Year 10 Geography

URBAN POPULATIONS

Urbanisation: historical perspective and processes, problems and challenges.

Contents

1. Concepts and terms2. Origins of urbanisation3. The beginnings and causes of

global urbanisation4. Effects of urbanisation

MEDCs/LEDCs

“Cities are the abyss of the human species.” - Jean Jacques Rousseau, philosopher

Concepts and Terms

Urban = settlement (town, city)• minimum of 1,000 persons

Urban growth = change in city’s population • (eg. 200,000 one year, then 210,000 next = 5% growth)

Urbanism = values and behaviour, urban way of life

Urbanisation = the growth in % of people living in urban areas in a country.

Origins of Urbanisation– River Valley Civilisations

Areas of agricultural surplus and early settlements:Tigris-Euphrates regionNile valleyIndus valleyCentral AmericaNorth China

Get Thinking…

Which physical condition do you think was most important in the rise of early cities?

Why would people start/want to continue to urbanise an area? What benefits would it have had?

Why would the cultivation of cereal crops such as rice, wheat, maize be more important than that of vegetable crops such as tomatoes and lettuce?

What is Needed…?

Sjoberg (1960) writes of three pre-requisites for urbanisation…o Favorable "ecological base”o Advanced technology o Complex social structure

Task: Write a paragraph on what you think this means, try to encompass all three of these elements.

How it Started (Modern Times)

Urbanisation was stimulated by advances in farm productivity that…

1. Provided the extra food to support the increased numbers of townspeople, and

2. Made many farmers and farm labourers redundant, prompting them to migrate to cities.

Site and Situation

The success of a city is often due to its site and situation Site describes the specific characteristics of the physical

landscape where a town or city is located (eg. by a river, or on higher ground …)

Situation refers to the influence of the surrounding areas (eg. If a town is situated where 2 rivers meet (confluence) this is a good site. But the fact that the 2 rivers provide a transportation system represents a good situation.)

What factors can you think of that might determine the location of a town? List as many as possible.

Who was the man that ‘planned’ Adelaide and what made him decide that it was a good site/situation?

Different Cities, Different Requirements

Early cities urbanised for different reasons depending on unique sites and situations.

Market places• Venice, Baghdad Military, defence & administrative centres• Athens, Rome Ceremonial centres• Forbidden City

Beginnings of Global Urbanisation

Early urban centres • In Eurasia from England to west Japan (16th Century) • Ur at the Nile river Mercantile city • (16th and 17th Century) – trade with colonies• Copenhagen, Lisbon Industrial/Manufacturing city • (18th - 20th Century) – rise of the ‘suburbs’• Manchester, Chicago, Detroit Modern city • (20th – 21st Century) – mobility = increase of

suburbanisation• Canberra, Brasilia

Urbanisation

Urbanisation describes the increasing proportion of people living in urban areas (towns and cities) as opposed to rural areas (villages and countryside).

There are 3 main causes of Urbanisation• Rural-Urban migration (push-pull factors) • Economic growth and access to infrastructure• Natural Population Increase (better healthcare)

Urban Benefits

Positive social change Better health Higher literacy Cultural advances Advanced infrastructure Technological advances More employment options Greater gender equality Efficient resource use

“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears …” – Italo Calvino, novelist

Infrastructure and Services

One of the benefits of living in a city is its infrastructure. What is meant by infrastructure?

Possible answers include: Plumbing, electricity, water supply, gas, communication systems, roads, pavements, drainage, sewage …

List as many services as you can. Consider what your life would be like if you did not

have infrastructure or services. How would it be different?

Many of the world’s urban dwellers do not have this…

Urban Negatives

Overcrowding Housing pressure Unemployment Poverty Pollution Waste disposal Infrastructure pressure Crime and violence Over-consumption (resources etc…) Alienation

"A city is a large community where people are lonesome together. "- Herbert Prochnow, business and self-help writer.

Most Affected

Whilst some of these only affect a portion of the population of a city, these indirect effects are felt by all.

Who are the ones most likely to be affected by and vulnerable to serious urban problems?

Homework – find out the following: How many people are homeless in Adelaide and

Sydney? Where would you find out about Adelaide’s pollution

levels? Has serious crime increased in Adelaide and which

are the suburbs most and least at risk of (a) burglary (b) car crime?

