Urbanisation topic 1.1
Suburb
A residential area within or just outside the boundaries of a city.
Brownfield site
Abandoned, derelict or under-used industrial buildings and land that may be contaminated but have potential for redevelopment.
Sustainable urban management strategy
An approach to urban management that seeks to maintain and improve the quality of life for current and future urban dwellers. Aspects of management may be social (housing quality, crime), economic (jobs, income) or environmental (air, water, land, resources).
Urbanization
An increasing percentage of a country's population comes to live in towns and cities. It may involve both rural-urban migration and natural increase.
Changes in global distribution of large cities
As the years progressed, western industrial cities started to become more prevalent, as in the year 1900, 9 of the worlds largest cities were in either Europe or North America. However this number decreased, as by 2010, once again most of the world's largest cities were located in Asia, mostly in semi-periphery areas or developing nations.
Explain why natural increase is generally greater in urban than rural areas, especially in LEDCs.
Because many of the migrants in LEDCs are young males, the population structure in the urban environments, are generally quite young. This means that more people are likely to be starting families, leading to increased birth rates. Some LEDCs also keep their traditional values and avoid using contraceptives, or implementing the use of an abortion simply because of tradition, beliefs and financial costs for healthcare. Many also have large numbers of children as means of tradition. In rural areas, although the same traditions may be kept, there may also be poorer healthcare, famine and higher susceptibility to disease showing a smaller natural increase.
Future of megacities
By 2020 all but 4 of the world's megacities will be in developing regions, 12 of them in Asia. The scale of environmental impacts will also be great. Rapid growth and urbanization has had a pollution impact of the environment. Megacities are important for generation of wealth. In MEDCs, urban areas generate 80% of national economic input. In LEDCs the figure is over 40%. However some aspects such as crime make them less desirable.
Suburbanization
By 20th century transport/railways and buses were critical in growth of middle class residential suburbs. In addition the price of farmland had declined dramatically and there was scope for urban expansion. Rising wages and living standards were matched with rising expectations. Housing now available, affordable and of great quality.
Urban growth
Can mean the increase in size of a particular urban place or it can mean an increase in the number of people living in urban centres.
Megacity
Cities with population of over 10 million people.
Global urbanisation
Different nations have developed different classifications of what is 'urban' based on the population size of settlement. Australia - minimum population of a settlement to be considered urban - 1,000 and must have at least 250 dwellings of which 100 are occupied. Bulgaria - A town can be classified as urban regardless of size.
Natural change - reducing urban sprawl
Encourage urban consolidation, the process of increasing density of residential buildings in an urban area. This can be achieved in several ways by infilling gaps in an urban area, bringing disused buildings back in to use, or by replacing low density dwellings with medium or high density buildings known as intensification.
Briefly explain the role of colonialism and trade in urbanisation in many LEDCs.
European powers begun colonising other continents. They were interested in farming and importing agricultural produce from their colonies in different areas of the world. This caused them to build shipping ports on the coasts e.g. Mumbai (Bombay). These port cities since expanded and became central hubs and political capitals due to the trade that had formed here. In Africa, small towns and cities that were first established have now grown and have become larger, having faster urbanisation rates than areas such as Asia. From 1970-2010 urbanisation in Kenya has increased from 9.9% urban population to 22.6% urban population.
Changes in the global distribution of megacities
From 1975-2008 all of the countries have experienced population growth, however some at a faster rate. All of the world's largest megacities in 2008 are mostly LEDCs with the exception of six cities (Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Osaka, Seoul and Paris). However these MEDCs have the slowest population growth rate e.g. Paris - 0.09 population growth rate p/a from 1950-2008. This may be because these cities are already highly urbanised and because birth rates are much lower in these countries. Cities in LEDCs have a much higher population growth rate e.g. Shenzen, China - 14.80 population growth rate p/a from 1950-2008.
Describe the global variation in patterns of urbanization from 1960-2020
Globally from 1960-2020, the urban population as a percentage of total population has grown. In 1960 it rested at 36% where it is predicted that in 2020 it will be at 57%, over half of the world's population. This growth may be due to rural-urban migration and job opportunities in urban areas offering large sums of money. Some rural areas are no longer urban due to rapid industrialisation and expansions of companies. This may also be a factor in the rising urbanisation of the world. Singapore's total urban population has been consistently at 100%.
Urban consolidation - Natural change
Has the advantage that services such as utilities and transport are more economic to provide in areas with higher population densities.
Natural change
In recent years, cities have been expanding so far that they have started coalescing in some areas. The process whereby urban areas expand into each other to create huge metropolitan areas is conurbation.
The process of urbanization stage 2
LEDCs - Economic take-off: Rapid rural-tourban migration leads to an accelerating rate of urbanization.
The process of urbanization stage 3
LEDCs-NICs - Maturing economy: rates urbanization continue to rise steadily as towns develop and enlarge.
The process of urbanization stage 1
LLEDCs, the rural society phase: low levels of urbanization, largely rural population of subsistence famers.
Reasons for boom in private house-building
Lower costs of living. Low interest rates. Expansion of building societies. Willingness of local authorities to provide utilities such as sewers, electricity, gas and water. Desire to move from crime/pollution. Increased public transport.
The process of urbanization stage 5
MEDCs - In advanced economies a fifth phase may be seen where people begin to move back to semi-rural areas - counter-urbanization for lifestyle reasons.
