Urban+Population

= Define urbanization and explain the variation in global growth rates and patterns. =

URBANISATION is the process where an increasing proportion of rural population move into urban areas.
It is also known as a… •Process of change from a rural society (where people are scattered over a large area) to an urban society (where people are concentrated in limited areas). •Process by which an increasing percentage of the population is living and working in urban areas (Population Geog – Rural-urban Migration) •Process caused by Industrialisation •The cause of changes of human behavior and attitudes towards society •Process that is ever increasing on a global scale •Transformation of an agricultural economy to a more metropolitan, westernised, market-based economy & lifestyle.

World Pattern of Urbanisation - EMDCs vs ELDCs The process of Urbanisation was very important to the EMDCs and Western Europe in the 19th century. Whereas, ELDCs and most of Asia have lagged behind, hitting peak urbanisation rates only in the 20th century. WHY?

EMDCs •Generally EMDCs have over 70% of total population living in urban areas. •Most of the people in EMDCs have either made the move from rural areas to urban areas •Most of the EMDCs have been urbanised. •Rate of urbanisation in EMDCs was gradual – you are looking at a process that took place over almost a century and a half.

ELDCs The rate of urbanisation in ELDCs is much faster than that in EMDCs TODAY. This is due to several factors that we will be studying in this topic: •The ELDCs are presently experiencing RAPID POPULATION GROWTH. •This is probably due to factors that have lowered DR rapidly, while BR remains high. •This creates pressure on ELDCs as both the urban and rural areas grow.

= 2. Explain the processes of centripetal movements (rural–urban migration, gentrification, re-urbanization/urban renewal) =

Rural-urban Migration

Gentrification 1. Urban Renewal
 * Reversal in decentralisation policy (Re-urbanisation)
 * Inner area revitalised and derelict industrial sites redeveloped into Special Enterprise Zone or leisure and retailing hubs
 * Intermix of residential, office, workshops and conference and exhibition facilities.
 * E.g. Renewal of London Docklands, Clark Quay and Singapore River

2. Renewal and gentrification (a) Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) were introduced to carry out renewal efforts E.g. The London Docklands (LDDC), Merseyside Development Corporation (MDC) (b) Demolishing extensive sites and rebuilding urban environment E.g. Birmingham city manage to rehouse 50 000 people. (c) Establish enterprise zones to stimulate economic activities through:
 * fiscal incentives like tax holidays and subsidies
 * grants to help lower cost
 * provision of information
 * reduce bureaucracy

3. Renovation (a) Rehabilitating existing neighbourhoods (b) Can be unpopular because (c) Renovated areas attracted younger people – Gentrification
 * renovate existing housing stock
 * improve existing streets
 * some people like the existing setup
 * renovation increase cost of housing, pushing some people out of the community

4. Replacement (a) Derelict land grants To pay the private sector to convert unused industrial space into useful open space or for other economic activities (b) Demolition of old buildings especially those build before 1970 Replaced the old buildings with new housing stock

Re-Urbanization Re-urbanization occurs when either the rate of population loss of the city core tapers off, or the city core starts regaining population but the city periphery may still be losing population. 1.The process includes:
 * Expanding and diversifying urban functions
 * Upgrading existing and constructing new housing
 * Restoring and extending infrastructure services
 * Promoting investment and economic activities
 * Alleviating environmental health hazards
 * The rebuilding of the townships
 * Restoration of the old city centres (attracting the middle-class back to the city)
 * E.g. existing fabric of Toronto’s Main Streets and their infrastructure capacity - planners looking to increase land-use density
 * The promotion of mixed use development is the most fundamental land use principle in re-urbanization

2. Reasons for the repopulation of city core (including inner city areas) include:
 * Growth of tertiary and quaternary industry in cities
 * Growth of new manufacturing industries - microelectronics, biotechnology in cities
 * Modern telecommunications and transport networks are attractive
 * Restoration of the old city centres to productive, habitable, environmentally healthy and safe urban environments, free from crime and violence, attracting the middle-class back to the city


 * Explain the processes of centrifugal movements (suburbanization, counter-urbanization, urban sprawl) **

Suburbanization: It is the decentralization of people, employment and services from the inner and central areas of cities and their relocation towards the margins of the built up area

What is a Suburb?
 * An area outside the central city but within the urbanized area
 * Once viewed as inferior, but is today a highly desired area of modern cities
 * Suburbanization started to catch on in late 19th century
 * In most EMDCs there has been mass suburbanization 1950 to present

Factors leading to the growth of the Suburbs (a) Pull Factors Transportation Technologies Growth closely associated with the expansion of paved roads and the growth in car ownership, both which greatly increase the mobility of the middle class.

Government Policies As part of policy to decentralise population and economic activities, the federal offers favourable loans for residential areas in the suburbs. The government also intervene directly by constructing more houses in the suburbs.

Cost of Living The cost of living initially was less expensive to live in suburbs. This was the result of lower housing cost and cheaper shopping at out-of town shopping malls. However

People’s Preference for Space Greater affluence led to a desire to improve on the quality of life beyond material comfort.

(b) Push Factors Decline of Inner City Services Shrinking of urban investment lead to drop in funds for public utilities and facilities in the city. Existing facilities are often out-dated and poorly constructed during periods of urban explosion, thus unable to cope with modern living.

Land (space) Shortage in the city Economic and population growth lead to intense competition for urban space. Many of the older cities also have low plot ratios because of the prevalence of old buildings. Rising cost thus lead to residential land users been pushed out by commercial land users.

Invasion-Secession New migrants (especially from Asia and America) lead to the growth of enclaves in the inner city area. The influx of migrants generated tension and threat against the middle class white population, pushing them out to the suburbs.

