Settlement dynamics Flashcards
Issues of internal migration
Unemployment and employment focusing on marginal sectors, instability between sectors, the instability of urbanization between regions and the obstruction in infrastructure services.
Consequences of urban growth
Greater poverty, with local governments unable to provide services for all people. Concentrated energy use leads to greater air pollution with significant impact on human health. Urban development can magnify the risk of environmental hazards such as flash flooding.
Urbanisation
The population shift from rural to urban areas.
Causes of urbanisation in HICs and MICs
Natural population growth and rural-urban push and pull factors.
Causes of urbanisation in LICs
Better healthcare/education, plentiful food as it is imported, higher wages, employment protection, government investment policies.
Consequences of urbanisation
Overcrowding, squatters, lack of available work, pollution, taxes, crime and improvement strategies.
Overcrowding
Rapid population rise leaves houses overcrowded, children may be abandoned, and people forced to sleep rough.
Squatters
Houses built on unused land (dirty, unsafe, polluted) as no housing available.
Lack of available work
Labour influx exceeds demands, so people unemployed. Many unskilled labourers cause wages to decrease – enhances poverty. Factories employ women and children to do dirty and dangerous work.
Pollution
Smoke and toxic liquids directly released. Raw sewage and rubbish dumped and flows into rivers.
Taxes
Councils can’t raise taxes when many are in poverty/the informal sector, so public services and infrastructure begin to suffer.
Crime
Generally, increases
Improvement strategies
If money is available, build high-rise housing. Self-help schemes. Site/service schemes (where services and jobs are provided).
Counter urbanisation
When large numbers of people move from urban areas into surrounding countryside or rural areas.
Re-urbanisation
The movement of people back into an area that has been previously abandoned.
Competition for land
Reflected in land prices and property rental prices. Often competition leads to derelict sites, social classes forced into ghettos and poorer people being forced out of the inner city.
Urban renewal
Can be property-led, partnership schemes or private initiatives; where the best parts of a location are kept, and adapts them to fit new uses.
World city
Those that exert a dominant influence over continental and global economies and processes.
Mega city
Population > 10 million, density > 2000 people per km2, can be made up of converging areas.
Millionaire city
A city with 1 million people.
Causes of growth of urbanisation
TNCs, communication and demographics.
TNCs
(Transnational corporation) An enterprise that is involved with the international production of goods or services.
Communication
Phones and the internet allow one office to provide services all around the world – global brands can be easily managed from one place.
Demographics
High natural increase and ‘in-migration’ produces a large working population.
Development of a hierarchy
Based on the Global Cities Index, where rankings consider 24 measures across business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, political engagement.
Social factors affecting the location of activities within urban areas
Age and cultural value of buildings, land ownership, inmigration and quality of life issues.
Economic factors affecting the location of activities within urban areas
Transport links, competition from other businesses, proximity to other parts of the supply chain (especially for industry) and proximity to potential employees.
Environmental factors affecting the location of activities within urban areas
Air pollution and quality, water pollution, physical pollution (noise); waste management; soil quality, green spaces and open spaces, protected areas, visual quality.
Political factors affecting the location of activities within urban areas
Government policy and political stability or instability.
How urban areas change over time
As these rural populations grew, cities began to develop. Urban areas are defined by dense populations, the construction of multiple and often large buildings, monuments and other structures, and greater economic dependence on trade rather than agriculture or fishing.
The CBD
(Central business district)
The commercial centre of an urban area.
Changing CBD
Increased pedestrian zones, indoor shopping centres, environmental and safety improvements and better access, as public transport and road networks improve.
Bird rent
States that different land users will compete with one another for land close to the city centre.
Functional zonation
The pattern of land uses in an urban area whereby distinctive retail, office, manufacturing and residential zones can be recognised.
Causes of residential segregation
Income, age and race/ethnicity.
Income
High income gives people a wide choice of places to live; people can choose the best house/location they can afford (car ownership allows long commutes). Leads to gated communities. Lower income households have choice limited by house prices and access to public transport.
Age
As someone ages, they need an increasingly large house. Young people buy flats, then as a small family grows, then number of bedrooms required increases. Once children move away, parents downsize to smaller properties.
Race
Clustering results in ‘ethnic villages’ or ‘ghettos’. Linked to income too, as migrants typically have low income, therefore must locate close to CBD.
Processes of residential segregation
Housing/market, influence of family/friends, culture, planning and finance
Housing/market
Housing supply should equal demand – but doesn’t. Therefore, housing in short supply causes high property prices, and low-income people are pushed to the urban periphery.
Influence of family/friends
People migrating into an urban area tend to cluster close to family or friends for comfort and support.
Culture
Even if people earn enough to live in a certain area, they may choose not to if they don’t feel comfortable.
Planning
Urban planners aim for a good social mix of people to avoid ghettos.
Finance
If access to mortgages is good, residential segregation won’t be severe.
