Satellite Towns
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24 Satellite Towns Introduction 'Satellite town' was a term used in the year immediately after the World War I as an alternative to Garden City. It subsequently developed a much wider meaning to include any town that is closely related to or dependent on a larger city. The first specific usage of the word ‘satellite town’ was in 1915 by G.R. Taylor in ‘ Satellite Cities’ referring to towns around Chicago, St. Louis and other American cities where industries had escaped congestion and crafted manufacturer’s town in the surrounding area. The new town is planned and built to serve a particular local industry, or as a dormitory or overspill town for people who work in and nearby metropolis. Satellite Town, can also be defined as a town which is self contained and limited in size, built in the vicinity of a large town or city and houses and employs those who otherwise create a demand for expansion of the existing settlement, but dependent on the parent city to some extent for population and major services. A distinction is made between a consumer satellite (essentially a dormitory suburb with few facilities) and a production satellite (with a capacity for commercial, industrial and other production distinct from that of the parent town, so a new town) town or satellite city is a concept of urban planning and referring to a small or medium-sized city that is near a large metropolis, but predates that metropolis suburban expansion and is atleast partially independent from that metropolis economically. CITIES, URBANISATION AND URBAN SYSTEMS 414 Satellite and Dormitory Towns The suburb of an urban centre where due to locational advantage the residential, industrial and educational centres are developed are known as "satellite or dormitory towns." It has a benefit of providing clean environment and spacious ground for residential and industrial expansion. Sometimes satellite towns are regarded as reserve of labour pool, poultry farms, dairy farms, nursery centres and grain- collecting centres from rural areas but located closer to the town. Dormitory towns may be tourist places, recreational centres, health resorts, bathing places, administrative centres and religious places of historical or archaeological importance. The satellite and dormitory towns are prolific especially in American cities. The American census since 1910 have identified 140 metropolitan districts having satellite towns. The study of satellite urban settlements has been considered as essential elements of urban hierarchy for efficient administration, municipal services and safety. The satellite urban centre is considered as essential especially in fertile plain besides saving time in movement from housing colonies to the place of work in the market centre, industries and government offices. Generally, in satellite and dormitory towns either rich or poor people resides because due to cheaper land it is easy to find a housing site in satellite town in relation to the congested city centre. In this regard, the satellite towns are considered as the reserve of industrial labourers or the paradise of the urban poor as well as the rich businessmen in disguise. Dormitory or satellite urban settlement is a secondary settlement which maintains a closer link with the main urban centre of which it is a part. Satellite town may be created temporarily to solve a particular purpose or it may be built permanently. Sometimes satellite town presents a look of twin-town such as Dehri and Dalmianagar in Rohtas district of Bihar. They may be connected with overbridges as Mokameh and Barauni, Patna and Hajipur, Varanasi and Moghalsarai across the Ganges river. Having excess population more into satellite and dormitory towns is not merely a process of historical interest, but this can be witnessed even today. This process is still a priority for solving the problems of over population and over concentration in metropolitan areas. These CITIES, URBANISATION AND URBAN SYSTEMS 415 days most of the posh hotels of Delhi such as 'South City', the Heritage City' and 'The Lake View' of Lucknow and 'Devlok' of Mecruth are good examples of dormitory towns. In some cases the process of deurbanisation may be the solution for the satellite and dormitory towns as this process could be observed in Australia, Netherlands and France. Characteristics of Satellite Towns 1. The central core or area contains only those economic functions whose specialized character requires central location, particularly managerial, financial, specialised wholeselling and related, cultural, social and educational functions; specialised professional and technical services, and transportation terminals and the services of functions necessary to maintain these. The core area is surrounded by residential areas needed to provide employees for central functioning. 