Impacts of Suburbanization: Decentralization trends have had significant effects on many central cities. While new residential and employment development increasingly located in the suburbs, what was left behind in the central cities? Too often the remaining uses included older and deteriorating housing, older industrial uses and older shopping districts.

Government and civic uses often remained in the cities and served as a somewhat stabilizing force. Many older central cities faced:
 * Declines in population,
 * Increases in low income population,
 * Declines in new building activity (and associated revenues);
 * Declines in retail activity (and associated sales tax).

Thus, suburbanization trends left many cities with an increasing demand for services, exacerbated by a declining tax base and reduced resources for providing those services.

Counter-urbanization The movement of people out of cities, to the surrounding areas There are four main reasons for counter-urbanisation: (a) Improvement in transport and communications The increase in car ownership over the last 40 years means people are more mobile. This has led to an increase in commuting. Also, the growth in information technology (E-mail, faxes and video conferencing) means more people can work from home.

(b) Degeneration of city environment Urban areas are becoming increasing unpleasant place to live. This is the result of pollution, crime and traffic congestion.

(c) Ageing Population More people tend to move when they retire. And they choose suburbs to live in

(d) Emergence of (out of) city business centres and parks New business parks on the edge of cities (on Greenbelts) mean people no longer have to travel to the city centre. People now prefer to live on the outskirts of the city to be near where they work.

Question: What is the difference between suburbanization and counter urbanization? Suburbanization: the movement of people and (some) economic activities such as industry from the central city to outer areas. Counter urbanization: The scatter of population and (many) economic activities away from the largest urban centres and beyond the suburbs to smaller places (e.g. towns)

Urban Sprawl // People are leaving congested, dense cities for less dense suburban locations, making suburban locations more crowded and congested. // Sprawl Processes/ Urbanization Sprawl is a pattern and pace of land development in which the rate of land consumed for urban purposes exceeds the rate of population growth and which results in an inefficient and consumptive use of land and its associated resources. Sprawl must be considered in a space-time context. It is not simply the increase of urban lands in a given area, but the rate of its increase relative to population growth.

Causes of sprawl Sprawl is a form of metropolitan growth that is a response to often bewildering sets of economic, social, and political forces and to the physical geography of an area. These forces and factors include:
 * Population growth,
 * Strong economy,
 * Increasing household incomes,
 * Fragmented municipal governments,
 * Patterns of infrastructure investments:
 * Public subsidization of infrastructure: the construction of roads and the provision of infrastructure using public money encourages development,
 * ‘White flight’ from cities, and
 * Topographic barriers and other physical constraints upon development

Effects of sprawl (a) Social Impacts Concerns over urban sprawl and its consequences are not new, and this phenomenon as been subject to considerable scrutiny by academics, social critics, and public policy makers since the shift of people and economic activities beyond city cores intensified after 1945. Opinion appears to be divided over the social and economic impacts of sprawl, for the evidence indicates that both social /economic benefits and costs accrue from this phenomenon.

Favourable assessments of sprawl’s social impacts include:
 * Reducing the housing gap between blacks and whites;
 * Providing housing opportunities for minorities and recent immigrants; and
 * Increasing the affordability of housing in both suburbs and cities.

Unfavourable assessments of sprawl’s social impacts include:
 * Loss of community spirit and values;
 * Less leisure time; traffic congestion and longer commuting times;
 * Over-crowded schools;
 * Higher taxes,
 * Higher costs of providing infrastructure, and adverse fiscal impacts on local governments;
 * Ill-health due to air pollution generated by traffic;
 * Reduced worker productivity; ugly, monotonous suburban landscapes;
 * Loss of a sense of place;
 * Marked spatial disparities in wealth between cities and suburbs; and
 * Land development patterns making the establishment and use of mass transit systems difficult.

(b) Environmental Impacts
 * Sprawl’s impacts upon ecosystems and other environmental resources are considerable.
 * Sprawl and associated activities degrade environmental resources such as surface water and groundwater, air quality, and landscape aesthetics, and destroys wildlife habitats.
 * It restricts or eliminates access to natural resources/raw materials such as timber, fuel minerals, and non-fuel minerals including sand, gravel, and limestone – the materials from which cities are constructed, and results in the lost of prime agricultural lands within and nearby metropolitan areas.

Explain the global increase in the number and location of megacities (population over 10 million).
Mega City Mega-cities are "cities that are expected to have populations of at least eight million inhabitants by the year 2000" (UN). Like so many threshold figures used in the social sciences, this minimum size seems to have been plucked from the air. There is no theoretical basis for asserting that a city with eight million people is qualitatively different from one with rather fewer inhabitants. The term "mega-city" is frequently used as a synonym of words such as "super-city," "giant city," "conurbation," "megalopolis," "world city," and so on.

Primate City: The primate city is the largest most dominant city in a region. The law of the primate city explains the phenomenon of huge cities that capture a large proportion of a country's population as well as its economic activity. The degree of primacy refers to the dominance of the largest city over the rest of the country. Primate city dominates the country in influence and is the national focal-point It dominates the country in terms of its population size, its political, administrative and economic importance Its sheer size and activity becomes a strong pull factor, bringing additional residents to the city and causing the primate city to become even larger and more disproportional to smaller cities in the country. Most ELDCs have a high degree of primacy while most EMDCs have a low degree of primacy. These primate cities are often, but not always, the capital cities of a country. An excellent example of a primate city is Paris, which truly represents and serves as the focus of France.

Factors that cause high primacy include:
 * Having an underdeveloped economy
 * Having an agriculturally dominant economy
 * A rapidly expanding population
 * A recent colonial history

Characteristics of primate city:
 * Simple economic structure
 * Small territorial area
 * High population density
 * High population growth rate
 * Low per capita income
 * Dependence on agricultural export
 * Colonial history