Urban Flashcards
What does the terms urban mean?
The term urban refers to built up areas such as cities and large towns.
The term rural refers to the countryside.
What does the term rural mean?
Rural settlements include isolated houses, hamlets and villages that are surrounded by countryside.
Why do some people want to live in cities?
Urban areas are convenient for many people. If they live in a large town or city, they will be close to the many shops, services and entertainment that those places can offer.
People who live in town and cities are more likely to live close to their work. This reduces the amount of time they spend travelling each day.
There is more public transport in cities and town, e.g. buses and trains. This makes it easier to get to places, e.g. the shops, work, etc.
Why do some people not want to live in cities?
Some people do not want to live in urban areas because there is often large amounts of air pollution. This is often due to the number of vehicles and factories in urban areas.
Urban areas can be congested and it can be difficult to get to places because of this. At rush hour, there are often long traffic jams.
Houses can be more expensive in urban areas, because there is more demand for them.
They can be overcrowded and lack open space.
They have a higher crime rate than rural areas.
What is a megacity?
A megacity is a city with over 10 million people living in it.
What types of countries are most of the megacities found in?
It is mostly developing countries that megacities are found in
How population data is collected?
Population data is collected through carrying out a census. In the UK the census is carried out every ten years.
Why population statistics are not always accurate?
A census relies on people being honest. However, this does not always happen. Some people do not tell the truth, because they may get prosecuted if they do, for example, someone claiming benefits who shouldn’t be because they have a well-paid job. In isolated areas it can be difficult to distribute and collect census forms, as there may be no proper roads e.g. areas of the Amazon.
What problems are associated with collecting data?
In some countries there are many different languages (India has 22 official languages and 1000’s of dialects). This can be very expensive as census forms have to be printed in all those different languages. It can also make results time consuming to collate (sort out).
In some countries there is a low literacy rate (the literacy rate is the number of people in a country who can read and write). This means that the forms have to be filled in for those people. Enumerators are people that hand out census forms and fill them in for people who cannot do this themselves. They have to be paid and this can also be very expensive.
what is a site
The area of land that a settlement is built on.
what is a situation
This is where the settlement lies in relation to physical features, such as mountain ranges, rivers, etc. It is also where the settlement lies in relation to other settlements
what is a function
What the purpose of the settlement is. religious?, harbour, educational etc
what is urbanisation
The growth of urban areas, e.g. towns and cities.
what are wet point sites
wet point sites allowed access to water sources, prior to piped water.
what are drypoint sites
dry point sites are safe flooding areas
