Urbanization

URBANIZATION
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What is urbanization
 It is the growth of cities, brought about by a
population shift from rural areas and small
communities to large ones, and the change from
a largely agricultural economy to an industrial
one.
 This results in the development of cities and
towns on formerly agricultural or natural lands.
http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/readingrooms/urbanization/
History of Urbanization
 Through most of history, the human population has
lived a rural lifestyle, dependent on agriculture and
hunting for survival.
 In 1800, only 3 percent of the world's population lived
in urban areas.
 By 1900, almost 14 percent were urbanites, although
only 12 cities had 1 million or more inhabitants.
 In 1950, 30 percent of the world's population resided in
urban centers. The number of cities with over 1 million
people had grown to 83.
 The world has experienced unprecedented urban
growth in recent decades.
 In May 2007 for the first time in history over 50% of
the world's population lived in urban areas.
 There are 411 cities over 1 million.
 More developed nations are about 76 percent urban,
while 40 percent of residents of less developed
countries live in urban areas.
 It is expected that 60 percent of the world population
will be urban by 2030, and that most urban growth will
occur in less developed countries
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/worl
d/2006/urbanisation/
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/w
orld/06/urbanisation/html/urbanisation.st
m
Figure 1
Urban and Rural Populations, 1950-2030
Source: UN, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2003 Revision (2004).

