Urban issues and challenges

• Urbanisation


  The increase in the proportion of a country's population living in urban areas
• Urbanisation patterns


  • Urbanisation in HICs - majority of population live in urban areas, occurred in 1800s
  • Urbanisation in LICs - majority live in rural areas, rapid urbanisation
  • Urbanisation in NEEs - occurring rapidly
• Factors affecting urbanisation rate

  • Migration (push-pull theory)
  • Natural increase
• Rural-urban migration


  Movement of people from countryside to towns/cities, caused by push and pull factors
• Push factors


  Make someone want to leave an area e.g. natural disasters, desertification, unemployment
• Pull factors


  Encourage someone to move to an area e.g. access to healthcare/education, employment opportunities
• Rural to urban migration is often high when a country industrialises as people move to urban areas to work in factories
• Natural increase


  Increase in a country's population because birth rate is higher than death rate
• Natural increase in NEEs

  • Health care and diet improves, life expectancy increases, birth rates still high so population increases
• Natural increase in urban areas

  • Better access to medical care and clean water than rural areas
• Megacity


  Urban area with over 10 million people living in it
• 2/3 of megacities are in NEEs and LICs as rapid rural-urban migration leads to cities growing rapidly
• Urban growth creates opportunities and challenges for cities in LICs and NEEs
• Location of Mumbai


  Coast of Maharashtra state, western India (a NEE), Asia
• Importance of Mumbai


  • Regional - majority of schools and hospitals in Maharashtra
  • National - generates 6% of India's GDP, 10% of factory employment, 60% of sea trade
  • International - port and airport make it a global transport hub, Asian HQ of many companies
• Causes of Mumbai's growth: natural increase and migration
• Evidence of Mumbai's growth: 1971 population 8 million, 2016 population 21 million
• Natural increase in Mumbai

  • Fertility rate increased, life expectancy improved
• Rural-urban migration to Mumbai


  • Push factors - machinery used on farms, unemployment
  • Pull factors - access to healthcare, schools, employment, perception of better living conditions
• 1 person migrates to Mumbai every minute
• Opportunities created by Mumbai's urban growth

  • Social - access to better services like health and education
  • Economic - informal sector employment, factory jobs, port creates exports/imports
• Challenges created by Mumbai's urban growth

  • Providing suitable housing - over 50% live in squatter settlements
  • Providing access to infrastructure - sanitation, water, electricity
• 95% of Mumbai households don't have sufficient access to infrastructure
• The Mahila Mian women in Dharavi are creating an informal school and bank
• Urban growth


  Challenges created
• How urban planning is improving the quality of life for the urban poor

  • Informal school and bank created by Mahila Mian women in Dharavi
• People migrated to the city are poor
• Informal sector employment opportunities

  • Recycling or selling products at the roadside, e.g. Compound 13 in Dharavi recycling plastics
• Factory employment opportunities


  • In textiles and electronics
• How urban industrial areas can be a stimulus for economic development

  The Mumbai Port Trust creates lots of employment, major exports textiles, major imports petrol, chemicals, fertilizer
• Challenge to provide suitable housing for the growing population

  • Over 50% of Mumbai's population live in squatter settlements e.g. Dharavi
• Providing access to infrastructure

  • Many squatter settlements have grown quickly, sanitation, water and electricity supplies aren't provided quickly enough, e.g. 95% of households don't have sufficient access to safe water
• Providing access to services

  • Rapid growth in population, many young families, services like maternity care and schools are overloaded
• Reducing unemployment and crime

  • Crime in Mumbai is quite high, difficult to manage due to growing population, lack of policing, e.g. demonstrations which became violent, theft and scams at the airport, ropes
• Managing environmental issues


  • Large population + illegal squatter settlements + industries, difficult to manage sewage, industrial waste and rubbish, e.g. Mithi River polluted with dyes from textile mills and sewage, car ownership is increasing (1.8 million cars), lots of air and noise pollution → smog, nitrogen oxide levels are 2x the safe limit
• Quality of life


  A measure of well-being, not just whether someone has access to basic necessities like food and water, includes health, happiness, friends and family
• Mumbai urban transport project-resettlement

  • 100,000 people resettled from railway tracks, provided with their own apartment, sanitation and electricity available, schools and day-care centres, higher status and easier to fund employment, were expected to pay taxes and for services like water
• Urban change in cities in the UK leads to a variety of social, economic and environmental opportunities and challenges
• Population density


  The number of people living within one square kilometre, high population densities are found in lowland areas with milder climates and fertile areas with natural resources, the coal coastal areas with bays and estuaries for ports
• UK population distribution


  • Highest population density in England, high population density around capital cities, especially London and Edinburgh, high population density in areas where industry was present e.g. Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle