Unit 4 Overview 2

Question 1

process of urbanisation

Answer 1

the proportion of people living in urban areas compared to rural areas. refers to the increasing % of a population living in urban areas of a country. This typically involves the movement or shift of people from rural to urban areas or a large influx of migrants into urban areas a greater rate than into rural area

Question 2

urban growth

Answer 2

increase in the number of people living in urban places

Question 3

concept of livability

Answer 3

embodies all of the features that contribute to the quality of life experienced by residents and others in a place e.g quality of life, health, sense of safety, access to services, cost of living, comfortable living standards, mobility, transport and air qualitity and social participation.

Question 4

describe the implications of urbanisation on world population growth in urban and rural places

Answer 4

rapid growth has been driven largely by increasing numbers of people surviving to reproductive age and has been accompanied by major changes in fertility rates, improvements to healthcare, technological advancement in medicine and living standards, increasing urbanisation and acceleration of migration

Question 5

implications of urbanisation on world population growth - urban places

Answer 5

megacities - growth of megacities e.g lagos (nigeria) estimated 2100 population of 88 million. effects sizes of settlements and can lead to growth of megacities. lead to increase number of people struggling to provide necessities for its people. whereas rich countries megacities have influence in (business, politics, media etc)

Question 6

urbanisation

Answer 6

proportion of people living in urban areas compared to rural areas, growth in size of population as a result of rural to urban migration of people

Question 7

urban living characteristics

Answer 7

higher levels of education
better health
longer life expectancy
greater access to social services
more social and cultural opportunities
as a result of this child survival rates are much higher than in rural areas

Question 8

implications of urbanisation on world population - rural places

Answer 8

younger generation attracted to prospects of better employment, education, social and cultural opportunities in the city “circle of decline” in WA outback. large amounts of females leaving due to no employment

Question 9

economic interdependence of urban and rural places

Answer 9

supply of agricultural products to be consumed locally and exported to both national and international markets is a significant interation between urban and rural places. Food e.g (cotton, rice, wheat) are produced rurally and trnasported to urban for processing. Australia exports 70% of total production f agriculture to china, india etc.

other raw materials supplied from rural places to urban places include those from mining and forestry. forest products such as timber are used in construction and a fuel source in urban places in developing countries. Mining operations provide significant link between urban and rural places. Job creation both in rural and urban places. urban workforce that travels out to rural areas demonstrate interdependence

Energy production for urban places is predominately carried out in rural areas. Location of non renewable energy sources such as coal, oil, and natuaral gas has typically been in rural areas and therefore many power generation facilities have been found in these locations.

Question 10

environmental interdependence

Answer 10

rural areas by their nature are viewed as being away from urban places this results in positve and negative interactions and outcomes in terms of envrionmental interdependence
rural areas attraction in terms of short term lifestyle experiences provided by the environment. Desire to experience opportunities for an escape recreation wilderness etc. is common
urban places rely on rural places to manage the environment effectively to ensure the needs of growing urban populations are met. Services e.g clean air and water in urban areas are largely dependent on how well these are managed by rural places

Question 11

describe the historical factors that have contributed to
the spatial distribution of urban and rural places in Australia

Answer 11

The reason for settlement and the timing of settlement are significant historical factors that set the trend for the spatial distribution of urban and rural places in Australia. 6 separate capital cities grew over time to dominate the urban settlement pattern. Each settlement located on the coast and on a river, inlet or natural harbour. Each centre was the focus of administration and gov activities. main ports for the colonies for import/export trade. as activities grew all road and rail transport connected to and radiate it from these urban places. Security was paramount so “limit of location acts” were enacted to prevent free settlers and ex convicts from venturing too far inland away from gov authorities. wool/wheat production primary export was england. most agricultural produce was sent back to capital cities allowing for growth and expansion

Question 12

Cultural factors

Answer 12

cultural factors influence australias distribution as aussies loe outdoors and benefits of coastal lifestyle. This reinforced pattern of dense settlement along coastal zones. Additionally relience of private car ownership has seen many australians willing to drive distances to work, education and lesuire activities. Rural-urban drifthas seen movement of younger generations from rural places to larger urban places and cities due to attraction of education institutions, employment etc. resulting in rural population loss. in contrast retirees move to rural places for a quieter lifestyle, safer environment, better climate etc.

