URBANIZATION: Meaning, Causes, Impacts and Patterns.Lecture Notes : BRE 213 & BQS 215 2015

By the end of the session, the students will have increased understanding of:Definition of Key Relevant TermsMajor Causes of Urbanization.Effects/Impacts of UrbanizationPatterns of Urbanization

OBJECTIVES OF THE SESSION:

Definition of Key Relevant TermsMeans the removal of the rural characteristics of a town or area, a process usually associated with the development of civilization. Demographically, the term denotes the distribution of populations from rural to urban settlements. Seen as a phenomenon whereby rural areas are converted to urban areas. The forms of such conversion includes:Where urban areas extend their boundaries to engulf rural surroundingsWhere rural areas are upgraded to urban status , say through the provision of services and infrastructureWhere lifestyles of individuals or social groups are transformed to those of urban dwellers. Often defined as the concentration of people and their dwellings in relatively small and organized spaces.

Urbanization Definition contdUrbanization refers to the concentration of the population in cities; where a city is seen as a permanent concentration of relatively large numbers of people who are engaged mainly in non-agricultural activities/pursuits.

It refers to the process where rural areas take on urban characteristics

Also seen as the growth of towns. In Kenya, for instance, the growth of towns is largely attributed to several factors:Rapid rural urban migration, e.g. 50 % &70 % for Nairobi and Lagos respectively.Natural population growth within the townsExtension of the towns boundariesGovernments deliberate role in designating certain areas as urban.Urbanization is usually measured by an increase in the percentage of urban dwellers given by the following formula: Number of people in towns and cities x 100 Total population

Urbanization: A process whereby a population becomes concentrated in urban areas or increase proportion of people residing in urban areas due to movement of populations from rural to urban areas or to an increase in land area occupied by urban settlements. A social, demographic, economic and physical phenomenon characterized by the concentration and convergence of a countrys population into its major cities and towns.Urban Growth: Increase in population size and physical development of urban centre.Urban Fabric: All buildings and structures of every kind and their connections contained within the agglomerated part of a town or an urban area. Name is analogy to the woven aspect of a fabric.

Definition of Key relevant Terms contd

Figure 1: Urban and rural population in developing countries (millions)

Figure 2: Urban population in Less Developed Countries (LDCs) and More Developed Countries (MDCs) (millions)

Figure 3: Average annual additions of urban and rural populations (millions)

Urban Design:Part of the physical planning process concerned with the architectural composition of buildings and space, with special attention to visual qualities and to the interrelationship between physical elements and socio-psychological considerations.Urban Hierarchy:Ranking of human settlement by social and economic importance and degree of urbanization, ranging from the megalopolis to the hamletUrban Management:Range of activities aimed at increased efficiency of a citys service delivery and equitable access to services by all segments of the population. Comprise functions of governance, development policy, and investment decisions carried out by public, private and community sector.Urban Planning:Technique of shaping and guiding through preparation and implementation of long-range goals and short-term organized schemes, the physical growth of urban areas, in harmony with their social economic requirements.

Urban Agglomeration: Populated areas falling within the contours of a cluster of dense continuous settlement, with boundaries extending beyond the administrative city limits. Smaller than a metropolitan area.Over- urbanization: Is the situation in which more people live in the city than the city can support in terms of jobs and facilities. As a result, people in these over urbanized cities do not have adequate housing, food, sewage disposal, or medical services. The crowded and unsanitary living conditions contribute to high rates of illness and death. In Calcutta, Indias largest city, more than half a million people live on the streets. High rates of migration to urbanized areas combined with the high birth rates common in less developed nations have led to similar conditions in many areas of Latin America, Asia and Africa.

Urban Blight: Deteriorating conditions of a building or an area for lack of maintenance or due to external factors such as industrial use, pollution or heavy traffic, which reduce the productivity of real estate. Absence of growth and persistence of depreciation.Urban sprawl: Is growth through scattered development followed by a gradual filling in of space without any plan. Spread of urban growth in a disorganized manner without advance planning or regard for subsequent needs for transport, employment, services.Suburban Sprawl:Is the irregular and scattered residential development of a settlement in the outer border of a town.

Suburb:Residential area surrounding a town or city and dependent on it for employment, goods and services.Suburban area: Outlying residential districts of a city.Suburban Expansion Zone:Area of future development in the outskirts of an urban settlement.Uncontrolled Urban Settlement: Physical development in violation of building codes, zoning regulations, etc, often characterized by low, stagnant or negative economic growth and a low level of resource development utilization.

