Settlement Dynamics - 6.2 Urban trends and issues of urbanisation

Question 1

What is the cycle of urbanisation?

Answer 1

• Urbanisation
• Suburbanisation
• Counterurbanisation
• Reurbanisation

Question 2

What is urbanisation?

Answer 2

An increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas compared to rural areas. An urban area is a built-up area such as a town or a city.

Question 3

What is suburbanisation?

Answer 3

The decentralisation of people, employment, and services from the inner city towards the rural urban fringe. Rapid suburban growth occurs because of:

• Government support for house-building
• The willingness of local authorities to provide piped water and sewage systems, gas and electricity etc.
• The expansion of building societies
• Low interest rates

Question 4

What is counterurbanisation?

Answer 4

When a large number of people move from urban areas into surrounding countryside or rural areas. It is a dominant feature of population in most HIC cities today. Areas with high central rent rates like London will see a counterurbanisation pattern, and has with 20-30 decentralisation centres between 20-80km from London, like Dorking.

Question 5

what is reurbanisation?

Answer 5

The movement of people back into an area that has been previously abandoned. Usually a government’s initiative to counter the problem of inner city decline. Government initiatives like gentrification projects, like the British government projection of 4.4 million new homes built from the 1990’s, where 60% will be in urban areas.

Question 6

What is urban redevelopment?

Answer 6

Complete clearance of existing buildings and infrastructure and constructing new buildings, often for a different purpose.

Question 7

What is urban renewal?

Answer 7

It keeps the best elements of the existing urban environment, often due to planning regulations, and adapts them to new usages, like a bank becoming a restaurant, but having the same infrastructure etc.

Question 8

What is urban regeneration?

Answer 8

It involves both redevelopment and renewal.

Question 9

What is the competition for land?

Answer 9

Competition varies according to location, and level of competition can vary over time. The best measures for competition are the price of land and the rents charged for floorspace in the buildings. But, planning measures like land-use zoning and other restrictions complicate the free market processes to a considerable degree.

Question 10

What are global (world) cities?

Answer 10

These are cities that are judged to be an important nodal point in the global economic system, they play a major role in global affairs in terms of politics, economics and culture. Only New York and London are Alpha++ cities, with Hong Kong and Tokyo being one of a number of Alpha+ cities. There are also four lower levels, the next two being Beta level and Gamma level, including Berlin and Montreal respectively.

Question 11

What are the causes of the growth of world cities?

Answer 11

1. Demographic trends 2. Economic development 3. Cultural / Social status 4. Political importance
2. Significant rates of natural increase and in-migration at different points in time for cities in HIC’s, MIC’s and LIC’s. These large population clusters offer potential for workforce and market growth.
3. The emergence of major manufacturing and service centres in national and continental space, along with key transport nodes established.
4. The cultural facilities of large cities are important elements of their overall attraction to FDI and tourism.
5. Many global cities are capital cities, benefiting from high levels of investment into infrastructure.