urban issues and challenges

• urbanisation- growth in the proportion of people living in urban areas
• Urbanisation in HIC- rate is low, 80% live in urban areas
• Urbanisation in LICs- high rates, 30% live in urban areas
• Urbanisation in NEEs- medium rate, 50% live in urban areas
• Rural-Urban migration- movement of people from the countryside to cities
• Push factors of rural-urban migraton-

  • Natural disasters
  • Mechanised agricultural eqipment needs fewer workers, so less jobs
  • Desertification
• Pull factors of rural-urban migration-

  • More jobs in urban areas
  • Better healthcare in urban areas
  • Better educational opportunities in urban areas
  • Other family members might have moved to urban areas
  • Better quality of life
• natural increase- when the birth rate exceeds the death rate
• megacity- urban area with more than 10 million residents eg.Mumbai, India
• Case study- Rio de Janerio
• UK Urban area distrubution-

  • London is the biggest due to its position as the capital of the UK and is now a global city and financial centre
  • Cardiff and Edinburgh and Belfast grew as their function of capital cities of Wales, Scotland and Northen Ireland
  • Birmingham grew as it was a big centre during the industrial revolution
• North-South divide: Real or perceived economic and cultural differences between Southern England and Northern England
• Traffic management-

  • Environmental Problems: increases air pollution and release of greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change
  • Economic Problems: congestion can make people late to work and delay deliveries, causing companies to lose money
  • Social Problems: higher chance of accidents, frustration, health issues, delay emergency vehicles
• How to stop traffic congestion: use public transport
• Traffic flow being managed:

  • Bus priority lanes
  • Parking restrictions
  • Congestion charge