Urban+populations

PROCESSES OF URBANIZATION
Urbanization results from three main factors:
 * 1) Migration to urban areas
 * 2) High birth rates due to the youthful age structure
 * 3) High death rates in rural areas due to diseases and unreliable food supply, famine and falling standard of living.

Urbanization in MEDCs has slowed down in the past few years. This is partly due to improved living conditions in rural areas, the introduction of efficient public transport services and the increase in private car ownership.This has led to //Urban Decay//, a process whereby urban areas experience dereliction, lack of demand for inner city lands, graffiti in public places, etc.

The processes affecting urban environments are categorised into three:
 * 1) Centripetal (Inward)movements which includes:
 * Rural-urban migration,
 * gentrification
 * reurbanisation(urban renewal)

2. Centrifugal (Outward)movement which includes:
 * Suburbanisation
 * Counterurbanisation
 * Urban sprawl

3. Natural change


 * CENTRIPETAL MOVEMENTS **

// a. Rural-urban migration: //

It is the movement of people from rural areas to urban areas. It is caused by urban ‘pull’ and rural ‘push’ factors. Urban ‘pull’ factors that attracts people from villages to cities. They include better housing, improved sanitation, job prospects, bright light syndrome etc in urban areas. Rural ‘push’ are the difficulties people face in rural areas which compels them to move to the city. They include poor housing, poor sanitation, decline in farming, lack of educational opportunities, lack of jobs, poverty, and the generally poor level of infrastructural dev’t

// b. Gentrification //

It is the process whereby middle class people move away into inner cities to buy derelict building and redevelop them into high class residential areas. It also has an economic dimension, in which the house under dereliction is renovated to generate economic activity in the area. It may lead to the social displacement of poor people, as the gentrified area becomes too expensive for the poor to be able to afford. Young, married professionals begin to move to such areas thereby changing the population structure. E.gs in New York – Greenwich Village and Brooklyn Heights. In London – Fulham and Chelsea.

// c. Re-urbanisation (urban renewal) //

It is the process of revitalizing urban areas and a mov’t of people from the outskirts of cities into these places. It may involve government policies that are meant to improve the living conditions in such places, which result the injection of capital to revitalize the dilapidated area. It includes the process of gentrification. Urban renewal refers to the rehabilitation of city areas that have fallen into decline. E.g. London Dockland Dev’t Corporation (LDDC) Read the New Wider World; Manhattan in New York


 * CENTRIFUGAL MOVEMENTS **

// a. Suburbanisation //

• It is the outward movement of people, industries shops from inner cities to live in areas outside the city • It is the opposite of gentrification • It occurred mainly in the US, UK and Australia around the early 20th century. • It was made possible by an improvement in transport network – electric tramways and public buses • It was also possible due to a decline in the price of farmlands, coupled with rising wages and high standards of living, necessitating private housing.

// b. Counterurbanisation //

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. It is also referred to as deurbanisation. Reasons for counterurbanisation include; // c. 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. People living in sprawled neighborhoods drive daily to the CBD to work. Dev’t such as shopping malls, fast food chains, and housing sub-divisions are typical of sprawl environments. They are characterized by low-density housing, large lawns, wide streets and landscaping. E.g many large cities like London, New York, Tokyo are all characterized by urban sprawl.
 * High prices of land in urban areas
 * Congestion
 * Pollution
 * High crime rate
 * Lack of community spiritedness
 * Declining services

It refers to the the process of population change resulting from the changes in birth and death rates.
 * NATURAL CHANGE **

when birth rates exceeds death rates, there is going to be a natural increase, which has the tendency to increase the population in the urban areas. On the other hand,when the death rate exceeds the birth rate, there will be a natural decrease which has the tendency to ]decrease the population of the urban areas.

It can therefore be stated that in the urban areas population growth can take place through natural increase resulting from citizens of the urban areas intermarrying and reproducing to increase the population.


 * MEGACITIES **

Megacities are cities with population of over 10million people. It occurs as a result of three main process:
 * Economic growth, as a result of industrialization leading to an increase in demand for labour in mines and manufacturing sectors.
 * Natural increase due to the youthful nature of urban population resulting in high birth rates
 * Rural Urban Migration, especially in LEDCs

The last two causes are common in LEDCs Large populations results in a increase in the number of people living in towns and cities. In 2008, the UN claimed that 74% of the world’s population lived in towns and cities in MEDCs and 45% in LEDCs. In 1900, the only mega cities in the world were London and Paris. Today, the number of megacities have increased with Tokyo having about 35m people as at 2000(as at 2016 Tokyo has a population of above 30 million.) Whilst urbanization is slowing down in MEDCs (rate of 1.5% pa) it is rapidly increasing in LEDCs, esp China at a rate of 4-5% p.a. List of world’s top 20 cities

In 2005, mega-cities accounted for about 9.3 per cent of the world’s urban population. By 2017, other mega cities will include Mumbai, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, New York, Jakarta, Delhi, and Lagos. Urbanization comes with environmental (pollution) and social problems (crime and dev’t of slums). But it is also important for wealth generation – about 80% of economic output is generated from urban areas in MEDCs.

General trend in growth of mega cities • The largest cities are in South-East Asia and Latin America. • The fastest growing cities are in S.E. Asia mostly due to migration • The rate of grow of cities in MEDCs slowed in the 2nd half of 20th Cent. But picked up again due to migration • In China, most large cities are along the coastal areas. Read Integrated Approach page 419 for details.


 * URBAN LAND-USE IN MEDCS **

The location of residential areas in MEDCS in relation to wealth of residents can be explained using urban land-use models. A model is an idea or a theory, which might not exist, but helps to explain reality. It has been suggested that urban areas developed with recognizable shapes and patterns. Two of such earliest land use models are:

// 1. Burgess – Concentric model // • Burgess developed the concentric model • Studies Chicago in the United States • Claimed that towns and cities have // Central Business District(CBD) // in the center • Towns grew in a concentric pattern • Circles were based on: Buildings become newer and the occupants more wealthier with distance from the CBD
 * 1) • Age of houses
 * 2) • Wealth of occupants

// 2. Hoyt – Sector model // He stressed the importance of transport routes in urban development. He suggested that urban areas developed in sectors alongside the main transport route in and out of the city. Acknowledged that the center of the city is the CBD • That low-cost housing and new industries developed in the same sector

// 3. The Bid-Rent Curve // Away from the CBD land becomes less expensive for commercial activities –shown by steep angle of the curve (A-A). Industry prefers land that is less attractive for commercial activities – shown by (B-B). Residential Land (C-C) is found further away from the CBD where land values decrease. The model therefore explains why population density is high near the city center (with low income earners living in low class residential areas) and why wealthy people live near the city boundary and commute to the city.This curve is based on the bid-rent theory. The bid rent theory is a theory that refers to how the price and demand for land changes as the distance from the Central Business District (CBD) increases. The basic assumption of the model is that the highest bidder gets the land and is expected to obtain maximum profit from the land. This is based upon the idea that because businesses wish to maximize their [|profitability], they are willing to pay more money for land close to the CBD and less for land further away

// Secondary land value peaks // On the basis of Bid-rent theory, ‘ the more accessible the site, the higher its land value’. Rents will therefore be highest along main routes out of the city center and outer ring roads. Where two of these roads intersect, a secondary PLVI develops. Such an area is likely to be a small shopping mall (e.g Accra Mall) or and industrial area.