Urban Renewal: Also referred to as redevelopment or rehabilitation or regeneration. Is a process through which deteriorated buildings or whole neighbourhoods are ameliorated through upgrading of existing buildings, infrastructure and public amenities. Planned renewal of deteriorated and underutilized areas of a city, and improvement of urban environment through public and private initiative.Urban Consolidation:Is a process that reuses older structures, helps distribute building densities more evenly, reclaims underused land and, by appropriate infill, gradually intensifies the urban fabric.

Causes of Urbanization1. Rural- Urban Migration: The push and pull factors

Pull Factors

What motivates people to migrate to urban areas)Employment and income-generating opportunitiesBetter /prestigious standards of living: better houses, , cars etc.Access to new and better technologies (ICT), markets, facilities, services and ideas e.g. schools, hospitals and entertainment Reliable water and food supply Freedom of participating in religious and political issuesFreedom from prohibitive socio-cultural beliefs and conservative lifestylesAdapted from Waugh 1994

Push Factors

(What discourages people to live in rural areas)Pressure on landLow incomes LandlessnessOverpopulationIncreased mechanization and modernization of the agricultural sector (machines replace people)Starvation famineNatural and man-made disasters such as drought, floods, ethnic clashesInsecurity: war and civil unrestEffect of overburdening external debts and adopted development policies.

Causes of urbanization contd Most towns esp. in Africa are a creation of the colonization process which usually built such towns according to their own ideals and purposes, for instance:There were ports which were originally devoted for the dispatch of slaves, agricultural products and crude oil from the colonies/hinterlands to the respective mother countries. Such include: Dakar, Abidjan, Lagos, Kinshasa, Mombasa and AccraOthers were important railway terminus e.g. Nairobi, Bamako and Niamey.In other areas new cities were placed in already existing settlements or at completely new strategic sites such as those for mining. The latter include those found in the copper zone of Zambia (Ndola & Kitwe) and in South Africa (Johannesburg and Kimberley), and Lubumbashi in DRCBefore the colonial time, Africa did have urban centres e.g. Alexandria in Egypt, Meroe in Sudan, Axum in Ethiopia

Causes contdIn West Africa others emerged from the trans-Saharan trade e.g.Timbuktu and Gao. Others developed among the Yoruba, Hausa and the Ashanti people, being commercial, political and spiritual centres.In central Africa cities were also found in present day Congo, DRC, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Burundi. In Kenya there was Machakos and Mumias in the interior. At the coast we had Malindi, Gedi and Mombasa. Other coastal East Africa towns include Mogadishu, Zanzibar and Kilwa.Important technologies included: mining(gold & iron), coin minting, copper works, building craftsmanship, boat building, pottery and basketry making, and textile production

Causes contd3.During the post colonial period, new cities have been established for various reasons e.g.Tema, a seaport in Ghana was built to await the expected industrial growth.New capital cities were built to give the new liberated nations a fresh start such as Lilongwe in Malawi, Yamoussoukro in Cote dIvoire, Abuja in Nigeria and Dodoma in TanzaniaToday some, e.g. Tema, are a great success while others have had little influence on the growth of the established cities and their surrounding hinterlands, their population has hardly reached half a million inhabitants (The World Bank Group, 2001; UN, 2003b)

Causes contd4. The weakening of influxcontrol regulations by the newly liberated nations except for South Africa where these were intensified (Rakodi, 1997). This move led to rapid urban growth due to increased rural-urban migrationA stable decline in urban growth especially in south Africa, until these controls were lifted in 1986 leading to the cities such as Bloemfontein growing by 51% (btw 1988 and 1996).

Causes contd5.Globalization: Across large parts of Africa and Asia, urbanization is taking place in response to economic developments on a global scale. Indeed globalization is greatly contributing to the growth of some cities esp. in India where knowledge intensive industries, supported by the power of Internet and communication is transforming cities into high- tech havens. Mike Porter stresses that respective Governments play a major role in promoting technological advances and innovations thro proactive encouragement of technology partnerships between universities & industry, Globalization is broadly seen as the process of integration of countries and people; politically, economically and culturally, into global communities. It is largely attributed to McLuhans (1962) concept of a global village where advances in electronic mass media had collapsed space and time barriers to enable people to communicate on a global or worldwide scale. Today, the term global village is used as a metaphor to describe the interconnectedness of the world thro the internet and Web.

Globalization contdIt is also attributed to the historical, social, political and technological changes which have enabled the free flow of: People InvestmentProducts/servicesInformation and Knowledge across the globe.Governments role is crucial in promoting the needed strong operational environment.

Major characteristics of Urbanization (esp. Africa)The 20th century has been described as one that has witnessed the rapid urbanization of the worlds population. The table below shows the dramatic rise of the global proportion of urban population and the future estimate:(UN World Urbanization Prospects 2005). The rapid increase in urban population is expected to continue.