Question 13

economic factors

Answer 13

capital cities and ports - larger capital cities the port s continued to be the centres of economic activity and adminisatration. focus of road and railroad transport to the port facilities and the associated infrastructure has created a form of economic inertia where change has been resisted

mineral discoveries
The discovery of gold and subsequent mineral and energy commodities has continuously shaped the nature and location of urban and rural places across Australia. The early 1850s also saw numerous gold discoveries in Victoria, for example Ballarat (111,348) and Bendigo (103,575) were the major centres of activity and are still the largest inland urban places in Victoria today. Between 1851 and 1871, Australia’s population grew from 430,000 to 1.7 million people, a four-fold increase.
While many rural places quickly flourished, many also disappeared as soon as the gold ran out. The 1890s saw the discovery of gold in the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie regions of WA, 600 kilometres east of Perth. Today, Kalgoorlie-Boulder (28,565) is home to the world’s longest continually operating gold ore body and is the only remaining urban place of any substantial size in this region. The second half of the 20th century saw a number of mineral booms in Australia with the discovery and mining of nickel, iron ore, bauxite, uranium, oil, natural gas and diamonds. Many of these discoveries have been in the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia. The forms of settlements that have been established from these operations have differed from previous forms with few permanent places being established inland. Permanent towns, such as Newman and Tom Price, have declined in size as the nature of mining company operations have changed to a fly-in/fly-out workforce where workers live in temporary work camps for the typically two-to-four-week period they are on site. Therefore, minimal infrastructure is established in these isolated, temporary work camps that are generally classified as rural places.

Agriculture
Agriculture in Australia has always been commercial in nature, resulting in a low density, dispersed pattern of rural settlements. Fibre production, such as wheat and other cereal grains, initially gave rise to numerous small rural places required for the provision of basic goods, services and the agricultural products. storage Small rural places were scattered every 40 km across rural country side
Over time, a number of economic and environmental factors have resulted in an increase in the size of farms across parts of Australia. Farmers often seek to buy more land, to increase the return they can make with the equipment they have. It is said that the process of farm amalgamation leads to economies of scale, that is, the larger your scale of operation the more savings per unit of output you will make. This process has resulted in population loss in rural places. The overall trend is that many small centres are getting smaller and the large centres are growing.
The unique physical geography and climatic patterns along the Queensland coast have produced a different pattern of urban and rural places compared to the rest of Australia (see Figure 5.5.2). In most states, the capital city and port were located central to the productive agricultural regions or hinterland of the state.

Question 14

Environmental factors

Answer 14

Climate
Australia’s climate, and its subsequent influence Au hydrology and soils, has been a major factor infuencing the location of settlement and land use. inte southern half of Australia, dominated by seas use. Mediterranean, warm temperate and cool temperate dimates, was favoured by the first settlers over the drier northern areas for the good seasonal rainfall ane mild temperatures. The capitals were located centrally no inland regions that would be able to support agricultural production similar to that experienced in the United Kingdom.

These more favourable agricultural regions along the central Queensland coast, the southeast and southwest coast and adjacent inland regions contain the highest concentration of urban places of all sizes and the highest concentration of rural places.
Areas of Australia with semi-arid and arid climates, in the interior and north north-western extremes, cannot support agricultural activities with high yields per hectare. More extensive, large scale and low yielding land uses such as extensive pastoralism, where sheep, goats or cattle feed on natural pastures and grasses over large areas, have resulted in few urban places and a pattern of dispersed rural places. The soaring summer temperatures and cold winter temperatures inland (and general lack of reliable rainfall) have resulted in the presence of few settlements not directly associated with mining and exploration.

Topography
The topography, or shape of the land, has had some influence on the distribution of urban and rural places. The flat coastal plains along the coastlines have resulted in the extensive, low-density nature of Australia’s large urban places.

