The increase in car ownership over the last 40 years means people are more mobile. This has led to an increase in commuting. Also, the growth in information technology E-mail, faxes and video conferencing means more people can work from home. Urban areas are becoming increasing unpleasant place to live. This is the result of pollution, crime and traffic congestion.
More people tend to move when they retire. New business parks on the edge of cities on Greenfield sites mean people no longer have to travel to the city centre.
People now prefer to live on the outskirts of the city to be near where they work. These include: Traffic problems. Car ownership and commuting means an increase in congestion and pollution.
Decline in industry. As older manufacturing industries have closed they have left empty, derelict buildings towards the centre of the city. Modern industries need more space so tend to locate on the edge of the city. High unemployment in inner city areas where the old industries were once located leads to social problems. Changes in shopping have also caused problems. City centre locations are no longer favoured. There has been a recent growth in out of town shopping centres, which has led to the decline of many CBDs central business districts.
The area had been in decline since the 's. This is because larger ships could no longer access the port. Unemployment soared, the back to back terraced housing fell into disrepair and their was a lack of transport and leisure facilities. The area became on the first Enterprise Zones in The land was made rate free for ten years.
Between many changes occurred within the Docklands. For example: Employment Low rents attracted a number of hi-tech and financial firms. Housing Many of the former warehouses have been transformed into luxury flats. This is an example of gentrification. These include:. Poor air quality has a significant impact on the health of many urban residents as well as leaving a damaging and unsightly layer of dust on plants, buildings and other surfaces.
Urbanisation can have both positive and negative effects on health. The main benefits are associated with easier access to hospitals, clinics and health services in general.
If you live close to these services you can reach a doctor in minutes rather than hours or days, so this improves emergency care and general health. There are also benefits from easier access to sources of information such as radio and television which may be used to communicate information about health to the general public.
For example, women living in towns and cities are more likely to be informed about family planning, which results in reduction in family size and less frequent childbirth, with consequent benefits to general health. However, urban life can also damage your health. Poor environment, housing and living conditions are the main reasons for poor health in urban areas. Contamination of water sources can cause epidemics of waterborne disease. Close proximity to other people can make the spread of many types of infectious disease more likely.
The polluted air can also cause respiratory disease and contribute to premature deaths among more vulnerable sections of the population such as older people and children.
Population movements also put pressure on food supplies and on food distribution. As people migrate to the cities, they tend to use purchased food instead of their own crops and this makes them more vulnerable to changes in food prices. As the population grows and the demand for water and land increases, it becomes difficult to increase food production in a sustainable way. The increase in urban demand, combined with a loss of agricultural land, means more pressure on rural people to produce food for the growing number of urban people.
Furthermore, pollution from urban areas can disrupt food supply. For example, fisheries are often damaged by urban domestic wastes and liquid effluents from city-based industries.
Effluent is another word for wastewater that flows out from a source. In several Ethiopian cities, such as Bahir Dar, Hawassa, Bishoftu and others, untreated wastes are dumped into nearby lakes, which can damage the fish stocks Figure 5.
The process of urbanisation has positive as well as negative economic and social changes. The positive effects include economic development, and education. However, urbanisation places stresses on existing social services and infrastructure. Crime, prostitution, drug abuse and street children are all negative effects of urbanisation. Also there tends to be a lack of social support for children in school and home by their hard-working, usually poor, parents.
Inadequate income, overcrowded housing and poor living conditions create a fertile ground for the development of violence. Crime in the city can create a sense of insecurity in its inhabitants. This unsafe feeling in city streets separates residential areas into higher-income and lower-income groups, which reduces the sense of community and forms areas with dissimilar incomes, costs and security levels. In the next study session we will look at some of the ways in which these problems and challenges can be addressed by considering the future demands for urban living and by taking a planned approach to the development of new urban areas.
Now that you have completed this study session, you can assess how well you have achieved its Learning Outcomes by answering these questions.
Urbanisation is an ……………… in the number of people living in towns and cities. The two causes of urbanisation are natural population increase and ……………… Urbanisation affects all sizes of settlements from small villages to towns to cities, leading up to the growth of ……………… which have more than ten million people.
Rapid urbanisation often means that ……………… areas immediately around a city grow more rapidly than urban centres and this can lead to development of ………………. The two causes of urbanisation are natural population increase and rural to urban migration. Urbanisation affects all sizes of settlements from small villages to towns to cities, leading up to the growth of mega-cities which have more than ten million people. Rapid urbanisation often means that peri-urban areas immediately around a city grow more rapidly than urban centres and this can lead to development of slums.
Both push and pull factors drive the migration that leads to urbanisation. In your answer you should state one push factor and one pull factor. Pull factors in migration are factors that attract people to urban areas, e. Push factors in migration are factors that drive people from the countryside, e. Other pull factors that encourage migration to urban areas include better education opportunities, better health care, improved access to social services and opportunities for social and cultural activities.
