In the last two centuries, particularly in the last decades, mankind has witnessed drastic population changes from rural to urban areas (Rui, 2013). This movement of people into major towns and cities of the world has been observed worldwide but at different extent. However, rapid urban growth/sprawl also causes problems. The increasing population observed is inevitable; therefore the solution to urban problems depends essentially on effective planning, infrastructural management and development. According to the 2011 revision of world urbanization prospects (United Nations, 2012), the world’s urban population increased from 0.75 billion (29.4 percent of the world’s population) in 1950 to 3.63 billion (52.1 percent) in 2011 and is expected to reach 6.25 billion (67.2 percent) in 2050. Africa is not behind in this rapid urbanization transformation. African urban populations will triple, reaching 1.2 billion people (The Growth Dialogue, 2013). Usually, unplanned population growth is associated with population demands that supersede infrastructure and service capacity, leading to the degradation of the environment. (Asoka et al., 2013).
Urbanization has been recorded globally, but it all starts from a city as an individual unit. According to Rui, (2013), a city should be a complex system that entails several interactive sub-systems, it should be affected by various factors including governmental land policies, population growth, transportation infrastructure, market behavior
From 1890 to 1920, cities in the United States experienced a rapid growth that was unprecedented in years previous. This growth was caused by a number of factors and resulted in both positive and negative consequences. Such factors included, industrialization, technological advances, migration and immigration. Although American cities greatly improved by the expeditious urbanization, these factors also developed numerous challenges including pollution, sanitation problems, a need for environmental reform, political corruption, overcrowding, high crime rates and segregation.
Sixty percent of the global population gain has happened within an urban context, particularly inside the developing world (The Challenge of Slums 5). Even ignoring raw population growth slums continue to grow globally because of the effects of rural-to-urban migration. Rates of
Recent data has shown that the world’s total population is doubling; however, the world's urban population is tripling. In the early 1800s, only 2 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas (Urbanization; an environmental force to reckon with). This is a sharp contrast to what we have today. The promise of ample job opportunities, higher wages, and a better standard of living have been the main luring factors for attracting people into cities. Today about 50 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas. It is estimated that by 2050 about 60-70 percent of the world’s population will be living in urban areas (Urbanization; an environmental force to reckon with). This growth trend of the urban populace is troubling since it has tremendous bad effects on our environment which in turn has bad effects on our health and well-being.
Task #1 : Analyse the impacts of at least two urban dynamics operating in a large city of the developed world.
Urbanization and Industrialization brought millions of people to growing cities, these growing cities were ill equipped to deal with growing population rate. While some might argue that Industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because of a surplus of job opportunities, faster production, and more amenities, it was actually a negative thing for society. Industrialization’s negative effects were angersome working conditions, poor quality of life, and child labor.
Planning and management needs to happen in all countries over the world because no matter how different the level of development between countries the problems will be same in urban areas. These problems that need to be planned and managed in the urban areas of the city are becoming increasingly significant due to the fact that there has been a hug increase in the number of people living in cities worldwide, just over fifty percent of the world are now living in urban areas. The main reason for this is the huge increase in urbanisation which is defined as an increase in the proportion of
Urbanization is a concept that is deeply rooted in the increase in a population within a region in response to the availability of unique opportunities. The opportunities may include the availability of employment chances in factories, investments opportunities in the urban areas, and the presence of sufficient housing and social infrastructure. It is apparent that urbanization began centuries ago in different regions of the world. However, the development of suburban areas has also been an interesting phenomenon over the centuries. Initially, people strived to live in the luxurious houses in major towns and cities. Nevertheless, there was a gradual shift in the desire to live in the cities when various negative impacts of overpopulation
It is estimated that over 50% of the world’s population now lives in urban areas and that this will rise to 70% by 2050. Such a change will
Urban development is the social, cultural, economic and physical development of cities. The development of cities is the main topic of human geography. Urban development can be used in different ways by the researchers. It can cause the price of things to increase fast. Urban development occurs in major cities like New York City, Tokyo, Japan. Urban development started back in the earlier cities like Mesopotamia, Egypt. This spreads the culture that affect people which makes them want to go to the major cities. Over fifty percent of the earth’s population lives in urban areas. Studies show by 2045 that the number of people living in a urban area will increase.
If the population of the United States grows from 325 million to 400 million over the next 35 years, we will see a greater population in urban areas and the rural areas will turn into cities: “The urban population of developing regions will grow rapidly as people migrate from rural to existing urban areas and transform rural settlement into cities ”. More people and more and larger cities will increase the demand for natural resources.
According to the data from United Nations urbanization prospects 2014, in the early 20th century the urbanized population only accounted 15 percent of the world’s total population. Half century later the pace of urbanization rate accelerated and the figure reached 30 percent in 1950. After nearly 60 years of development, in year 2008 it was the first time that urban population outstripped rural population. Now in 2014 there has been 54 percent of world’s population become urban dwellers. However due to historical geographical and economic reasons, the level of urbanization varies significantly across regions. Highly urbanized regions include Northern America and Caribbean and Latin America with over 80 percent of their total population urbanized.
An emerging issue is that of urban sprawl. While some aspects of urban sprawl has been seen since ancient times, this phenomenon has started gaining the most momentum in the past century, aided by the advancement of technology, especially with the rise of mass produced automobiles, houses and highway systems. Many people unknowingly contribute to this environmental problem, as is the nature of it. Urban sprawl deals with the growth of the suburbs, the area between the urban and rural areas of a city. Most of America’s largest cities and states, in terms of population, are prime examples of urban sprawl. Opponents of urban sprawl usually cite the government as a major cause of sprawl. The government may be a major catalyst of
As Joseph E Stiglitz, who won the Nobel economic prize said, ‘Two forces will shape the 21st century: urbanisation in China and technological innovation in the US.’ Urbanization is such an important issue for China and the world. Research figures indicate the urbanization rate has grown to 45% from 13% since 1949 and the government estimates it will increase to 60% in 2030. Some scholars have shown urbanization in China was very successful and got many notable accomplishments. On the other side, many other scholars also revealed critical opinions on what it has done in the past. They also worried about the future of urbanization in China. Through this report, This report will examine what benefits and disadvantages did urbanization process bring to China and How is the future of it.
3) Urbanization is extremely rapid across the world. So, it is very important for every developing as well as the developed countries to make a Resilient city. Resilient cities are the one that has developed capacities to help absorb future shocks and stresses to its social, economic, and technical systems and infrastructures to still be able to maintain essentially the same functions, structures, systems, and identity.” As the definition clearly states about how to make the city to be more stable due to extreme usage of resources that leads to the degradation of resources and the environment. Throughout the world due to the increase in the urbanization that is shift of people from the rural places to the urban region in search of employment. This is due rapid growth of industries where they are need of people for working. Due to this there is a rapid utilization of resources and also there is a economic downturn that has led to the poverty.
The reason I chose this topic is because in my country Ethiopia the rapid growth of population alarmed me, just around the 1965 our population was very low however in the past few years it has tripled form 20 million to over 100 million. This was when my interest in my countries population developed. Population is one of the conversational topics when talking about a countries profile, in view of the fact that it plays a huge role, in a countries work force, consumption and economy. I will be collecting data and modelling them to predict the population for the next 5 to 10 years. I will also be doing this for Kenya to see the relationship between the two countries to prove that this rapid growth of population is happening not only in our country but in our neighboring countries too.