or bus routes. Many are walkable.
Inner suburbs: built mostly from the 1950s to the 1970s, with detached houses, some apartment towers and shopping plazas.
Outer suburbs: newer, lower-density subdivisions with curving streets, large malls, big-box power centres and business parks near highways.
Rural–urban fringe: where the city meets farmland, woodlots and wetlands. This is where much new growth happens and where land-use conflicts are common.

A simple model of a Canadian city. Tall office and apartment towers cluster downtown, older row houses and mid-rise buildings ring it, and houses get bigger and farther apart toward the edge, where farmland begins. Real cities have exceptions, like towers at suburban transit stations.

Density: measuring how close together homes are

Residential density = number of dwellings ÷ area in hectares.

Density matters because many services need enough nearby customers or riders to work. A frequent bus route, a grocery store or a neighbourhood school all depend on enough people living close by. Low density spreads people out, so trips get longer and more people need cars.

The same hectare can hold about 15 detached houses, 40 townhouses or 150 apartments (6 storeys × 25 units). More homes per hectare means more people within walking distance of each store, school and bus stop.

Worked example

Let's compare two neighbourhoods

Northview has 1 800 homes on 120 ha. Lakeside Village has 2 400 homes on 40 ha. (a) Calculate the residential density of each. (b) Which is more likely to support a frequent bus route? Explain. (c) Walking speed is about 5 km/h. How long would a 1.5 km walk to a grocery store take?

Density = dwellings ÷ hectares.
Northview: 1 800 ÷ 120 = 15 dwellings per hectare.
Lakeside Village: 2 400 ÷ 40 = 60 dwellings per hectare.
Lakeside Village has four times as many homes on each hectare, so many more people live within a short walk of each bus stop. A bus that stops there fills up, which makes frequent service affordable.
At 5 km/h, 1 km takes 60 ÷ 5 = 12 minutes. So 1.5 km takes 1.5 × 12 = 18 minutes each way.

(a) Northview: 15 dwellings/ha; Lakeside Village: 60 dwellings/ha. (b) Lakeside Village, because its higher density puts more riders near each stop. (c) About 18 minutes each way, which is long with heavy grocery bags.

How spatial distribution affects people

Where land uses are placed affects daily life in many ways:

Access to food: in some low-income or suburban areas, the nearest full grocery store is far away and only convenience stores or fast food are close. Researchers call these areas food deserts.
Time and money: long distances between home, work and school mean long commutes, more fuel costs, and for many families the cost of owning two cars.
Health: people who can walk to daily needs tend to get more everyday exercise. People who live right beside highways or heavy industry may breathe more air pollution.
Independence: teens, older adults and people who do not drive depend on walkable, transit-served places.
Fairness: sometimes polluting land uses have ended up near lower-income neighbourhoods. Geographers study whether the costs and benefits of land use are shared fairly.

Land use in different kinds of Canadian communities

Canada is not just big cities. Land use looks very different across communities:

Small towns often have one main street with shops, a few schools and places of worship, and residential streets around it, surrounded by farms or forest.
Rural areas have scattered farmhouses, fields, woodlots and gravel roads. Services like schools and hospitals may be far away.
Resource towns (mining, forestry, energy) grew around one main employer, so land use centres on the mine, mill or plant.
Northern and Arctic communities, such as Iqaluit in Nunavut, face permafrost, short building seasons and very high construction costs. Iqaluit has no road connection to southern Canada, so most goods arrive by air or by ship (sealift) during the ice-free summer. Many buildings sit on piles above the ground.
First Nations reserve communities have a fixed land base set out under federal law. Housing, a band office, a school, a health centre and community buildings must all fit on that land, and the community's land-use decisions are made by the First Nation, often through a comprehensive community plan that reflects the community's own priorities. Many First Nations also have rights and connections to much larger traditional territories beyond the reserve.
Métis Settlements in Alberta are the only legislated Métis land base in Canada; there are eight of them, and each is governed by an elected council.

Community type	Typical land-use pattern	One challenge
Large city	Dense core, rings of suburbs, many land uses	Housing costs, traffic, sprawl at the edges
Small town	One main street, homes around it, farms around the town	Keeping stores and schools open when population is small
Resource town	Built around a mine, mill or plant	Economy depends on one industry
Arctic community	Compact, buildings on piles, airport and port important	Permafrost, high costs, limited land suitable for building
First Nations reserve	Fixed land base with homes, school, band office, community spaces	Fitting housing and services for a growing population on limited land

Different community types face different land-use challenges.

Just for fun

Funny but true: in Iqaluit, many buildings stand on steel or wooden piles so the heat from inside doesn't thaw the frozen ground underneath. You could say the buildings are keeping their feet cold on purpose.

Hands-on activity

The 15-minute check

You need: a paper map or an online map with a scale, a ruler or the map's measuring tool, and a pencil.

Mark your home on the map.
Draw a circle with a radius of 1.25 km around it. At 5 km/h, that is roughly a 15-minute walk.
List what is inside your circle: grocery store, school, park, library, bus stop, pharmacy, doctor or clinic, place to buy a snack.
Give your neighbourhood a score out of 8 (one point for each).
Write a short paragraph using two concepts of geographic thinking to explain your score.

What to look for: a correctly sized circle (check the map scale), an honest list, and a paragraph that uses words like spatial significance or patterns. (Straight-line distance is shorter than the real walking route, so your real walk may take longer.)

Your turn

Calculate the residential density: 600 homes on 25 ha.

Why are buildings in the CBD usually tall?

What is a food desert, and who is most affected by one?

Name the zone at the edge of a city where subdivisions meet farmland.

Give two reasons why a frequent bus route is easier to run in a dense neighbourhood.

Why does Iqaluit depend on sealift and air transport?

Which concept of geographic thinking asks "Why is this here?"

More practice: warm-up

What does CBD stand for?

At 5 km/h, how many minutes does it take to walk 1 km?

Name one land use you would find on a small-town main street.

Which has a higher density: 30 homes per hectare or 12 homes per hectare?

What is the formula for residential density?

More practice: on your own

A neighbourhood has 3 000 people on 2 km². What is its population density in people per km²?

Explain how living in a low-density suburb could affect a teenager's independence.

Using the transect diagram, describe the trend in building height from the CBD to the rural fringe.

Why might a First Nation create a comprehensive community plan?

Why might polluting industries end up near lower-income neighbourhoods, and why is that a fairness issue?

Challenge

A town must house 1 200 new homes. Option A uses 80 ha; Option B uses 30 ha. Calculate each density and give one advantage of each option.

Use two concepts of geographic thinking to explain why Amira and Ben have different Saturdays.

The urban model in the transect has exceptions. Describe one and explain why it happens.

Check your understanding

Quiz

Which part of a city usually has the highest land values?

A neighbourhood has 900 homes on 30 ha. Its residential density is:

A food desert is best described as:

Why do many buildings in Arctic communities stand on piles?

Which concept of geographic thinking focuses on how human activities and the natural environment are connected?

Which statement about First Nations reserve land is accurate?

For parents and teachers

This lesson connects where things are located to how people live. A great conversation starter is the "15-minute check" activity: talk about which daily needs your family can reach on foot, by bike or by transit, and which require a car. Students often confuse population density (people per km²) with residential density (dwellings per hectare); check units carefully. When discussing First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, encourage present-tense, respectful language: these are living communities making their own plans. Students may also need help seeing that the city model is a generalization with exceptions.