7. solutions to impacts of urban growth

• Towns and cities have less clean air than its surrounding rural areas
• MEDCs, over the last 60 years, have regulations to restrict vehicle and industry emissions
• NICs and LEDCs have the highest levels of pollution
• Types of Pollution, Impacts and Solutions

  • Pollutant
  • Source
  • Problem
  • Solution
• Carbon dioxide (CO2)

  Major greenhouse gas
• Solutions for carbon dioxide (CO2)

  1. Laws to regulate emissions

  2. Pedestrianize urban centres

  3. Emission charges
• Carbon monoxide (CO)

  Reduces supply of oxygen to the heart
• Solutions for carbon monoxide (CO)

  Laws to regulate emissions
• Particulate matter

  • Smog (smoke and fog)
  • Respiratory diseases
• Solutions for particulate matter

  1. Clean air act

  2. Smoke-free zones

  3. Exhaust checks on vehicles
• Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)

  • Irritates the lungs
  • Strong greenhouse gas
• Solutions for nitrogen dioxide (NO2)

  1. Reduce the amount of electricity generated by thermal power stations

  2. Higher taxes on most polluting vehicles
• Hydrocarbons (inc. benzene)

  Contributes to ground-level ozone
• Solutions for hydrocarbons

  1. Regular checks on vehicle emissions

  2. Laws to regulate emissions

  3. Remove most polluting vehicles
• Sulphur dioxide (SO2)

  • Lung irritation
  • Acid Rain
• Solutions for sulphur dioxide (SO2)

  1. Laws to control emissions from industry

  2. Smoke-free zone

  3. Close coal-fired power stations

  4. Introduce new more efficient power stations
• Ground-level Ozone (O3)

  Photochemical smog leading to eye and chest irritation
• Solutions for ground-level ozone

  1. Catalytic converters fitted to car exhausts

  2. Laws to reduce emissions
• Lead (Pb)


  Lead harms the liver, kidneys, nervous system etc.
• Solutions for lead


  Unleaded fuel
• Types of Pollution


  • Water
  • Visual
  • Noise
• Water pollution


  • Drinking water contaminated
  • Environmental health issues such as dysentery and diarrhoea
• Solutions for water pollution


  1. Improve sanitation through sewage works

  2. Education

  3. Water treatment plants
• Visual pollution


  • Ugly buildings
  • Graffiti
  • Derelict land
  • Litter
  • Source of stress
  • Impact on the social structure of cities
  • Overflowing bins can lead to rats, mice and foxes
• Solutions for visual pollution

  1. Laws to regulate graffiti

  2. Stricter planning

  3. Improve refuse collection
• Noise pollution


  • Stress
  • Lack of sleep
  • Reduced concentration and work performance
• Solutions for noise pollution

  1. Laws to limit noise levels

  2. Planning to separate noisy activities from homes

  3. Building noise-reducing structures such as fences, trees and screens around motorways, factories etc.
• One challenge common to many urban areas is informal settlements
• Management options for informal settlements

  • Bulldoze and clear away
  • Clear away but relocate people
  • Redevelop
  • Improve using self-help or site-and-service schemes
  • Ignore them
• Bulldoze and clear away

  • Operation Murambatsvina (Move the Rubbish), also officially known as Operation Restore Order, was a large-scale Zimbabwean government campaign to forcibly clear slum areas across the country
  • It affected at least 700,000 people directly through the loss of their homes or livelihood and indirectly around 2.4 million people
  • Robert Mugabe and his government claimed it to be a crackdown on illegal housing and commercial activities, and to reduce the risk of the spread of infectious disease
  • Critics saw it as a way of driving out anyone who opposed Mugabe's administration
• Clear away but relocate people

  • Occurring in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya
  • In 2003, the Kenyan government and UN-Habitat created the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme, or KENSUP
  • It aimed to improve the infrastructure and housing of 5.3 million people living in squatter settlements in Kenya
  • The first step was to build modern high-rise flats and give the residents a chance to own an apartment in the new development
  • The apartments inside are heavily subsidised and provide the formalised services that slums lack – like water, sanitation and electricity
• Redevelop


  • Wholesale clearance and redevelopment of squatter areas is a more drastic approach
  • This involves simply evicting the squatters and rebuilding the site in a more formal and organised way
  • This is proposed for Dharavi, Mumbai, India and is the approach taken in the UK for many old inner city slum housing areas
  • The city authorities of Mumbai want to improve the quality of life of the people who live there
  • This includes the informal or squatter settlement dwellers
  • Current approaches across Mumbai are complete demolition of the informal settlements to be replaced by high rise tower blocks for people to live in
• Self-help or site-and-service schemes


  • Self-help schemes give people the tools and training to improve their homes. Low-interest loans are available to help pay for the upgrading
  • Site-and-service schemes give people the chance to buy or rent a piece of land with basic services on a new or cleared site. Low-interest loans allow people to buy the materials for building their new homes
  • In Rocinha, self-help schemes have improved the area from squatter settlements to low-quality housing where the majority of homes have basic services like electricity
  • There are now services in Rocinha including cafes and shops
  • Some people have been granted legal ownership of the land on which their houses are built
  • The Favela Bairro Project' or 'Slum to Neighbourhood' project is a site-and-service scheme
  • The local authority provides residents from favelas brick houses to rent, built with electricity, running water and sanitation pipes installed
  • Some people are allowed to buy these houses
  • Services in these areas also include refusing collection, schools and health centres
• Ignore


  • Some local authorities either turn a blind eye to the informal settlement and hope they go away
  • Or they do not have the resources to commit to slum redevelopment
  • But in some places, such as parts of Rocinha in Rio, many informal settlement dwellers have slowly improved the stability, durability and quality of their homes by buying better quality materials and doing the work themselves
  • In some parts, people have done this so well and built such a stable community that authorities are no longer required to provide assistance