Paper 2 - Urban Issues And Challenges Flashcards
What is urbanisation?
Its the growth in the proportion of a country’s population living in urban areas.
How much of the world population currently live in urban areas?
More than 50% and increasing.
What’s the rate of urbanisation in HICs?
They’re more economically developed, and most of the urbanisation happened earlier than the NEEs and LICs.
They have very slow rates, and lots of people are now moving to rural areas.
What’s the rate of urbanisation in LICs?
They’re less economically developed.
Not many live in urban areas.
Generally the fastest rates of urbanisation.
What is the rate of urbanisation is NEEs?
The economic development is increasing rapidly.
The percentage of the population living in urban areas varies.
Some have rapid urban grow others not.
What is urbanisation caused by?
Rural-urban migration and natural increase.
What is rural-urban migration?
Its the movement of people from the countryside to the cities.
The rate is affected by push and pull factors.
What is meant by push and pull factors?
Push = things that encourage people to leave an area.
Pull = things that encourage people to move to an area.
What are some push factors?
- Natural disasters, can damage property and farmland, which people can’t afford to repair.
- Mechanisation of agricultural equipment - farms require fewer workers so there are fewer jobs.
- Desertification, can make land unproductive so people can no longer support themselves.
- Conflict or war can cause people to flee their homes.
What are some pull factors?
- There are more jobs in urban areas that are often better paid.
- Access to better health care and education.
- To join other family members who have already moved.
- People think they will have a better quality of life.
What is natural increase?
Its when the birth rate is higher than the death rate, so the population grows.
What are megacities?
An urban area with over 10 million people living there.
There are currently 34 - more than 2/3 are in LICs/NEEs.
What are the social opportunities of urban growth in NEEs/LICs?
- There is better access to services (health care and education).
- There is so better access to resources (clean water, food, electricity).
What are the economic opportunities of urban growth in NEEs/LICs?
- The growth of urban industrial areas can increase economic development.
- As industries develop, more people move to urban areas to work in the factories - there are more jobs and better wages than in rural areas.
- Industries sell the goods they produce o the international market. Manufactured goods make greater profits than unprocessed goods (agriculture), so industrialised countries get wealthier.
What are the social and economic challenges of urbanisation?
Many people who move to the city form rural areas end up in squatter settlements (slums).
- They can’t afford proper housing so are often badly built and overcrowded.
- People often don’t have access to basic services (clean water, proper sewer, electricity).
- The unclean conditions and lack of access to medical services means people often have poor health.
- People may not have access to education, so they get stuck in a loop. They often work long hours for little pay.
- There can be high levels of unemployment and crime.
What are slums?
Settlements that are built illegally in and around the city, by people who can’t afford proper housing.
What are the environmental challenges of urbanisation?
- Rubbish often isn’t collected or it may end up in big rubbish heaps. It can damage the environment especially if toxic.
- Air pollution comes from burning fuel, vehicle exhaust fumes and factories.
- Sewage and toxic chemicals can get into rivers, harming wildlife.
- The road system may not be able to cope with all the vehicles. Congestion causes increased greenhouse gas emissions.
What are the main parts of a city?
Central business district
The inner city
The suburbs
The rural-urban fringe
What is the central business district?
CBD is usually found right in the centre of a city.
Its the commercial centre of the city, with shops and offices, and its where transport routes meet.
It has very high land values as there’s a lot of competition for space.
Buildings are tall and building density is very high.
Very few people live in the CBD.
What is the inner city?
This is the part found around the CBD.
It has a mix of poorer quality housing (like high rise tower blocks) and older industrial buildings.
The inner city can be quite run-down and deprived but there’s also newer housing and industry where derelict land has been cleared and redeveloped.
What are the suburbs?
These are housing areas found towards the edge of the city. Land here is cheaper and its still close enough to commute into the centre for work quite easily. In the UK and USA middle class families tend to live in the suburbs, because its a nicer environment and there’s less crime and pollution than the inner city.
What is the rural-urban fringe?
This is the part right at the edge of a city, where there are both urban land uses (factories) and rural land uses (farming).
Here you tend to find fewer, larger houses.
What opportunities come from urban change?
- Immigrant communities were attracted by low cost inner city housing. Many UK cities are now very multicultural.
- Redevelopment presents opportunities for new investment. Hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues can be upgraded to make the city centre more attractive.
- CBDs have been redeveloped with offices and entertainment facilities - creating employment opportunities.
- Cities dealing with congestion problems and high numbers of commuters coming into CBD have developed innovative transport solutions.
- The importance of green space in cities is being increasingly recognised by planners. Parks, gardens and open spaces are being incorporated into regenerated areas.
What challenges come from urban change?
- Industrial decline in cities caused a decrease in wealth. People move away, leaving derelict buildings that became a target for crime, and areas in many inner cities became deprived.
- Deprived areas are linked to poor access to health care, education and job opportunities compared to other areas - these inequalities can lead to social unrest.
- Derelict land in inner cities provides brownfield sites. However, high demand for housing means new estates also sprawl onto rural greenfield sites.
- The rural-urban fringe is under pressure from the development of business parks and large shopping centres - the land here is attractive because of good transport links and its lower cost.
