Urbanisation

• The world can be divided into rural and urban areas, with rural areas having a small population density and large proportion of open, green spaces, and urban areas having a large population density and limited open, green spaces.
• Urban areas tend to be towns and cities, with large population density and limited open, green spaces, while rural areas tend to be villages with a small population density and large proportion of open, green spaces.
• Urban residents tend to work in offices, factories or running services in the city, while rural people may work in agriculture, tourism or running shops in the local village.
• More of the world’s population is living in urban areas, with cities expanding and the urban population growing.
• The infographic below shows each country's urban population, in millions, and the percentage of their entire population that live in urban rather than rural.
• Many MICs have large urban populations, with 81% of the US’s population living in urban towns and cities, and 90% of the UK’s population living in urban areas.
• In LICs and developing countries, over half of the population live in urban areas, for example, Turkey has 68% of its population living in urban areas.
• Urban environments are important to understand and manage, as they can vary depending on their level of development, politics and population.
• MIC cities are some of the most influential places in the world, due to their economic and cultural importance, and many cities such as London, Paris and New York are major tourist attractions, visited by 20 million tourists each day.
• Developing cities in LICs are growing, with the quality of life and buildings improving, but they have smaller urban populations as there aren’t as many business opportunities in the city to attract rural workers to migrate.
• Many LIC cities have temporary housing or poorly built communities, called shanty towns, where the poorest urban families live.
• Developing and expanding a city to cope with the growing population can be tricky for governments, who may have other interests such as attracting high income investors, protecting the city’s culture for tourism and its national identity, and not wanting the city to sprawl outwards and destroy green land surrounding.
• Squatter settlements are large clusters of these temporary houses, which residents hope to move out of quickly when they save up from their new job, but this doesn’t happen.
• As cities’ populations increase, the demand for services like schools, doctors and dentists also increases, but this doesn’t usually mean the amount of doctors or teachers increases too.
• Some megacities, like Tokyo and Los Angeles, have infrastructure that can cope with the population and there is little inequality.
• With a rising number of rural workers migrating to the city, there is very limited affordable housing available, and these migrants arrive in the city with very little money since they didn’t earn enough back home to save up.
• Many migrants must settle for make-shift housing, where they salvage any waste materials and build their own on the outskirts of the city.
• Megacities are defined as cities with populations over 10 million people, larger than some countries’ entire populations such as Greece, Sweden, Israel, New Zealand.
• In many cases, cities can be left with not enough facilities for their population.
• Some megacities, like Mumbai and Mexico City, have rapidly expanded, leading to inequalities where some residents live in luxury apartments whereas others live in squatter settlements.
• The lack of doctors and teachers being trained can be combated by encouraging more children in education, training local young people to fill gaps in services.
• Rural-urban migration is the movement of individuals from rural areas to urban cities for work opportunities and a better quality of life.
• Megacities can be found across the world but are especially concentrated in South Asia.
• Most urban cities around the world are growing, as the population on a whole is growing, with a global birth rate higher than the global death rate.
• Healthcare & medical knowledge is improving, especially in LICs, and many countries, especially in South Asia, have built better warning systems for natural disasters, reducing the number of lives lost.
• In parts of the city that don’t have infrastructure built, such as the squatter settlements, sewage is being dumped close to homes.
• In squatter settlements, roads are too narrow for rubbish bins to travel through, so residents abandon their waste in the street, which can encourage rats that spread disease.
• Governments can use many strategies to manage their cities or reduce any problems caused by their growing population.
• Gangs can establish in squatter settlements, leading to gun crime, violence, and territory disputes.
• Informal work contributes to tax because it is in the informal sector, but it is often paid in cash and is open to exploitation.
• Industries may cut corners and dispose of their waste illegally to avoid charges for waste removal, which may be hazardous to wildlife and humans.
• Locals in squatter settlements don’t pay rent or own the land, so they could be evicted from their homes at any time.
• Residents of squatter settlements make their own water supplies as there are no pipes or cables established.
• Squatter settlements are permanent and growing residences for much of the urban population in cities such as Rio-de-Janeiro and Mumbai.
• Informal work includes any job that is temporary, with limited regulations or self-employed jobs.
• Due to the close proximity of houses in squatter settlements, infectious diseases and fire could spread very rapidly, causing many fatalities.
• Migrants coming to the city may not be guaranteed a job as there are high rural-urban migration rates and limited job opportunities for unskilled rural workers.
• Squatter settlements have high crime rates due to the lack of police patrols and street lighting at night.
• Informal work includes street sellers, house help & cleaners, and rag pickers.
• Sewage must be taken away from the city, so sewage doesn’t contaminate any waterways and cause diseases such as cholera.