Topic 5: Urban Fututres (Paper 2)

Question 1

What is urbanisation?

Answer 1

This is an increase in the amount of people living in urban areas, such as towns or cities
In 2007, the UN announced that or the first time, more than 50% of the world’s population live in urban areas

Question 2

What is and what are the key charateristics of the settlement heirachy?

Answer 2

Classifying a number of settlements according to their size and shape.
Key characteristics:
* the number of services that a settlement provides increases with settlement size
* small settlements will only provide low-order services, such as post officies
* larger settlements and conurbations have a much smaller sphere of influenece than smaller ones
* the range of a service or product is the maximum distance people are prepared to travel to purchase it.

Question 3

What is the definition of a worldcity and a mega city?

Answer 3

Megacity - An urban area with over 10million people living there
* More than two thirds of current megacities are located in either LIDCs or EDCs. The amount of megacities are predicted to increase from 28 to 41 by 2030.

Worldcity - Cities that are centres for trade and business. They hold global influence.
* Key ‘world cities’ inlcude London, New York, Paris and Tokyo. Most are located within ACs but are now gradually expanding to EDCs, such as Moscow.

Question 4

What are the push and pull factors causing urbanisation?

Answer 4

Push
* Natural disasters
* War and conflict
* Mechanisation
* Drought
Pull
* More jobs
* Better education and healthcare
* Increased quality of life
* Following family members

Question 5

What are the concequences of urbanisation in LIDCs (social, economic and environmental)?

Answer 5

Social
* Little official housing availiable
* infrastructure struggles to support growing population
* increase in crime rates
Environmental
* rubbish may not be collected
* sewage and toxic waste pollutes river environments
* increased conjestion produces more pollution
Economic
* may not be enough jobs - increased unemployment
* informal secor increases
* little access to education and healthcare

Question 6

What is counter-urbanisation and what are the push and pull factors?

Answer 6

The movement of people from the city centre back to rural areas.
Push
* Overcrowding and pollution
* Unemployment increases
* Deindustrialisation of the centre
* Traffic congestion increases CO2.
Pull
* Green spaces and family friendly
* New, modern housing estates
* Improved public transport
* Rents cheaper on outskirts

Question 7

What is suburbanisation and what are the push and pull factors?

Answer 7

The mobement of people from city centres to the outskirts.
Push
* Overcrowding and pollution
* Unemployment increases
* Deindustrialisation of the centre
* Traffic congestion increases CO2.
Pull
* Green spaces and family friendly
* New, modern housing estates
* Improved public transport
* Rents cheaper on outskirts

Question 8

What are the concequences of suburbanisation (social, economic and environemntal)?

Answer 8

Social
* Offices and businesses abandoned
* economic and ethnic segregation
Economic
* People leave centres and they become deserted
* Unemployment incresease which leads to poverty
Environmental
* New housing damages countryside and habitats
* Increase of cars adds to air pollution

Question 9

What is re-urbanisation and what are the push and pull factors?

Answer 9

The movement of people back into city centres.
Push
* Lack of jobs in suburban areas
* Less lesiure and entertainment in rural areas
* Counter-urbanisation may have increased house prices
Pull
* Redevelopmeny of brownfield sites with improved housing
* Young people are attracted to the Universities
* People are attracted to the entertainment facilities avaliable

Question 10

What are the concequences of re-urbanisation (social, economic, environmental)?

Answer 10

Social
* Shops and services will benefit from the additional residents
* Increase in tension between older residents
* House prices in redeveloped areas increase
* Schools benefit from inrease in students
* More jobs in the areas
Economic
* New shops and services will improve local economy
* Jobs avaliable may not be accessible to original residents
* Urban tourism may increase
Environmental
* Redevelopment of brownfield sites improves old industrial and polluted areas
* Decreases pressure on greenfield areas
* Could destroy urban wildlife

Question 11

Case Study: Describe the rapid urbanisation of Lagos, Nigeria
* Background
* Effects of urbanisation (social, environmental and economic)
* Management

Answer 11

Background: Lagos is a port on the coast of Nigeria. Recently the city has experienced rapid population growth with 3.4 million extra people between 2000 and 2010.
Effects of urbanisation
* Social: many live without electricity, high diseases rate and low life expectancy
* Economic: high rate of corruption due to officials, business is limited due to poor infrastructure
* Environmental: large scale traffic issues, slums (Makoko) are heavily polluted with poor sanitation
Management
* Authorities removed many dewellings in slums, such as Makoko
* A loam of $200 million from the World Bank to improve drainage and solid waste
* New ideas such as the ‘floating homes and school’ have been sugested

Question 12

Define these keywords:
* informal housing
* internal growth
* greenbelt area
* conurbanisation

Answer 12

• Informal housing: This is housing that is built on land that dosen’t velong to those who are building it. This may be on land that is unsuitable due to its surroundingd - e.g. Makoko slum
• Occurs when urban areas experience rapid rates of population growth. This comes as a result of a large amount of arrival of people in cities, who after finding a job, house and partner will have children. (Mostly in LIDCs)
• This is a zone of land surrounding a city where new building is strictly controlled to try to prevent growing too much too fast
• A conurbation is a region comprising a number of cities, large towns, and other urban areas that, thorugh population growth have merged to form one continuous urban or industrually developed area (e.g. Greater Manchester)

Question 13

Case Study of an AC: London
* Background and Location
* Cities importance

Answer 13

• Background and location: London is the capital of the UK, it is a world city located in the south east of England.
• Cities important: Over 20% of the UK’s income comes from London. Centre of UK’s transport system - road, rail, air and shipping links; London major influene on surrounding area. Companies are attracted because of proximity of lodon. South East and East of England are big economies