Causes of urbanization
 A city grows through natural increase — the
excess of births over deaths and the in-
migration of people from rural areas.
 MDCS and LDCs differ in the way in which
urbanization is occurring.
 MDCs : During the 19th and early 20th centuries,
urbanization resulted due to industrialization.
 New job opportunities in the cities encouraged the mass
movement of population away from the countryside.
 At the same time, migrants provided cheap, plentiful labor
for the emerging factories.
 High death rates in the cities slowed urban growth. Cities
were unhealthy places because of crowded living conditions,
the prevalence of contagious diseases, and the lack of
sanitation. Until the mid-1800s, the number of deaths
exceeded births in many large European cities.
 Migration accounted for as much as 90 percent of city
growth during this period
City life 1800s
 To remove household waste and garbage, privies, also known as
outhouses, were small wooden sheds that served as a receptacle
for human waste. However, privies tended to leak their contents
into the rear yards, where the household well was also located,
thereby contaminating the water supply. To remedy the problem,
Newark employed scavengers who drove their wagons through
the city during the middle of the night and removed the contents
of the privies. The “night soil” from the privies was carted to
farms on the outskirts of the city, but this only worsened the
problem as waste spilled onto streets from their uncovered
wagons, garbage was dumped in vacant lots and the outlying
districts were neglected.
 Meanwhile, living conditions deteriorated. Pigs roamed the
streets in search of garbage, animal carcasses littered the streets,
and the waterways that traversed the city carried away household
wastes in full view for all to see. The poor and immigrant classes
lived in dark, wretched tenements without running water or basic
sanitary amenities. Consequently, Newark, like most northeastern
cities, was periodically plagued by outbreaks of epidemics.
Infectious diseases such as cholera, typhoid, yellow fever,
dysentery and small pox claimed thousands of lives, mostly the
poor. For years, the medical profession believed that these
infectious diseases were caused by the inhalation of poisonous
gases known as “miasmas-” noxious fumes emanating from
rotting animal and vegetable matter.
 http://www.usgennet.org/usa/nj/state/EssexNewarkSewer.htm
LDCs
 Urbanization in LDCs
 Urbanization in most less developed countries in the past 50
years contrasts sharply with the experience of the more
developed countries.
 Death rates have fallen faster in urban areas because of
greater access to health services.
 Because birth rates are relatively high in most less developed
countries, the rates of natural increase are also quite high in
cities.
 Migration also fuels urban growth in less developed countries
as people leave the countryside in search of better jobs
Global differences in
urbanization
 New York and London are typical of large cities in
more developed countries that arose in the 1800s and
early 1900s, reached their current size mid-century, and
have since experienced slow growth or decline.
 Cities in some less developed countries, such as Mexico
City, grew very rapidly between 1950 and 1980, and are
growing more slowly now.
 Many Asian and African cities, such as Lagos and
Bombay, are experiencing very rapid growth now and
are projected to continue at this pace.
 Much of urban migration is driven by rural
populations' desire for the advantages that urban
areas offer.
 Urban advantages include greater opportunities to
receive education, health care, and services such as
entertainment. The urban poor have less
opportunity for education than the urban nonpoor,
but still they have more chance than rural
populations.
MEGACITIES
 As the population increases, more people will live in
large cities. Many people will live in the growing
number of cities with over 10 million habitants known
as megacities. shows,
 In 1950 just eight cities had populations of 5 million or
more, two of them in less developed countries.
 There were 41 megacities in 2000.
 By 2015, 59 megacities will exist, 48 in less developed
countries.
Sao Paolo
Photograph by Stuart Franklin
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0211/feature3/zoom1.html
Urbanization and the Environment
 The growth in world population has an
important human-environmental interaction:
While the world's population is doubling, the
world's urban population is tripling.
 Within the next few years, more than half the
world's population will be living in urban areas
 Both the increase in and the redistribution of
the earth's population are likely to affect the
natural systems of the earth and the interactions
between the urban environments and
populations.
http://realnigeria.org/photos3.asp
 Urban populations interact with their
environment. Urban people change their
environment through their consumption of
food, energy, water, and land. And in turn, the
polluted urban environment affects the health
and quality of life of the urban population.
 People who live in urban areas have very different
consumption patterns than residents in rural areas.
 For example, urban populations consume much more
food, energy, and durable goods than rural populations.
In China during the 1970s, the urban populations
consumed more than twice as much pork as the rural
populations who were raising the pigs.
 In India where many urban residents are vegetarians,
greater prosperity is seen in higher consumption of
milk.
 Urban populations not only consume more
food, but they also consume more durable
goods. In the early 1990s, Chinese households in
urban areas were two times more likely to have a
TV, eight times more likely to have a washing
machine, and 25 times more likely to have a
refrigerator than rural.
http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-09/27/content_377978.htm
 Energy consumption for electricity,
transportation, cooking, and heating is much
higher in urban areas than in rural villages. For
example, urban populations have many more
cars than rural populations per capita.
 In China the per capita consumption of coal in
towns and cities is over three times the
consumption in rural areas.
Effects on Weather
 Urban consumption of energy helps create heat islands that can
change local weather patterns and weather downwind from the
heat islands.
 The heat island phenomenon is created because cities radiate
heat back into the atmosphere at a rate 15 percent to 30 percent
less than rural areas.
 The combination of the increased energy consumption and
difference in albedo (radiation) means that cities are warmer than
rural areas (0.6 to 1.3 C).16
 And these heat islands become traps for atmospheric pollutants.
Cloudiness and fog occur with greater frequency.
 Precipitation is 5 percent to 10 percent higher in cities;
thunderstorms and hailstorms are much more frequent, but
snow days in cities are less common.
White and red are hot, and blue and green are cool. From surface temperature estimates,
the white areas are about 60 degrees C (140 degrees F),Dark areas (vegetation)
are approximately 29 to 36 degrees C (85-96 degrees F).
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/essd16mar_1m.htm
http://eande.lbl.gov/HeatIsland/
Urbanization and Health
 Some urban environmental problems include
inadequate water and sanitation, lack of rubbish
disposal, and industrial
 The health implications of these environmental
problems include respiratory infections and other
infectious and parasitic diseases.
 Because urban land prices are so high costs for building
cleaner public transportation systems and for building
more hospitals and clinics are higher in cities.
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0211/feature3/zoom2.html
http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2004/03/800756.shtml
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Urban air pollution kills more than 5,000 people per year in France
http://www.zapworld.com/about/news/watch_francepollution.asp
CANADA
 http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/indicator_detail.cfm
?IndicatorID=30&Country=CA
 http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/demo62
a-eng.htm

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URBANIZATION

Source: UN, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2003 Revision (2004).

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