Urbanisation

• Speed and scale of urbanisation is faster than ever, most urbanisation is happening in africa and asia.
• Most contemporary urbanisation is happening in large towns and small cities.
• A country is urbanised when a majority live in urban areas.
• Urbanisum is the idea that there is a certain culture in an urban environment.
• Urbanisation data comes from UN. UN data comes from different census. This is problematic as different places define urban in different ways, and different countries have different levels of reliability on census data.
• In 2014 the world was 54% living in urban areas, is projected that by 2050 66% will live urban.
• According to UN in 2014 - projected by 2030 there will be 41 mega cities ( currently 33)
• 1/8 of the urban population live in one of mega cities.
• Since 1945 - urban population had been steadily increasing, Africa and asia remain mostly rural (as of 2015) but europe, oceana, northern and latin america are over 50% urban.
• The higher income a country is the more urbanised. Upper middle income countries have the highest rate of urbanisation.
• Percieved Opportunities in urban areas include - better paid jobs; better infrastructure; better trade links; more economic activity.
• mega city - 10 million eg London 2013.
• Meta city - 20 million people, Eg tokyo 2015 38 million population. Meta city is often a 'conurbation' (too big to be a city - urban sprawl has meant the city has 'eaten' all areas around it.
• 3 Main causes of urban growth: natural increase (young adults move to urban and have kids, older more likely to move to rural.) Industrialisation (move to work in factory and send money back, eg in china there are factory dormitories with shops etc so staff can live in factory. and rural-urban midgration.
• A centripetal movement is a movement of people towards a centre that includes both pull and push factors.
• Push factors eg - desertification due to climate change; conflict/civil war; natural disasters, mechanisation of agriculture; local disease/inadequate medical care.
• The main causes of urban growth are population growth, rural-urban migration, and natural increase.
• Pull factors eg -employment available elsewhere, better paid jobs, join family, more social provisions.
• Hukou system - everyone has an internal passport assigning them to an area. that areas government will provide healthcare/education etc - if you leave your area you forfeit your right to these benefits.
• Causes of migration - a labour surplus in rural china due to mechanisation of agriculture and an increasing population. Chinese don't like agricultural lifestyle: poor healthcare and access to clean water limited. Urban areas promise more.
• Those that move out of the hukou system are part of a floating population, not having registration can limit job opportunities. 250 million migrant workers are living in urban poverty but go unregistered under the hukou system.
• Some families move together but this means children no longer have access to an education. Some families split up (usually husband moves away and will visit once a year/send money back.)
• Urban areas smaller than 500,000 have held the majority of the urban population (2014)
• Urban Form - physical characteristics that make up built up areas, including shape and density.
• Urban resurgence: is regeneration of an urban area which has suffered a period of decline - this has made city living more attractive.
• Urban resurgence is the regeneration, both economic and structural of an urban area which has suffered a period of decline. It has made city living more attractive and happens due to gentrification and other reasons.
• Battersea power station is an example of urban resurgence. It opened in 2022; as a 'shopping and leisure complex' providing 4000 homes, 250 shops and 3 hotels.
• Battersea power station was decommissioned and lay abandoned, but in the development it is now apples new headquarters providing 1000 jobs but out of 4000 homes only 9% are deemed affordable.