Urban Compaction

This picture displays a number of buildings that occupies the left side of the major highway in Trinidad. From the picture it can be deduced that the settlement has many land use and function as it is mostly residental as seen on the right side of the photo and on the upper left a commercial land use can be seen. The morphology that this picture shows is influenced by many factors such as the land use and function, the proximity to a city or capital and most importantly the mobility and transport routes. The buildings seem to be densely packed along the road which affects the organization and structure of the entire area.  According to Hall and Barrett (2012) mobility shapes the city and that there is a relationship between transport and the organization of the metropolis.   Therefore this helps to support that roads in an area are not just for accessibility but for the organization of the areas. When using Google Maps and you look over an area doesnt it look fake? It almost looks as it was planned and developed as such,even though some development are planned the picture above doesnt represent a planned area but one that is organised by the transportation roads. Having these roads help morphology as it guides the establishments of buildings because being able to reside next to a road is not only profitable for businesses as it provides easy accessfor potential customers but is beneficial for residents as well. According to Rodrique, Comtois and Slack 2006 transport is an important element in rural and urban spatial organization under the spatial and accessibilty model. An urban region is seen as a place where there is a hierarchy with services and function and where a corridor acts as a structure organizer interacting within the hierarchy. They also go further to explain that the urban transport system have a spatial imprint which shapes the urban form. Since each city has different socio-economic and geographical differences the spatial imprint of transporation will varies accordingly.

Rodrique P Jean, Claude Comtos and Irian Slack.2006. The Geography of transport systems. Taylor and Francis. New York

Hall T and H Barrett. 2012. Urban Geography. 4th ed. London/New York. Routledge.