Suggest reasons for the differing growth rates of megacities in MEDCs and LEDCs.
MEDCs are highly urbanised already and most of the population (70%) of people in MEDCs live in cities. Because population growth has also slowed in MEDCs due to a number of reasons, there are also less people being born, and therefore less of the population to live in these areas. However, there is a youthful population structure in LEDCs. This is because more children are being born due to traditions, the ethos or idea of having children support the family in old age, and the risk of death of a child due to widespread disease and poor sanitation. Because a lot of LEDCs are industrialising, more of these young people especially men, will migrate to the city in order to find work etc. This causes the urban population to boom due to the high populations of young workers moving in to the cities.
Factors causing urbanization
Migration to urban areas. Higher birth rates in urban areas due to youthful age structure. Higher death rates in rural areas due to diseases, unreliable food supply, famine, decreased standard of living in rural areas, poor water, hygiene and medication.
Describe the relative contributions of rural-urban migration and natural increase to the growth of urban population in LEDCs.
Most of the current growth in urbanisation is occurring in LEDCs. This can be due to a number of factors, one of which is rural-urban migration. In some cities in LEDCs, most of the population have been born in areas elsewhere e.g. Port Moresby - Papua New Guinea - 61% of population born elsewhere. There are a number of push and pull factors attracting people to urban areas over others, one of the main factors being the availability of a higher income from job earnings, a large cause of rural-urban migration. Although most migration used to be circular, now, chain-migration is more common, where populations move from a rural area, to a town, to a larger city and so on.
The process of urbanization stage 4
NICs-MEDCs - Mass urbanization in most developed nations: rate of urbanization slows but achieves highest level; most people now live in towns.
Urbanization in LEDCs
Over recent years with expansion, LEDCs have tended to sprawl. They have expanded horizontally over great distances.
Re-urbanisation/urban renewal
Re-urbanization is a revitalization of urban areas and a movement of people back into these areas. A good example is re-urbanization of Barcelona and use of the 1992 Olympic games to re-establish the city. Urban renewal refers to rehabilitation of city areas that have fallen in to decline (urban decay) an example is Manhatten, New York.
Counter-urbanization
Reasons why people may wish to leave large urban areas and move to towns and villages in rural areas: High land prices Congestion Pollution Crime rates Lack of community Declining services.
Rural-urban migration
Refers to the movement of people away from the countryside to towns and cities. This is important especially in LEDCs and NICs. It occurs because people believe they will be better off in urban areas than they are in rural areas. These have push and pull factors.
Natural change - urban villages
Residential district within a city that houses a community of people sharing a common cultural background (expat housing in Beijing). May lead to spatial exclusion.
List the three types of centripetal movements
Rural-urban migration Gentrification Re-urbanization/urban renewal
Three types of centrifugal movements
Suburbanization Counter-urbanization Urban sprawl
Urban sprawl
Suggests that urban areas grow in an unchecked fashion. However if there are green belts urban sprawl is prevented as there are limits on how far the urban area can grow.
Urbanization
Takes place when the urban population is growing more rapidly than the population as a whole. It is caused by a number of interrelated factors.
Trends of urbanization globally
Tanzania - in 2000 urban population surpassed rural population as it rose more exponentially. Thailand - 2020, urban and rural population is expected to level off, rural generally being higher throughout the years. UK - constant urban population, not really any rural growth.
Re-urbanisation
The development of activities to increase residential population densities within the existing built-up area of a city. This may include the redevelopment of vacant land, the refurbishment of housing and the development of new business enterprises.
Counter-urbanisation
The movement of population away from inner urban areas to a new town, a new estate, a commuter town or a village on the edge or just beyond the city limits/rural-urban fringe.
Suburbanisation
The outward growth of towns and cities to engulf surrounding villages and rural areas. This may result from the out-migration of population from the inner urban area to the suburbs or from inward rural-urban movement.
Stages in urbanization in MEDCs
The process of urbanization is almost at an end. The progress has followed an S-shaped curve and has tailed off at 80% of the total population. For many MEDCs there appears to be a cycle of urbanization, suburbanisation, counter-urbanization and re-urbanization.
Gentrification
The reinvestment of capital into inner-city areas. It refers mostly to an improvement of residential areas. It is common in areas of brownfield sites. Thus, as well as residential rehabilitation and upgrading there is also commercial redevelopment. It may lead to social displacement of poor people (as an area becomes gentrified house prices rise). As they move out young upwardly mobile populations take their place. An example in Edinburgh is Danube street which used to be brothels.
Ecological footprint
The theoretical measurement of the amount of land and water a population requires to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb its waste under prevailing technology.
Urban sprawl
The unplanned and uncontrolled physical expansion of an urban area into the surrounding countryside. It is closely linked to the process of suburbanization.
Megacity growth
They grow as a result of economic growth, rural-urban migration and high rates of natural increase. As they grow they swallow up rural areas and nearby towns and cities. They become multi-nuclei centres. Contain between 4-7% of world's total population and grow at relatively slow rates (1.5% a year).
Examples of megacities
Tokyo - 34.0 million (2010) New York - 22.2 million (2010) Sao Paulo - 20.9 million (2010) Paris - 10,430,000 (2008)
Urban global statistics
UK - 1960, 87% urban. 2020, 91% urban. Libya - 1960 - 27% urban. 2020, 91% urban.
Where are the current rates of urban growth the fastest?
→Delhi, India - 2.40% per annum.