Measure the approximate area of your house (all areas except external buildings or the garden), then calculate the amount of space per person residing in the house in m2. Explain how this relates to urbanisation.

Population Density

It is not the actual population size that often affects urban dwellers but the concentration of people in a specific area - population density.

It is usually worked out per km2. However, when comparing countries it can

lead to distortions – Australia has a low population density, but then most of the land is inhabitable. It is easier to compare cities.

Density maps worksheet using two maps. One of Australia, one of a city.

URBAN

Infrastructure can’t cope

Shanty Towns

Overcrowding

Housing Shortage

Jobs Shortage

Young Population Increases

Effects of Rural – Urban Migration

Effects of Rural – Urban Migration

RURAL

Economy Stagnates

Little Investment

PovertyAging

Population

Reduced Extended Families

Over Reliance On Agriculture

Recent Urban Growth

Urban Growth

Problems Defining Cities

What is a city? Where do the boundaries begin/end? Example, depending on WHERE you place

boundaries – Tokyo 8-40 million, London 7-12.5 million.

Where would you place Adelaide’s boundaries?

Problems Defining Cities

Apart from the fact that there are now more people alive than before, more people now live in urban areas (cities) than ever before

By 2025 it is estimated that 86% of the global population will live in cities (www.un.org)

TASK– List five positives about living in a city and five negatives.

Urban Land Use in MEDCs

MEDC – More Economically Developed Country Land use models describe the land use/spatial patterns in

cities. Spatial pattern models reflect how cities have evolved

economically and socially (including culturally) over a period of time.

Two models that apply to MEDCs and are often citied are the Concentric Zone Model (Burgess, 1924) and the Sector Model (Hoyt, 1939).

Other models have been used including Mann’s (1965) and Ullman and Harris’s (1945) to explain the growth of cities.

MEDC Models

Burgess Says the centre is the

oldest part of the city and building spreads out from the middle.

Hoyt Expanded this idea to take into

account development along main route ways out of the city.

Read Urban land use models handout – D. Waugh, (2003) The New Wider World, Nelson Thomas, Cheltenham, p.42/43

Questions on the Models

Write a small paragraph describing and explaining the differences between the models of Hoyt and Burgess? See if you can use all the following key words in your answer;

Urban Land Use CBD Inner City Residential regions Industry Commuter towns Different classes

Questions on the Models

What are the limitations of these two models?

If you were developer, which land use model would you base your city around? Or, would you come up with your own land use model? Explain your answer.

Urban Problems

Traffic Problems

Commuting congestion

Business congestion

Pollution

Manufacturing Decline

Traditional manufacturing

closure

IncreasedUnemployment

Urban Development Corporations

Retailing Changes

Doughnut effect

Urban Problems in MEDCs

Urban Structure in LEDCs

Expensive housing is found near the CBD, poorer housing is found nearer the outskirts making the problem of access to amenities and work even worse.

Urban Problems

Spontaneous Settlements

FavelasBustees

Over-crowding

CompetitionFor land

PressureOn

services

Shanty towns

Built onDangerous

ground

Rural-Urban

Migration

Rapid growthDifficult to plan

Self-helpschemes

Debt

Urban Problems in LEDCs

Questions

How does the structure of MEDCs and LEDCs differ?

Compare the problems faced by MEDCs and LEDCs as a result of urbanisation.

Increasingly, both MEDCs and LEDCs need to move towards a process a incorporating some aspects of urban sustainability into their planning process.

Urbanisation Stats

In 1800 there was only one city in the world with a population of over a million – London. 3% of people lived in urban areas. (Waugh, D., 2002, Geography. An Integrated Approach, p.418)

In 1900 there were three cities with over a million. Today there are 19 megacities (populations over 10

million), 22 cities with between 5-10 million and 370 cities house between 1-5 million! (Simon, D., ‘Urbanization and global environmental change:21st century challenges’, The Geographical Journal, March, 2007, vol 173, Part 1, pp.75-79)

Whilst most of the developed world (MEDC) is highly urbanised (60-95%) the developing world (LEDC) is rapidly catching up.

Rapid urbanisation is occurring in Asia, Latin America, Africa.

China example.