Urban development has been low density due to the availability of cheap, flat and easily cleared land. In the same way, agriculture has spread inland over extensive areas or flat to undulating land.
However, the first crossing of the Blue Mountains near Sydney in 1813 and the expedition of Hume and Hovell from Sydney to Port Phillip Bay (Melbourne) in 1825 opened access to the southeast interior for agriculture and subsequent rural settlements. In the south, the rugged regions of the Tasmanian Alps and the flat, arid expanses of central, southern Australia support very few inhabitants and rural places. Vast areas of desert in the interior and northwest with extensive sand dunes, stony deserts and gibber plains have prevented any forms of permanent land use and settlement other than isolated mining and Indigenous is higher and more urban helps explain the

soils
The nature of soils is strongly linked to the climate and topography. More mountainous regions along the east coast and southeast corner of Australia, associated with higher rainfall and therefore stream and river flows, has resulted in the presence of more fertile alluvial soils. Due to high fertility, agricultural yields are higher, farms are smaller, population density is higher and more urban and rural places exist. This helps explain the higher population and settlement patterns as seen in Figure 5.5.2. In the southwest of the continent, lower hills, less rainfall and lower surface flow has resulted in less rivers of shorter length and therefore less extensive areas of fertile soils. . It therefore follows that less urban and rural places exist. Much of the rest of the west consists of sandy duplex (sand over clay) soils, which again result in lower yields and therefore, lower population densities and patterns of settlement

Question 15

outline the changing demographic characteristics, including age and gender

Answer 15

urban
are experiencing some changing demographics as people aged 20 to 49 years become the largest group living in the larger urban places and capital cities, and, except for those over 70, are the smallest grouping represented in the smaller urban places. In contrast, people aged 50 years and over made up a smaller proportion of the population in capital cities (32 per cent) than in the rest of Australia (39 per cent).
rural
As the young adult generation moves away from rural places to the bigger cities, this results in a changing demographic profile in the smaller towns and rural places that suffer population loss, lower population densities and an ageing population with only the longstanding residents tending to remain. rural places contain a higher proportion of the population aged 50 to 85 years and above. The rural and remote places that are exceptions to this trend are those places where mineral resources are found and extracted. In these places, the workforce tends to be dominated by the 20-to-44-year age group with these trends tending to become more obvious over time as the changes take place. For example, in 2006 the median age in the town of Telfer was 29 years and males comprised 65.3 per cent of the population, while in 2021 the median age was 34 years and males comprised 74.6 per cent of the population.
Retirees often move to rural places for a ‘sea change or ‘tree change,’ that is, a quieter lifestyle on the coast or away from large urban places.
gender
The sex ratio (the number of males for every 100 females) in Australia, is 99.2. This means slightly more females are found in Australia than males. In the combined capital cities, the sex ratio has shifted to its lowest value, with a figure of 98.2 males per 100 females compared with 98.4 for the rest of Australia - indicating there is a shift to a slightly higher share of females in the capitals and urban places.
The gender difference is most noticeable in the population aged 85 years and over, which is attributable to the longer life expectancy of females in Australia.
The trend of more males than females increases along a transect towards rural and remote places as employment in the minerals and energy sector, agriculture and pastoralism, and government departments in these regions tend to be male dominated and in the 20 to 44 age groups.

Question 16

outline the changing demographic characteristics, socioeconomic

Answer 16

Socioeconomic status refers to the social and economic position of a given individual, families or group of individuals within society. Measures of income, wealth, education, occupation type and place of residence are used as indicators of socioeconomic

Urban places
In each Australian state and territory, the largest urban places or capital cities have the highest average incomes compared to other places in each state. This reflects the fact that these places offer a wider range and higher number of employment opportunities and more specialised, professional services that offer higher salaries. Housing values are also higher in most urban places than rural places, although mining communities are often an exception to the rule. Large cities have also increasingly come to contain the highest number, but maybe not the highest proportion, of unemployed people and those receiving government weltare.
Urban places contain higher numbers and proportions of residents with tertiary education qualifications. while the lowest were those without non-school qualifications ($900). Compared to August 2015, the largest changes in median weekly earnings were for employees with a graduate diploma graduate certificate (up $244) and a postgraduate degree (up $235).