2. Satellite towns contain most manufacturing functions and these specialized functions for the metropolitan area do not require central location. Each satellite provides retail stores offering all general merchandise lines except specialised lines. 3. It accommodates most of its own employees in residential locations reasonably close to places of work, draws on other satellites for a small proportion of its workers, and provides some labour for specialised employment in other nearby satellites. 4. The size of satellite varies depending upon its economic functions. 5. The density of satellite conforms to the preference of the population. 6. The spacing of satellites, in generally, radial pattern around the core city, is such that minimum is required to preserve the identity of each, and to permit reasonably rapid daily commuting between satellites and the central city on the part of those required to commute. CITIES, URBANISATION AND URBAN SYSTEMS 416 Distribution of Satellite Towns Australia Gawler, (Adelaide) Gold Coast (Brisbane) Gosford (Sydney) Melton (Melbourne) Sunbury, Victoria (Melbourne) Mandurah (Perth) Moe, Victoria, Morwell, Victoria and Traralgon, Victoria (satellites of each other together forming the Latrobe City urban area) Palmerston (Darwin) Queanbeyan (Canberra) Redcliffe City (Brisbane) Sunshine Coast, Queensland (Brisbane) Werribee, (Melbourne) Wodonga (Albury) Wollongong (Sydney) Canada Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Saint-Hyacinthe Sorel-Tracy Salaberry-de-Valleyfield (satellite) Hamilton, Ontario, Guelph, Oshawa, Barrie, Stratford. (Toronto) Abbotsford, British Columbia (Vancouver) China Beibei (Chongqing) Songjiang (Shanghai) Jiading (Shanghai) HongKong SAR Tai Po Tuen Mun Ap Lei Chau (satellite of Hong Kong and Kowloon) CITIES, URBANISATION AND URBAN SYSTEMS 417 Bangladesh Uttara Thana Motiijheel Kawran Bazar Gulshan Thana (Dhaka) Egypt 6th of October City (Cairo) Iran Shahinshahr (Isfahan) India Nagrota (J & K), Phagwara (Punjab), Mohali, Panchkula (Chandigarh), Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida (Delhi), Danapur, Shamshabad (Hyderabad) Haldia, Durgapur, Chittaranjan, Khargapur, Haringhata, Navi Mumbai (Mumbai) Malaysia Petaling Jaya (Kuala Lumpur) Seremban (Klang Valley) Mexico Ciudad Satélite Playas de Rosarito, (Tijuana) San Cristóbal Ecatepec San Luis Rio Colorado(Mexicali) New Zealand Rangiora, (Christchurch) Pakistan North Nazimabad (Karachi) Poland Police (Szczecin) Woomin (Warsaw) Legionowo ( Warsaw) Otwock (satellite of Warsaw) Wieliczka (satellite of Kraków ) CITIES, URBANISATION AND URBAN SYSTEMS 418 United Bradford (satellite of Leeds) Kingdom, Chelmsford, Bromsgrove (satellite of Birmingham) (London) Lisburn (Belfast) Preston (Liverpool) Salford (Manchester) United States Ann Arbor, Michigan (satellite of Detroit) Annapolis, Maryland (satellite of Baltimore and Washington, D.C.) Athens, Georgia (satellite of Atlanta) Atlantic City, New Jersey (satellite of Philadelphia) Aurora, Illinois (satellite of Chicago) Bellevue, Washington (satellite of Seattle) Boulder, Colorado (satellite of Denver) Chester, Pennsylvania (satellite of Philadelphia) Everett, Washington (satellite of Seattle) Greensburg, Pennsylvania (satellite of Pittsburgh) Independence, Missouri (satellite of Kansas City) Manchester, New Hampshire (satellite of Boston) Oxnard, California (satellite of Los Angeles) Santa Cruz, California (satellite of San Francisco) Trenton, New Jersey (satellite of New York City and Philadelphia) Vallejo, California (satellite of San Francisco) Vancouver, Washington (satellite of Portland, Oregon) Westchester, New York, New York (satellite of New York City) Wilmington, Delaware (satellite of Philadelphia) Worcester, Massachusetts (satellite of Boston) CITIES, URBANISATION AND URBAN SYSTEMS 419 Satellite Cities Versus Other Types of Settlement Satellite cities differ from suburbs in that they have distinct employment basis, commuter shed, and cultural offerings from the central metropolis, as well as an independent municipal government. They differ from suburbs, subdivisions and especially bedroom communities, edge cities in that they have municipal governments distinct from that of the core metropolis and employment basis sufficient to support their residential populations. Suburb Suburb mostly refers to a residential area. They may be the residential areas of a city (such as in Australia and New Zealand), or separate residential communities within commuting distance of a city (such as in the United States and Canada). Some suburbs have a degree of political autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods. Suburbs grew in the 19th and 20th