Millionaire cities, mega cities and world cities

Negatives of urbanisation:

-Encourages growth of unplanned and illegal shanty towns due to overcrowding- land occupied for this is unsuitable for usage. -Informal sector employment rarely receives support from gov. and is often subject to harassment. -Universities and health centres are usually located in wealthier areas so they are inaccessible to a majority of the population. -Environmental problems due to rapid urbanisation- water pollution.

Positives of urbanisation:

-Urban areas tend to have better provision of education and services, infrastructure and health care. -Large informal sectors provides employment opportunities for local people and migrants. informal industries can also form over time and eventually contribute to tax bases as seen in Mumbai, India. -Infant mortality is lower and life expectancy tends to be higher. -Industry and finance services can concentrate in cities allowing them to develop- at an advantage being clustered together. -Shanty towns actually solve housing issues in rapidly urbanising poorer nations. Allowing people to construct their own homes with help and guidance from council (self-help programmes).

Describe 3 characteristics of a world city.

1) They shed lots of low-value activities such as manufacturing to other cities and countries. 2) Offer high levels of synergy in their economic structures (syngery= interaction of multiple elements in a system to produce an effect different from or greater than the sum of their individual effects). 3) Offer a range of employment opportunities but tendency towards polarised labour force therefore a polarised society. There are a variety of jobs ranging from those demanding a high level of education, training and skills to those demanding little of these. This can lead to spatial differentiation in the distribution of types of residential area in the cities.

What is a mega city?

A metropolitan area with a population of over 10 million people.

What is conurbation?

A region compromising a number of cities, large towns and other urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area.

Name 5 characteristics of mega-cities.

Density, dynamic of growth, settlement and infrastructure, risks, socio-economic.

What is a world city?

Dominant city in terms of its role in the global political economy. It is not the world's biggest city in terms of population, but rather centres of strategic control of the world economy. They exert a dominant influence of continental and global economics and processes.

Problems of mega-cities?

Explosive growth, increased poverty, pressure on land and housing, environmental concerns (contaminated water, air pollution), high death rates from disease, economic dependence on state governments that constrains the independence of mega-city administrations.

Describe the socio-economic characteristics of a mega-city.

Lots of social conflict due to different ethnicities and religions in a small proximity. The development of cities is accompanied with rising urban poverty.

Describe risks as a characteristic of a mega-city.

Mega-cities are highly vulnerable to natural disasters. Unplanned urban growth causes a lot of different ecological, environmental, social and economic problems attached to overcrowding. Risk of terrorist attacks, war, food scarcity. Increased air pollution from increased population in the area.

Describe density as a characteristic of a mega-city.

Mega-cities have a high density of people, industry and production. They become areas more central to the global economy because of this density. They are promoters of national and international development.

Fact about how the trend of world cities has shifted from HICs to LICs.

Most of the world's largest cities are now found in LICs - in 195o these countries held 3 of the top 10 but by 2005 this had increased to 8 out of 10.

Why does urbanisation occur?

Natural increase and net migration gain (where in-migration is greater than out-migration to rural areas).

Fact about urban poverty to back up the description of socio-economic characteristics of a mega-city.

Roughly 1/4 of the population of the developing countries are living on less than $1 a day (2005).

Describe dynamic of growth as a characteristic of a mega-city.

They have the potential to create huge economic growth in the urban areas and the areas surrounding this.

Describe settlement and infrastructure as a characteristic of a mega-city.

Usually created partly from illegal settlements set up by migrants. Infrastructure is usually inefficient or unavailable. People living in squatter settlements have no sanitation facilities and therefore there is poor public health and perhaps a higher death rate because of it.