Starter

What is Urbanisation and its causes? Megacity?

Urbanisation

- An increase in the proportion of a country’s population that lives in towns and cities.

Causes of urbanisation:

• natural population growth and
• migration into urban areas from rural areas.

The causes of urban growth

Natural population growth

• young age profiles - young adults (15–40 years) migrating, lured by
  - the prospect of higher paid jobs,
  - better educational opportunities and
  - greater social and cultural diversity.

The causes of urban growth

Rural – urban migration

• Push factors cause people to move away from rural areas
• pull factors attract them to urban areas.

In low-income countries, push factors tend to be more important than pull factors

The causes of urban growth

Rural – urban migration

Push factors are largely due to poverty caused by:

• population growth, which means the same area of land has to support increasing numbers of people, causing over-farming, soil erosion and low yields

The causes of urban growth

Rural – urban migration

Push factors are largely due to poverty caused by:

• population growth
• agricultural problems, including desertification because of low rainfall, systems of inheritance that cause land to be subdivided into small plots, systems of tenure and debt on loans taken out to support agricultural change

The causes of urban growth

Rural – urban migration

Push factors are largely due to poverty caused by:

• population growth
• agricultural problems
• high levels of local diseases and inadequate medical provision

The causes of urban growth

Rural – urban migration

Push factors are largely due to poverty caused by:

• population growth
• agricultural problems
• high levels of local diseases and inadequate medical provision
• agriculture is increasingly being organised globally. Land previously used to grow food for local people is now used to produce cash crops for sale to higher income countries. Many traditional rural communities have been driven off their land and into cities

The causes of urban growth

Rural – urban migration

Push factors are largely due to poverty caused by:

• population growth
• agricultural problems
• high levels of local diseases and inadequate medical provision
• agriculture is increasingly being organised globally
• natural disasters such as floods, tropical storms and earthquakes – people flee rural areas and do not return

The causes of urban growth

Rural – urban migration

Push factors are largely due to poverty caused by:

• population growth
• agricultural problems
• high levels of local diseases and inadequate medical provision
• agriculture is increasingly being organised globally
• natural disasters
• wars and civil strife cause people to flee their land.

The causes of urban growth

Rural – urban migration

Pull factors include the prospect of:

• employment in factories and service industries (for example, hotels) which is better paid than work in rural areas. There is an increasingly high demand for unskilled labour in cities

The causes of urban growth

Rural – urban migration

Pull factors include the prospect of:

• employment
• earning money from the informal sector, for example, selling goods on the street, providing transport(taxi/rickshaw driver)or prostitution

The causes of urban growth

Rural – urban migration

Pull factors include the prospect of:

• employment
• earning money from the informal sector
• better quality social provisions, from basic needs such as education and healthcare to entertainment and tourism

The causes of urban growth

Rural – urban migration

Pull factors include the prospect of:

• employment
• earning money from the informal sector
• better quality social provisions
• a perceived better quality of life in the city, fed in part by images in the media.

Megacity

– A city or urban agglomeration (urban area incorporating several large towns or cities) with a population of more than 10 million people.

• According to the UN, London achieved megacity status in 2013. This classification included residents in the Greater London area.

Metacity

– A conurbation with more than 20 million people.

Urban growth

– An increase in the number of urban dwellers.

Classifications of urban dwellers depend on the census definitions of urban areas, which vary from country to country. They usually include one or more of the following criteria:

• population size
• population density
• average distance between buildings within a settlement and
• legal and/or administrative boundaries.

Table showing past and predicted urban population growth

Key questions?

Explain how world urbanisation has occurred since 1950 . [6 marks]

Challenge: What issues might uneven urbanisation create in different parts of the world? [6 marks]

Exam question practice

Analyse the distribution of world cities shown in Figure 1. (6 marks)

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