Rural places
In contrast, smaller towns and rural places tend to have lower average incomes, often containing more retirees and a smaller range of jobs and income-generating industries available. A number of remote Indigenous communities in WA, the Northern Territory and isolated locations in other states also have very low average incomes.

There are always exceptions to these patterns. Some agricultural locations generate high average incomes, for example, Salmon Gums, a farming region 100 kilometres north of Esperance in WA, consistently ranks as one of the highest average income locations in rural Australia. The rural mining communities found in remote regions including the Pilbara and Kimberley, are also rural places where the average incomes are very high. However, a shift to the fly-in/fly-out model of employment and decline in construction activities associated with the ‘mining boom’, has resulted in changing socioeconomic trends, including the average income of these regions. For example, Marble Bar had a median weekly household income of $1,035 in 2021, compared to $1,410 in 2016. Rural mining communities also tend to have a high proportion of workers with trade qualifications

Question 17

outline the changing demographic characteristics
cultural distributions

Answer 17

Urban places
Australia’s largest urban places, the state capital cities, display the greatest cultural mix of residents and demographic changes. Urban dwellers usually migrate to urban places; as most migrants will arrive in a large city, this is where they are likely to stay.

Migrants will also be more likely to move to a place where their relatives or people they know from their original location have moved to; a process known as chain migration.

The result of chain migration is that some urban places will display different cultural or ethnic mixes than others.

Melbourne has the biggest urban Greek population in the world outside of Greece, with over 150,000 people in the Greek community. Melbourne also has the largest proportion of Indian and Vietnamese migrants in Australia. Perth has a higher proportion of British, South African and Middle Eastern migrants than any other Australian city; this could be based on

the highest proportion of Chinese

proximity, as much as chain migration. Sydney has highest proportion of Chinese migrants and a high number of migrants from Lebanon. Perth (with 35 per cent of its population), Melbourne (with 31 per cent of its population) and Sydney (with 30 per cent of its population) have the highest numbers of overseas-born residents and cultural mix. The other capital cities range between 25 and 27 per cent.

Rural places

Rural places often attract migrants with skills that can be applied to the land uses that are found in the area.

The Riverina region, along the Murray River on the border of NSW and Victoria, is known for its production of citrus fruits, grapes and other market garden grown fruit and vegetables. Many Italian migrants, from agricultural areas in Italy growing similar products, moved into this area after the Second World War. In the same way, the market gardening region around Geraldton, along the mid-west coast of WA, attracted a significant Vietnamese community from migrants fleeing the aftermath of the Vietnam War, as well as a significant Filipino community. Between 2016 and 2021, the Vietnamese population in the Greater Geraldton area increased 40.8 per cent.

Question 18

invasion and succession

Answer 18

invasion and succession refers to the gradual invasion of one land use type into an area dominated by a different land use, succession has occurred when the invading land use has almost completely transformed the land use in that particular zone. This process has seen the gradual conversion of original residences and old industrial structures into offices, apartments, and various types of entertainment facilities.

Question 19

urban sprawl

Answer 19

urban sprawl refers to the Outward spread of typically low density residential and urban development on the periphery of urban areas.

In Australian urban environments, such as the capital cities, this tends to occur in a low-density fashion, resulting in single storey, detached homes being built on the outer edges of the urban area. Urban sprawl has occurred to accommodate a growing population and has resulted in these new housing developments stretching further from the city centre, which creates associated challenges,

Question 20

renewal

Answer 20

The syllabus defines renewal as the rehabilitation of urban areas, by regeneration, replacement, repair or renovation, in accordance with comprehensive plans, typically larger scale redevelopment projects, usually initiated by government. As a process, it usually occurs in areas that are heavily blighted or rundown with the aim to rejuvenate the whole area

Question 21

land use planning

Answer 21

The syllabus defines land use planning as planning policies and regulations that play an important role in shaping the land uses and characteristics of urban and rural places. Land use planning includes land use zoning, transport planning, grouping of compatible land uses, creation of buffer zones between incompatible land uses, determining residential densities, renewal project and planning for future growth

Question 22

land use competition

Answer 22

In urban places, similar types of land use functions tend to be found together in particular locations due to many processes and the effects of land use competition.

