Challenges of Urbanisation Flashcards
Describe urbanisation trends and patterns
As the years go by, an increasing number of people are starting to live in urban areas.
Urbanisation is happening faster in developed and emerging countries than in developed countries, because they are more urbanised. Cities in developed countries may also have issues with congestion and lack of affordable housing, which can lead to counter urbanisation.
It is estimated that emerging countries will see a larger proportion of the population move to urban areas by 2050.
What is urban primacy?
Occurs when a city grows at the expense of the area around it. It ‘sucks’ people and resources of the surrounding area because no one wants to go anywhere else. It becomes the ‘core’ and the area around it is called the ‘hinterland’
What is a megacity?
A city with over 10 million inhabitants.
Describe the patterns of megacities around the world
The number of megacities is increasing rapidly.
Majority are in Asia, where there are emerging economies and rapid rates of urbanisation. In India alone, there are 5 megacities.
What is rural-urban migration?
When people move from rural areas to urban areas, usually within the same country.
It increases the rate of urbanisation, and is a characteristic of emerging countries. Many migrants are young, economically active people, who can start families and increase the birth rate and population. (natural increase)
What is counter-urbanisation?
When people move from urban to rural areas, usually within the same country.
More common in developed countries.
It is affected by either push or pull factors.
What are push factors and give examples
Reasons for people to leave a place.
e.g. poor transport links, lack of key services, lack of pay
What are pull factors and give examples
Reasons for people to move to a place
e.g. good medical facilities, entertainment, good jobs, high pay
How might a city start to decline?
Companies start to shut down or reduce the numbers of people they employ -people may move away from the city.
Investment will therefore be moved elsewhere, where there is better economic growth and cause a downwards spiral - the city will become run down and crime rates will increase.
What is formal employment?
Jobs that involve paying taxes, having a regular wage and offer some legal protection for workers. In developed countries, most jobs are formal.
What is informal employment?
Jobs that the government does not collect tax from and workers are not protected by law. They are easy for new arrivals to a city in a developing or emerging countries.
What are the features of formal employment?
Workers usually work for an established business e.g. an office or factory.
Employees have rights and are protected by law, e.g. minimum wage laws and health and safety laws.
Employees pay tax to the government.
If employees join a trade union, they are able to campaign for higher pay and better conditions.
Working conditions are regulated.
What are the features of informal employment?
Workers work for themselves, often on the street.
They do not have rights, if they are ill they get no pay and there are no minimum wages.
They do not pay tax - it is illegal.
They may need to pay protection money to gangs, or be at risk of being robbed/ attacked by them.
Conditions are often dangerous and unhealthy - they may be expected to work long hours.
Describe the secondary sector
Urban economies in emerging countries are dominated by the secondary sector.
The secondary sector is also significant in developing economies, as they process the primary products.
Many migrants move from rural areas, which are dominated by primary sector jobs, to urban areas to look for secondary sector jobs with better pay.
Describe the tertiary sector
The tertiary sector is important to urban emerging economies because of provided government jobs, tourism and transport industries. In developing countries, the tertiary sector tends to be informal.
In developed economies, it’s the most dominant and produces the most GDP and employs the most people.