Other push factors that drive people away from rural areas are poor living conditions, lack of paid employment, poor health care, limited educational and economic opportunities and environmental changes. Is urbanisation increasing faster in developed or developing countries? How does the rate of urbanisation in Ethiopia compare with other countries? Urbanisation is occurring faster in developing countries, with Africa and Asia showing the highest rates of urbanisation.
Do you think that urbanisation is a bad thing or a good thing? Justify your answer by giving two examples of the impacts of urbanisation. You could answer either way — you could view urbanisation either as a good thing or as a bad thing. You might justify answering that urbanisation is a good thing because, first, it brings together economic and human resources that stimulate the economy through the development of business, science, technology and industry and, second, it is more cost-effective and efficient to supply facilities such as fresh water and electricity to a concentrated population in a city.
Other justifications you might have thought of include the fact that the concentration of people and resources leads to more readily available education, health, social services and cultural activities in cities; urban living is linked with higher levels of literacy and education, better health, lower fertility and a longer life expectancy; there are better communication and transport networks; and social and cultural barriers can be overcome.
You might justify your answer that urbanisation is a bad thing because, first, rapid and unplanned growth in urban areas is associated with inadequate housing, water and sanitation which leads to health problems and, second, it is associated with adverse environmental effects such as reduced water quality, a build-up of waste materials and poor air quality. Other possible reasons you might have thought of include the link between urbanisation and increasing urban poverty and inequality; rises in slum and squatter populations; adverse social effects such as higher levels of crime and violence; and a lack of social support.
Printable page generated Sunday, 14 Nov , Use 'Print preview' to check the number of pages and printer settings. Print functionality varies between browsers. Printable page generated Sunday, 14 Nov , Learning Outcomes for Study Session 5 When you have studied this session, you should be able to: 5. SAQs 5. SAQ 5. The two lines cross at about or This is when urban first exceeded rural population. The graph shows the proportion of the total population living in urban areas.
Adapted from MWUD, Population of urban settlement Number Up to 2, 2, to 4, 5, to 19, 20, to 49, 79 50, to 99, 14 , to , 8 Above , 4 Total Especially for those coming from rural areas, urban areas can create an overall better quality of life in several ways. When urban areas become bustling cities and towns, they become a society of culture that can facilitate financial and educational growth. With industrialization comes the creation of jobs.
Usually making a shift from an agricultural economy, industrialization paves the way for modern industries and will need more people to perform various jobs. Rural jobs such as farming and mining may be labor-intensive that is, if they have not been taken over by machines or automatic devices , while urban employment opportunities — such as healthcare, business, and education — will need a considerable amount of people with a variety of skills to fill many jobs.
Modern technology provides for a better city infrastructure. With modernization, cities can adapt to cultural needs and provide support systems for future development. For example, in advanced cities, mobile technology can assist large businesses in advanced mobility hubs for vehicles — significantly reducing the amount of traffic in growing cities.
The very presence of the Internet and IoT technology can expand communication to nearly any corner of the globe, and has the capability to efficiently run utilities and lighting for a whole city. These are just a few illustrations of how technology and modernization can provide efficient solutions to many facets of life, facilitating a better standard of living. Industrialization coupled with modernization brings an ample amount of access for a city and the citizens within it.
Accessibility to the Internet, better healthcare, education, recreational activities, social services, and more all improve livability. Additionally, modern cities have the potential to better plan their city for sustainability and boost their economy. In theory, urbanization is a brilliant concept. However, urbanized cities are running into major problems as a result of a rapidly growing population.
Many urban cities have seen a population explosion that can be hard to plan for. As a result, employment opportunities may dry up quicker than expected — leading to unemployment. Additionally, housing problems may arise with a very high population density and can lead to poor housing conditions.
These housing conditions are only exacerbated by unemployment issues. Unemployment and poor housing or, the unattainability of adequate housing is creating an influx of crime in urban cities as well. As it stands today, urbanization has several major drawbacks. With so many people moving from rural areas, many urbanized cities are starting to see an overcrowding issue.
Major cities such as New York and Hong Kong are dealing with major congestion problems. Overpopulation is contributing to extreme traffic, the depletion of resources, pollution, and unemployment among many other issues. This presents a range of additional unwanted side effects that impact the parking industry as a whole. Water and sanitation issues are surfacing because of rapid population increases. With so many people needing resources such as food, water, fuel, and waste management, the population of urbanized cities are suffering from a lower quality of life due to environmental reasons such as water scarcity, pollution, and sanitation.
Additionally, this is leading to the spread of disease and poor health in heavily populated areas.
0コメント