The syllabus defines land use competition as the competition that occurs between different land use functions when more than one land use can benefit from a particular location. This competition increases the land value and usually the land use that can deliver the highest return on investment will locate in that particular area. For example, the centre of an urban or rural area is usually the most accessible and therefore desirable and the most expensive

Question 23

Inertia

Answer 23

Inertia is a process that acts to limit change within an urban or rural area. The syllabus defines inertia as resistance to movement; for example, factories that would benefit from changing location but instead decisions are made to keep them where they are located.

It occurs when a land use function has retained its original location despite the original benefits that attracted it to that location are no longer present.

Question 24

Agglomeration

Answer 24

The syllabus defines agglomeration as a group of similar, but not necessarily the same, land uses that locate in the same area in order to benefit from common infrastructure and each other’s operation. Agglomeration helps to explain why retail, industra, Commercial, educational, medical, recreational an COsidential functions tend to be found grouper together.

Question 25

Population loss

Answer 25

Population loss is the declining share of the population living in a place and is the result of a combination of interrelated factors driving urbanisation:

post-war industrialisation and economic growth
globalisation rural-urban migration.
Despite the overall growth of the Australian population, there are significant levels of population decline in some rural and remote locations in Australia, in some instances up to a third of their population.

In relation to rural-urban migration, rural areas have experienced population loss because of:

young people moving to urban areas for tertiary education and employment opportunities
loss of employment in remote locations due to increased global competition in agriculture
appeal and development of larger regional centres due to the availability of services and commerce, such as medical care, aged care, education and training
increased mechanisation of farming practices
amalgamation and corporatisation of small farm holdings
Between 2012 and 2018, the combined populations of Australia’s capitals grew by 1.8 million, but over the same period 31 per cent of the population of Meekatharra in WA declined and on the Gulf of Carpentaria, Nhulunbuy saw an almost 28 per cent decline in its residents. Between 2018 to 2019, nine out of the top ten percentage declines were in rural WA, predominantly the wheatbelt
demographic data in a post-pandemic environment, as this allows for a comparison of historical trends and predictions for the future. While 2020-2021 saw many unprecedented measures such as travel restrictions, as a whole, remote areas across the country reported a decline (-0. 1 per cent) while most major cities continued to grow in number. The highest loss for WA was seen in larger regional centres such as Kalgoorlie, Geraldton, Bunbury and Albany (Figure 5.8.3). Likewise, some of the agricultural towns also experienced a decline in population over the same period (Narrogin and Dowerin), as did the mining communities in the East Pilbara region (Newman, Marble Bar and Nullagine with a -1.6 percentage change.
Falling population results in:

Falling demand for goods and services which hen leads to the decline in the provision o these servic which y drop below their threshold people required for a good or service to be profitable. Services such as health care, education, banking, and retail are commonly affected.

Job losses, especially with services closing, can result in further depopulation. A spiral of decline can emerge due to a shrinking workforce and businesses having a hard time finding skilled workers or customers. Without workers or customers, a business may need to close.
An example of the impact of population loss is in the town of Meekatharra; when its only bank closed, residents needed to drive more than 500 kilometres to access the next nearest bank branch in Geraldton.

Question 26

fly in fly out work patterns

Answer 26

Over the last 20 years, many mining companies have transitioned to fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) workforces for their mine sites in rural and remote locations throughout Australia. This pattern of employment has a number of financial benefits for the mining company, particularly as they do not need to provide as many services and facilities in the town or community. However, a significant downside of this is the large economic leakage or loss of revenue to local businesses and government revenue in rural areas as spending declines in the region. Employees and workers now take their salary back to their place of residence, which is usually an urban place or large regional centre. Mining companies have been encouraged to hire local residents in a bid to avoid this economic leakage; however, local shops and facilities are unable to compete with the lucrative wages offered by mining companies and in some cases will close down as a result
large influx of non-resident workers is a permanent disruption to the social fabric and feeling of a town and this ‘shadow population’ can have a serious and negative impact on the safety, image and amenity of communities. The equating of FIFO with social instability has been generating significant discord for years in rural and remote places.