YearTotal Urban PopulationPercentage of Total Pop

1900220 million13 % (5%)1930732 million29%2005 3.2 billion49%20304.9 billion60%*20506.0 billionAbout 70 %

Major CCCsIn Africa urbanization is also said to be a recent phenomenon A look at the HDI rank of 2001 also reveals that life in urban areas could be better than in rural areas (UNDP,2003)

Country 1960 as %of total population199020001960-90 Annual Growth1990-2000 Annual GrowthBotswana 2 %29 %42%13.5%7.9 %Burundi 2 675.56.1Djibouti8081847.33.5Ethiopia 613174.85.8Kenya 724327.77.0Lesotho 320288.66.3Malawi 412166.56.5Mauritius 3348422.31.3Mozambique 427419.57.0Rwanda 28117.47.6South Africa 4760663.23.2Sudan 1022275.44.8Tanzania 5334710.37.5Zimbabwe1328355.95.4Uganda510146.16.6

Major CCCs ContdA look at the HDI rank of 2001 also reveals that life in urban areas could be better than in rural areas (UNDP,2003) The HDI value is calculated from each countrys education level, life expectancy at birth and GDP per capitaThe 21st century now referred to as the Urban millennium as from 2007 more people were living in cities than in rural areas.Though the urbanization rates are high in Africa and Asia, the urbanization levels are very low as compared to the developed countries

Major CCCs contdAll the towns were characterized by the sharp contrast between the central well planned modern parts (formerly occupied by the Europeans) and the peripheral suburbs where anarchy and dirt were common. The towns were also developed internally on differential lines across social and racial backgrounds hence access to the available infrastructure and services favoured the minority. This was so pronounced in South Africa. and in Kenya where colonial governments separated Europeans, Asians and Africans from each other and established strong influx control laws. The colonial residential policy also viewed native populations as temporary urban dwellers and so no effort was made to provide them with appropriate shelter and basic facilities

Effects / Consequences of UrbanizationUneven spread of urban development in turn leading to imbalanced regional development and their associated problems.Rapid expansion in urban labour force yet the overall economic growth in some countries especially in Africa are very low, translating into large numbers of unemployed and dependent people, with their related problems.An increase in Urban poverty which has a gender bias, and the implication is the growth of urban informal settlements. (Discuss).

Effects contdThe dependence ratios are very high in Africa implying that more resources have to be diverted to consumption than to savings and investmentsSome of the towns that have emerged are parasitic in nature largely using their privileged positions to extract resources from their hinterlands. Some can hardly sustain themselves esp. when central government and donor support is withdrawn. Public Utility services suffer most

Effects contdDue to poor governance and funding related issues, many cities such as Nairobi are experiencing a multitude of management related problems including:Proliferation of shanty /slum settlementsUrban sprawl- a chaotic growth of the cities in all direction putting enormous strain on municipal services and other land related problems, such as poor subdivision of land parcels in small parcels for speculative reasons with little or no consideration of infrastructural services. High land prices that discourage potential investors.Outdated municipal management and administrative stylesPoor coordination, rampant corruption, weak maintenance culture

Kenya's first major transport corridor is the Mombasa port and Mombasa - Uganda transport corridor that passes through Nairobi and much of the Northern Rift. Urban centres in this corridor still offer great investment opportunities but the land values are often very high for the low income category to afford at an individual level

The Lamu corridor is a transport and infrastructure facility in Kenya that when completed will be the country's second major transport corridor. Human settlements along these corridor will be ripe for investments.

Other supportive corridors and inter-linked corridors and county headquarters will be coming up and these will offer ideal locations for investments.Wise managers buy land early when it is affordable.

ReferencesRakodi, C. (1997), The Urban Challenge in Africa: Growth and management of its Large Cities, New York, United Nations University , Tokyo. (http://www.unu.edu/unupress/)Todaro, Michael P. 1997: Urbanization, Unemployment , and Migration : Theory and Policy. (http://www.popcouncil.org)The World Bank Group 2001: Upgrading the Low income settlements Country Assessment Report: Ghana.http://www.worldbank.org/urban/upgrading/ghana.html UNDP 2003: Human Development indicators (http://www.undp.org/hdr2003/indicator/indic _8_1_1.html)United Nations (UN), Population Division : World Population Prospects, the 2005 Revision, New York. United Nations (UN), Statistics Division 2003b:Population of capital cities and cities of 100,000 and more inhabitants. New York. [11] (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/citydata/)

Th end.Thank you & God Bless You All

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