Processes Associated With Urban Growth

Question 1

Causes of urban growth

Answer 1

. Natural population growth

. Rural to urban migration

Question 2

Natural population

Answer 2

. Have a younger population

. Most fertile

Question 3

Pull factors to move to city

Answer 3

. Employment in factories and service industries (eg hotels), which is better paid
. Earning money from the informal sector, eg. Selling goods on the street
. Better quality social provisions eg. Education
. A perceived better quality of life in the city in the media

Question 4

Push factors to move to city

Answer 4

. Population growth causing over-farming, soil erosion and low yields
. Agricultural problems e.g. desertification, systems of inheritance (land to be subdivided into small plots), debt on loans
. Local diseases and inadequate medicine
. Wars
Agriculture being organised globally. Land previously used to grow food for local people is now being used to produce cash crops for sale in Higher Income Countries.
. Natural disasters

Question 5

Urban sprawl

Answer 5

. The spread of an urban area into the surrounding countryside.
. Linked to the process of suburbanisation and urbanisation
. Traditionally occurred in an uncontrolled and unplanned fashion.

Question 6

Negatives of urban sprawl

Answer 6

• Requires more roads and infrastructure
• Wildlife habitat loss
• Causes more commuting so more fuel consumption and traffic congestion
• Air pollution + UHI effect
• Loss of farmland and open spaces
• Impact on water quality and quantity

Question 7

Shortage of housing in LICs

Answer 7

. 2013 UN Habitat said 863 million live in slums, probably around 1 billion

Question 8

House prices London

Answer 8

Rose by 50% between 2010-2015