In 2013, a parliamentary inquiry into the impact of FIFO work practices in regional communities across Australia mirrored the views and attitudes of mining communities today. For example, the Western Australian mining town of Telfer has suffered as a community from the changing employment structure.
In the 2021 Census, Telfer had a population of 657 people with a median age of 34 and 74.6 per cent being male. As found in the parliamentary inquiry, concerns with the presence of a largely transient male demographic in rural and remote communities poses issues with safety, connectivity with locals and providing for a foundation to build a sense of identity as a town. Collectively, these issues present a real challenge to the survival of many rural and remote places outside of major cities in Australia.

Question 27

transportation

Answer 27

The first issue relates to public ransport which is not viable in many rural and regions trans due to low population densities and being Considerable distances from urban areas and maio coles. With limited transport options for residents, there is a heavy reliance on private vehicles. Larger regional centres will have some public transpor such as buses, but higher-order transport services such as trains may not be available. It has been reported that approximately 1.7 per cent of rural

Australians use public transport to travel to work or study compared to almost 20 per cent in capital cities.

As car ownership continues to rise in these places, it becomes more expensive (and often no longer viable to continue public transport services, resulting in their closure.
The second issue in rural and remote areas is the lack of suitable transport infrastructure, including high-quality roads and bridges. Many rural roads remain unsealed, built from gravel and dirt, which poses a higher safety hazard. For example, the Northern Territory has only five major sealed roads outside Darwin. There is also less funding available in these remote areas to repair and maintain roads, hence many remain unsealed. Some roads are built for dry conditions and are closed during the wet season, reducing access for local producers and resulting in communities being ‘cut off’, increasing their isolation
n March and April 2022, wet weather in the Mid-West and Murchison regions in WA flooded roads and isolated residents, cutting off the Pia Wadjarri remote community and pastoral stations from supplies. Authorities airlifted essential supplies in to these places, including 500 kilograms of food as all unsealed roads in the area were closed. A lack of adequate transport infrastructure and services, including public transport, can adversely affect access to employment, education, health services and overall economic opportunities.

Question 28

Housing

Answer 28

Housing and the provision of infrastructure and services are key determinants for the attraction and retention of skilled and professional staff and their families in places located outside major cities. In rural, regional and remote areas, inadequate or inaccessible housing is a ‘push’ factor, motivating people to move to other places where housing is more accessible.

This challenge particularly affects mining and tourism-based settlements
The Pilbara and Kimberley regions, where many of the resource projects are located, have borne considerable growth pain due to significant pressures on the labour market and local communities which have struggled to meet the demand for appropriate accommodation and adequate services.
When this growth occurs, it pushes many low- and moderate-income households out of the housing market and often out of the locality. It marginalises those who cannot compete with the resource companies for accommodation, and effectively creates a mono-economy, consequently increasing the dependence on the resource sector and shutting out other industry sectors. For example, the retail and sales sectors suffered with the short supply of workers as people could not afford to move to these places due to the high cost of housing.
The end of the construction boom associated with the iron ore and natural gas industries saw mining industries cut 46,000 full-time jobs between 2013 and 2015, and this brought about the ‘bust in Karathas property prices as demand fell. Around 2014-2016, the value of properties fell by as much as 75 per cent.

The consequences were that residents who were not able to keep up with their bank repayments for their property were not able to sell for a price that wold cover their debt, leading to significant financial stress.

Those who had investment properties, intending to assist in funding their retirement, faced retirement with very little financially. Developments that had been built, such as units and apartments, were left vacant and lead to an issue of oversupply. As the resource industry and housing market recovered, REWA reported that between 2019-2020, five of the top ten suburbs that experienced the largest growth in median house price were in Karratha. However, rising rents once again will force locals out of the area in search of more affordable housing.

the largest impact on local community members, local business members and families Additionally, population loss in locations outside major cities in Australia can also impact upon housing prices. With reduced demand for housing, as a result of a declining population, it makes it difficult to sell a property and with lower prices it presents a challenge in being able to afford housing elsewhere.